Ants on Stilts (This Week's Oddity)

Putting ants on stilts may prove they count their steps to find the way home.  

I just read a blurb about this in the past week, but when I did an internet search, I found the original study was performed in 2006 - fourteen long years ago!  This particular experiment was designed to determine whether ants count their steps.  Apparently, they do.

The researchers "made modifications" to desert ants to test the idea.  They set up an ant nest, let 25 ants take a 10-meter walk from home, then gathered them up.  In one group, the researchers glued tiny stilts to the ants' legs (awkward!).  In another group, they CLIPPED the ants' legs to make them shorter (poor ants!!!).  The control group's legs were left alone (whew!).

They gave each ant a tiny bit of food and set it free.  The ants headed for "home."  The hypothesis was if the ants do indeed count their steps, the "modified" ants wouldn't be able to find home.  The stilted ants would overshoot the mark, and the "stumpy" (their descriptor) ants would fall short.

The hypothesis was proved!  Neither group of "modified" ants made it home.  The ants on stilts went about 5 meters too far, and the "stumpy" ants stopped about 5 meters short.  The control ants had no problem finding their way back.

They then let the "modified" ants take another walk, and they had no problem returning home.  

Interesting, but oh, the poor ants - especially the "stumpies!"

Anyway, you can read more about it here.

My June Vacation in September - The Final Chapter!

The last thing my sister and I did in Memphis was to visit Mud Island Park.  Not a super impressive-sounding name, is it?

One of the headwater walls.

I had read an article many many moons ago about the park not long after it first opened and thought it sounded fascinating.  The main attraction (to my geeky mind) is the outdoor scale model of the Mississippi River.  There are walls that depict the headwaters of each tributary of the Mississippi, and channels (in concrete) of the great river itself.

An example of oxbow bends in the model channel. 

You can see where the river is deeper or shallower, wider or narrower.  Water flows through the river model, first cascading down the headwater walls, then through the river model, and exiting into the delta and Gulf of Mexico!  Cities show up as slate-colored slabs along the riverbanks and are labeled so you know where you are.

This is Memphis!

 A bridge!

It's a dam!

We were amazed by the intricacy of the model.  The entire display stretches about 0.7 mile along the river.  There's an actual indoor museum at the north end of the park, but we didn't go inside.

The delta end of the "river" is kind of overgrown in places, but according to a sign along the way, the park is undergoing renovations, and we saw evidence of that - some new bricks along the walkway, some newer concrete here and there, some areas where cattails had been removed.  The park opened on July 4, 1982, so it's about time.

The delta end of the "river."

We spent quite a bit of time at Mud Island.  Just think, you can walk from one end of the Mississippi River to the other in just an hour or two, depending on how many of the descriptive signs you stop to read.  Who dreamed up this crazy miniature Mississippi?  And how did they convince the city to build it?  It's an amazing endeavor, and worth seeing.

Here we are!  Farewell to Memphis!

My June Vacation in September (Part 5) - More Memphis!

Christmas slowed me down, but you just can't get rid of me!

After spending our first evening in Memphis at the Peabody, we wanted something completely different.  So we went to the Bass Pro Shops in the Pyramid, the old home arena for the NBA Memphis Grizzlies before they moved to the FedEx Forum in 2004.

The exterior is clad in stainless steel!

We'd seen it from the interstate on our way to Hot Springs, Arkansas - you can't miss it!  The Pyramid is a 6/10 replica of the Great Pyramid of Cheops.  At 321 feet tall it's the third largest pyramid in the world and dominates the Memphis skyline.

Here I am trying out the laser
shooting gallery.

A view of the main floor from the second level.

Big Cedar Lodge rooms overlook
the "swamp."

Some of the game fist that
swim through the "swamp."

The first thing we did when we got inside was to ask for a MAP.  The place is overwhelming, and that's the only way you'll find your way around your first visit.  Inside are a Big Cedar Lodge hotel, laser rifle shooting gallery, three restaurants, bowling alley, Ducks Unlimited Waterfowling Heritage Center, archery range, pistol range, and the world's tallest free-standing elevator. 

Most of the first level is made to look like a cypress swamp.  Boats are displayed floating at docks in the swamp.  Most of the hotel's rooms have screened balconies overlooking the swamp.  Water flows in streams through the swamp and there are game fish in the water.  There are alligators in a pit at the foot of the elevator.  There are three huge aquarium tanks - one in the main part of the store, one in the restaurant/bar attached to the bowling alley, and one in the restaurant/bar on the observation deck level.

One of the alligators at the
elevator's base.

 The elevator cycles through a
range of colors.

The elevator whisks you to the observation deck and restaurant near the top of the pyramid.  From the observation deck, you get panoramic views of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River. 

Canada geese fly
through the air.

Like all Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's, there are taxidermied animals displayed in natural surroundings throughout the store.  There are bears, deer, wild pigs, and other assorted megafauna among the trees and around the aquarium tanks.  There are even ducks and geese "flying" overhead!

Retrieve your ball from Jaws' mouth!

My favorite bowling ball.

The bowling alley sports an underwater theme.  When the ball returns to you, it's comes flying out of some creature's mouth!  My favorite was the shark.  Or maybe the catfish.  The lanes are made to look like wooden docks with fish under the floor.  There are fish suspended from the ceiling, too, so you're surrounded by sea creatures while you bowl.

It's difficult to describe the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid.  It's incredibly big, and there's a lot jammed in the space.  It kind of reminds me of one of the kid's books with the detailed crowded drawings where you see something new every time you open it.  Definitely worth seeing if you're in the area.

My June Vacation in September (Part 4) - Memphis, Tennessee

A photo op at Mud Island Park - more
about this later.

If you haven't seen the previous three posts in this series, my sister and I try to take a vacation together at least once a year, and this year, we had originally planned to take the trip in June, but life happened and we weren't able to go until September.  We went to Nashville first, then to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and on the way home, we stopped in Memphis, Tennessee.

And no, we did NOT visit Graceland!  There are other things to do and see, believe it or not.

Kids were fascinated by the
ducks - indoors!

Our first evening, we drove downtown to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks in the lobby fountain.  Yes, there really are ducks inside the lobby, and they spend all day paddling around the Italiante marble fountain.  The ducks parade on a red carpet to the fountain at eleven in the morning, and back to their "palace" on the roof at five in the afternoon.

Hi, Duck Master!

We were there Monday afternoon, expecting to avoid a crowd, but we were mistaken!
After finding a great vantage point, the whole lobby started filling up.  By the time the "parade" started there was standing room only!    About a half hour before starting time, the Duckmaster gave some of the hotel's history, including how the lobby ducks started.  Supposedly, in the 1930s, Frank Schutt, the hotel's general manager returned, well lubricated, from a weekend duck hunting trip and he and his friends left their LIVE decoy ducks in the hotel lobby fountain for a joke.  The ducks entertained the hotel guests so much they were allowed to stay!

The front facade of the Duck Palace.  In the
 back is a fairly pedestrian, but roomy and
super clean duck pen!

North American Mallards replaced the original ducks, and that's what kind of ducks you'll see today - one male and four females.  In 1940, the first official Duckmaster, bellman Edward Pembroke, a former animal trainer with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, volunteered to care for the ducks and trained them to march to and from the fountain.  Pembroke retired from the post in 1991, after 50 years.  The ducks are raised by a local farmer, serve for 3 months, and then retire to the farm.

The lobby gift shop is stuffed with duck-related souvenir items, including rubber duckies, playing cards, tote bags, arty decoys, t-shirts, sweatshirts, and books (Make Way for Ducklings, for example).  Duck is not allowed to be served in the Peabody, including Phillippe's, possibly the only French restaurant anywhere without duck on the menu.

The fountain was is one piece
of travertine.  I'd like to know
how much it weighs!

After the ducks had ridden the elevator to the roof, we followed in their web-footed steps to see this alleged Duck Palace.  Well, it certainly LOOKED like a palace, but that was the front.  Around back is a nice big comfortable duck pen where you can watch the ducks do whatever it is ducks do in their off hours.  Here's where they have their food dishes, a couple of duck "houses" for privacy, and a mini-pond for more swimming.

Besides the ducks, the lobby itself is something to see.  The centerpiece is the ducks' fountain, carved from one piece of travertine marble.  The ceiling is carved and painted wood.  We walked around the mezzanine craning our necks at the craftmanship above our heads.  Even the elevators were unique, each one with a different design on its floor, and on the "skyway" (actually the thirteenth floor), the elevator doors each had a different floral motif.

The Peabody was a totally different experience from what we'd expected!  Definitely worth the effort.  If you get a chance to go to Memphis and you're in the mood for some good old fashioned fun, go see the duck parade!