<re I was a student naturalist, I thought the arboretum was a normal place like any other natural park. However, as I begin to discover more this year, I find it to be a magical place full of secrets. Today, I want to share with you two secrets in the arb (It is secret. Don’t tell others!).
The first secret insect is the dragonflies. You might find them friendly because they eat human’s greatest enemy—the mosquito. However, they are one of the most ancient species on the planet. Fossils of dragonfly ancestors are found from 325 millions year ago. They were once big and very aggressive. If humans had lived in that time period, we would be eaten by the dragonfly! Even today, they are still aggressive predators. My friend Will, another cool student naturalist, told me that his fingers were bitten by dragonflies when he tried to catch them. So, where can you find these aggressive dragonflies in the arb? Many places. Will, I and two other friends went to hunt the dragonflies this fall and we found them in the lake and in the bushes near Goodhue.
In addition, do you know that there are deer in the arboretum? I spotted one during my naturalist work. Unfortunately, when we saw it, the deer had already died. The tornado destroyed a fence and the deer went into the fenced area accidentally. However, when they tried to leave the fence, it seemed that the mother deer successfully escaped but the baby deer bumped into the fence and fell down – breaking it’s neck. It is worth thinking how natural disasters and human construction influences animals in nature and what humans could do to minimize negative effects.
Alright, that’s enough secrets for now. If you find any secrets in the arb, feel free to tell me and we can exchange our secret!(wink, wink)