International education and research in ecology and conservation, wildlife tracking, and human culture
Subscribe to our email list if you’d like to receive these quizzes as soon as they come out in our monthly newsletter.
Sometimes these quiz photos will be from Africa, sometimes from North America, and sometimes from elsewhere, but don’t worry, we will always tell you the location. Give it a try and let’s learn together!
This is a delta wasp nest, likely from the species Delta emarginatum. These wasps don’t actually gather mud like other “potter wasps” do. They select a soil of specific consistency, gather water, and fly back to the selected soil to add the water to it, creating their own mud. They form mud balls with their front feet, and create these large nest structures on buildings, trees, and other places. You can see where the nest fell off the branch it was attached to in the photo. You can also see some of the provisioning chambers where the wasp would have laid one egg per chamber, and provisioned her young with live caterpillars that she has paralyzed before sealing them together, inside.
Potter wasps, on the other hand, collect mud from the edges of water and fly with these little mud balls to the site where they will build their nest. Another difference seems to be that potter wasps usually provision their young with paralyzed spiders instead of caterpillars (but it is unknown if provisioning is species specific, or due to a prey species being commonly available at a particular time and place).
Reference: Invertebrates of Southern Africa and their Tracks and Signs, by Lee Gutteridge.
An interesting bit of field knowledge is that if you can identify the various types of wasps, or their nests, some species can indicate that you are near water, because they are limited in how far they can fly with their mud ball before it dries. This can be valuable information when you are on a trail, because your animal (or another one) could have gone to drink.
Photo by Kersey Lawrence, Greater Kruger region of South Africa
These are flying squirrel tracks. When flying squirrels are on the ground, they often move around using very short hops. In this scene, the squirrel was traveling extensively throughout the area eating hemlock cones as it went along. Both northern and southern flying squirrels are present in the area, and there is crossover in trail width, so it could be either one. However, there is research that says that southern flying squirrels are increasingly moving north, and they can host a parasite called Strongyloides robustus that can be lethal if transmitted to northerns. This ultimately results in southern flying squirrels outcompeting the northern species.
Photo by Shane Hawkins, Northwestern Pennsylvania, USA
How did you do? We’d love to hear from you!
In fact, we welcome your photo contributions from anywhere in the world! Send them to us HERE with your explanation of where they are from, what you think they are, and why you think so, and we could include them in a future quiz (giving you credit of course). Your photos will also become part of our searchable database that trackers can use for learning!
You can view old quizzes on the Original Wisdom website under the Resources tab, in the Tracking Gallery.
Happy Tracking!
The Team at Original Wisdom
One hundred percent of donations made in Brandon’s name are set aside to help provide for a high school or college student to travel to South Africa to participate in an Original Wisdom program. The student must have a strong passion for photography and/or wildlife tracking and be a part of a program or class that is learning about and working towards conservation.