If Mr. Garibaldi Damselfish lets us, it’s time for a close up look at his design and fun facts about his species. Even though Garibaldi males are very protective and caring of their algae patch and eggs, they still occasionally eat some of the eggs. Females like to lay their eggs near other newly laid eggs with a bright yellow coloring. Because of this, males will sometimes eat older eggs to encourage other females to lay their eggs. Other than just an aggressively protective homemaker, male Garibaldi fish can be peaceful. Males have been seen eating within a few feet of each other as long as they are both out of the other’s territory. Kelp forests are vital to the lives of Garibaldi fish. Not only do they protect this fish from predators, the kelp forest is also where these fish socialize. Garibaldi fish have been seen gathering in the kelp without quarreling and it is speculated that they get to know one another and choose mates there. The Garibaldi fish is one of the largest damselfish in its Pomacentridae family which includes damselfish and clownfish. One of the key identifying features of the Garibaldi fish that my art does not show is its bright orange color. As an adolescence, they are still orange but with bright blue speckles. This bright orange color helped to inspire its name (sort of..). Its name, Garibaldi comes from the last name of an Italian military figure whose army wore bright red shirts (Of course, orange is not red but I guess it’s close enough). If you have seen my Mama Sea Otter’s design, you may have noticed my Garibaldi Damselfish’s design is very similar. I was inspired to do both of these animals while watching Blue Planet 2’s kelp forest episode. I found the sea otter’s vital role in the kelp forest fascinating and the Garibaldi Damselfish’s aggression to be hilariously adorable as I watched him pick up a sea urchin and put it down far away from his well pruned algae lawn. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list of Threatened Species, the Garibaldi Damselfish is of least concern now. In the 1980s and 1990s, it became a very popular saltwater pet store fish and was vulnerable to being caught on fishing lines and spearing because of their territorial nature. As a pet store fish, its life span of about 15 years in the wild decreased. In 1995, California adopted the Garibaldi as their state fish and now only allows it to be taken out of its natural habitat with special permits. Check out my sources for more fun facts:
https://www.nps.gov/articles/garibaldi.htm https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/garibaldi.htm http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/onlinelearningcenter/species/garabaldi https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/183367/8100806 https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Hypsypops_rubicundus/
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Happy Father's Day!
This isn't a fish everyone references when thinking of Father's Day but I wanted something different. This is Mr. Garibaldi Damselfish with a look that says "Get Off My Algae!" and the aggression to push, pluck, and throw you away from his patch of Algae. The Garibaldi finds a patch of kelp forest floor and eats away everything except the red algae. He prunes his algae and keeps unwanted guests away. He picks up sea urchins and puts them down far from his spot. He gets up in the faces of other fish and rams them if they get too close (this also includes human scuba divers and cameras). All to protect this little patch of algae. On this algae a female Garibaldi Damselfish will hopefully lay her eggs. Mr. Garibaldi Damselfish will then chase her away to prevent her from eating some of them. He continues to care for his eggs and his patch of algae. When the babies hatch and go off on their own, he still stays on his patch of algae to continue to take care of it. Happy Father's day to all the types of father's out there! You may be similar to the protective Garibaldi Damselfish, creating a safe loving home for your little ones until they are ready to swim off on their own. You may be a different kind of dad. No matter what kind of father or father figure you are, you are loved and I hope you enjoy your special day! I have another surprise post for the instagram @wildlifewednesdaychallenge.
This is the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly. This butterfly lays its eggs on the flowers of locoweed, deerweed, and rattlepod. My Palos Verdes Blue’s wing design is based on rattlepod which is a type of locoweed. It is called locoweed because all parts of this plant are toxic if humans or livestock eat it. Once the larvae hatch, they feed on the plants they are born on. A little while before the larvae form chrysalis, they form a symbiotic relationship with ants that is mutualistic. This means both animals, in this case insects, benefit. The larvae produce a sugary substance that ants can eat and the ants protect the larvae from predators and insect larvae that act like parasites. When the larvae are ready to form a chrysalis, they crawl to the base of their host plant, dig into the leaf debris, and go underground. They spend most of their lives in the chrysalis state. Thought to have gone extinct in 1983 due to the housing construction and expansion destroying what was believed to be their only breeding and home flowers, rattlepod, the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly was rediscovered in March of 1994. A subspecies of the silvery blue butterfly, the Palos Verdes Blue is only found in the Palos Verdes Peninsula of Los Angeles and is still endangered. It's sad how easily we could wipe a species from the face of the Earth when we are not careful. References: Photo Reference: Jess Morton (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jessmorton/27231164754/in/photostream/) Rattlepod http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2016/02/plant-of-month-december-rattlepod.html Palos Verdes Blue Articles: https://www.encyclopedia.com/environment/science-magazines/palos-verdes-blue-butterfly https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/esa_works/profile_pages/PalosVerdesBlueButterfly.html https://bestofthesouthbay.com/palos-verdes-blue-butterfly/ Videos: https://youtu.be/1zTTArkKCIs June 2, 2020 #blackouttuesday
I'm sorry for my silence until now. It's been almost a week since black out Tuesday but I feel before I can post any art or updates I need to address this. This website is for my artwork which is mostly animal related and will probably stay that way. However, with each of my animals, I try to tell their vulnerability to endangerment. Animals don't have a voice to speak out so I try to help give information with my art to help inform people of the hardships they deal with. In many instances, their hardships are due to human actions. As humans, we aren’t just hurting animals with our actions, we are hurting each other. Black people have voices, are speaking out about how they are being discriminated against and killed, and are asking for help but they are still not being heard. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery are the most recent victims in a long list of those who have been killed. Each new name added to this list is heartbreaking but also raises so many questions. Why does this continue to happen? How can we prevent further discrimination and death? On top of all of this, we have this pandemic. Since April, I've been listening weekly to the Center for Disease Control's (CDC) Private Sector Call Updates on Coronavirus (found on their YouTube page). During a few of those calls, Dr. J. Bulter talked about "some of the risk factors that have been observed that account for the higher rates of disease among African Americans."(https://youtu.be/bFhxNMfm4GA). I cannot just listen to all these reports and not say something. In my art and life, I need resources to inform me. Please comment below or PM me with any resources you feel are helpful in learning and informing others to help the Black Lives Matter movement. So far I have collected a few here: I have been recommended a book called “So you want to talk about Race” by Ijeoma Oluo. The Black Lives Matter website has many resources including for COVID-19. They also have anbexcellent web series called "What Matters" found on their website (https://blacklivesmatter.com/whatmatters/). Happy Monday! I have another surprise post from last Wednesday inspired by the Instagram @WildlifeWednesdayChallenge. This is my Whale Shark. The largest fish in the ocean, a whale shark can grow to 40 feet or more in length. The typical yellow school bus children in North America use is around 30 to 45 feet long! This gentle giant is a filter feeder. One of their main food sources, plankton, looks like the inspiration for aliens in movies. Plankton are organisms that cannot swim against the water current or tide. The origin of the word plankton means drifters or wanderers in Greek. They are split into two groups: Phytoplankton (plants) and Zooplankton (animals). Below I have a key of the different plankton I used. (Please excuse the krill’s position. I ran out of space on the Zooplankton and put krill on the Phytoplankton). Each Whale Shark has a unique pattern of dots and the scientists who study them use star mapping programs to identify each one. Sadly, the whale shark is vulnerable. These sharks are accidentally caught in nets (bycatch) and they are still hunted in some parts of the world for their meat and especially their fins. However, they have become more valuable as live tourist attractions and people come to see and swim with them in the wild. Whale Shark Reference Photograph by Dr Simon J Pierce
https://naturetripper.com/underwater-wide-angle-photography/ Zooplankton References https://marinebio.org/creatures/zooplankton/ Phytoplankton References https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/Phytoplankton For more whale shark information check out these links: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/w/whale-shark/ https://oceana.org/marine-life/sharks-rays/whale-shark https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/discover-fish/species-profiles/rhincodon-typus/ For More Plankton information check out the link below: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/plankton.html |
Artist and Blogger
I'm just a doodling artist. My current style started in a lecture class at MCLA where I began doodling in my notebooks. Now I've started a new series focusing on animals. Archives
April 2021
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