Home
Museums
Back Issues
Membership
BioBlitz 2001: Schenley Park������������������
“The world is a far more complex place than
you ever thought possible.”
��������������� —
John Rawlins, entomologist
The idea of the urban BioBlitz is growing like
mile-a-minute weed in Pittsburgh Parks.�
The first BioBlitz–where in 24 hours scientists and the public tally
as many diverse species of life as they can find and collect in an urban
park– was held in an “urban wilderness” inside Washington, D.C. in
1996.� Since then Pennsylvania has
BioBlitzed� Philadelphia (98),
Wilkes-Barre (99), Lebanon Valley (99), Indiantown Gap (99) and twice in
Pittsburgh–Riverview Park (97), and Frick Park (98).
In the last few years, BioBlitzers have worked on parks in
Oregon, North Dakota, Connecticut, Vermont, Texas, New York, as well as in
Canada, Australia, Brazil and Switzerland.�
Pittsburgh is planning its third and biggest one yet on June 15 and
16, in Schenley Park.� The Pittsburgh
Parks Conservancy sees this BioBlitz as part of its own effort to improve one
of Pittsburgh’s great public parks.
What’s not to like about a BioBlitz?� Where else but in urban parks can you
gather so many children and adults, assemble natural history experts from
city museums and universities, and draw volunteers from diverse organizations
that celebrate, care for, and worry about the natural world?� It’s a lot of fun, as well as a crash
course in biodiversity for people of all ages.
“The world is a far more complex place than you ever
thought possible,” says John Rawlins, associate curator of Invertebrate
Zoology (i.e. bugs, slugs and creepy crawlies� to most people) at Carnegie Museum of Natural History.� Like other scientists, he sees the
BioBlitz as an important educational event for the public, and one that
introduces the average person to biodiversity.� A BioBlitz is not a typical biological survey, which takes more
time, requires documentation�
throughout the seasons and across the years, and entails more detailed
analysis.� As a one-day snapshot of
life forms in an urban wilderness using one of the city’s own big backyards,
a BioBlitz is hard to beat.
Even looking at the rocks in a Pittsburgh park tells you a
lot about earth history and mountains–and spares you a trip to the Rockies.
Albert Kollar of the Invertebrate Paleontology section can point to the rock
“outcroppings” in a city park that tell the story of earth’s basic
geologic processes, beginning with the Ames Limestone left behind by an
ancient marine sea that covered the area 300 million years ago. You see it
all from the park trails, if you know what to look for.
“A BioBlitz works for all ages, from children
to grandparents.� Having once done it
with a guide, you can do it all over again, on your own.”
�������� —
Albert Kollar, invertebrate paleontologist
Insects make up the largest percentage of life forms in
Pittsburgh’s parks, and to appreciate them you have to open your mind to a
world that most people seldom examine.�
“Comparing a millipede to a centipede is like comparing a cow to
a tiger,” says Invertebrate Zoology collection manager Bob
Davidson.� Millipedes are built like
tanks– short, squat–and are vegetation eaters. Centipedes are the reverse:
fast-moving hunters with poison glands, ready to conquer and eat spiders and
insects.� In the tropics, a foot-long
centipede may go after small mice, lizards and toads–but in Schenley Park,
the largest is probably a three-inch species.
Museum scientists have an eye for biodiversity.� Entomologist John Rawlins points out that
Schenley Park’s Kentucky Coffee trees are out of their normal range in this
environment, yet there they are.� The
pioneers used to grind up the beans of this tree like coffee beans. The first
local evidence of this tree was collected in 1882 for the Western
Pennsylvania Botanical Society, which eventually donated its specimens to the
museum.
Scientific names are the key to species identification.
The pet cat you have at home is Felis
silvestris, not be confused with the similar looking bobcat, Lynx rufus, which lives in
Pennsylvania’s woodlands. The bobcat has tufts on its ears, a naturally
bobbed tail, and is usually bigger than the housecat. Before scientists
locked on the name Lynx rufus, the
bobcat was casually called a wild cat, bay lynx, catamount, mountain cat,
tiger cat and wolverine.� It’s pretty
unlikely that you’ll find the rare and secretive Lynx rufus in Schenley Park.�
But you never know.� The Frick
Park BioBlitz in 1998 turned up a Surf Scoter on the Monongahela River, a
seabird� that was passing through.
Parks are “disturbed environments”–man-made
places, artifically landscaped with roads, playing fields, picnic groves, and
parking lots.� The pond in Schenley
Park, with its concrete perimeter and culverts, is far from a natural habitat
for aquatic life and species� that
colonize a natural lake.� In addition,
any pond-loving species of animal has to get through the surrounding city to
find the lake, and then recolonize the area. But, fascinating aquatic species
will be found in the streams and waters of an urban park. Crayfish and water
shrimps were collected in 1898 and 1899 and labeled “from the upper
headwaters of Schenley Park.”�
Species collected in a BioBlitz reflect the weather, time
of day, and the season. It rained at Riverview Park during the BioBlitz,
which kept the birds under cover.�
During the BioBlitzes at Riverview and Frick Parks in the month of
May, not as many insects had hatched as will be on the wing in Schenley Park
in June.� Since bats feed on insects,
at dusk on a June night there will be more bats on the wing than a month
earlier.� Likewise, in June there will
be fewer migrating birds than in the earlier months.�
Seeing how field scientists capture species is half the
fun.� Birding is often done by
hearing, not even seeing, a species.�
At night you can “collect” a Screech Owl by hearing it, and
with the scientist’s flashlight you just might be able to see it too. Insect
traps range from illuminated tent-like traps to attract flying moths and
insects, to pit-fall traps buried flush in the ground to capture beetles,
roaches, sowbugs, millipedes, and centipedes.� There are cone-shaped funnels to capture climbing insects, and
sophisticated pheromone traps to attract specific species.� “Sugaring,”or putting a personal
formula of beer, molasses, fruit, or a sweet substance on a tree in swatches
also works.� The collected bugs end up
dead, “but at least they go happy,” says entomologist Bob
Davidson.�
Mammals like squirrels, chipmunks, mice, and moles are
always released, as are birds caught in a mist net. The skeleton or remains
of a dead animal in the woods counts towards the tally, as do animal
footprints in the soil.� Scat identification–animal
waste–is something that kids find “really cool” and� “the neatest activity.”
The BioBlitz itself is evolving.� In Riverview Park the Perry Traditional Academy built
birdhouses and put them in the park, and local historians offered oral
histories of the park.� At Frick Park
there was a mini-BioBlitz for Regent Park School, and the search for life
reflected environmental concerns and the stream restoration efforts at
Nine-Mile Run.�
In 2001 the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy under president
Meg Cheever has orchestrated the event with Carnegie Museum of Natural
History, Citiparks,� and with other
organizations.� Curator John Wible of
the Section of Mammals organized the museum’s scientific crews, and museum
educator Diane Grzybek worked with other institutions to assure that science
activities will be fun for the public.�
Of course for two days in June the most visible species in
Schenley Park will be that friendly primate, Homo sapiens.� Afterwards,
with their newfound scientific curiosity brimming over, people will want to
go home to play with their own cat (Felis
silvestris), or take the dog (Canis
familiaris) out for a walk.�
Home
Museums
Back Issues
Membership
Copyright (c) 2001 CARNEGIE magazine
All rights reserved.
E-mail: carnegiemag@carnegiemuseums.org
