Exploring Marine Ecosystems and Native Plants: Insights from Coral Reefs to Backyard Gardens
Sometimes, when it's quiet while I'm stationed at MOTE's Contact Cove, I like to show guests (especially older kids who have a bit more patience and ability to hold still for a length of time) a fun way to interact with the peppermint shrimp. I usually start by asking if they would like to get a "shrimp manicure"? If people are game, I show them how to place their hand in the enclosure and tell them to hold very still and wait.
I've been watching this blenny hiding in its shell in the MOTE grass flats exhibit for a few weeks now when another volunteer mentioned that it's a male guarding eggs. Once I heard that, I had to learn more. Florida blennies live in mangroves, seagrass beds, oyster reefs and rocky intertidal zones. This Florida blenny… Continue reading Florida Blenny Guarding Eggs
Everyone loves dressing up for Halloween, even the urchins! At Contact Cove, the variegated urchins get little plastic cowboy hats and huge goofy eyeballs to wear. It is hilarious and adorable, but it also encompasses an important behavior trait of these urchins. They like to cover themselves in debris they find in their habitat.
I started watching this little juvenile burrfish in an enclosure off to the side a bit and found that I just couldn't stop- its magnetic! This recording I made was especially good - I caught the burrfish sampling some gravel bits almost as big as its face and nipping at the fins of the much larger squirrelfish which made me laugh out loud.
I had been volunteering at MOTE for a while before I finally saw the calico crab in the grassflats exhibit. This is normal though since these small crabs only grow up to about 3 inches and prefer to bury themselves in the sandy or muddy substrate of their habitat so only their eyes are exposed. This behavior, along with their coloring helps them hide from predators.
Erica Lauer Vose 