{"id":9845,"date":"2021-04-01T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?p=9845"},"modified":"2021-09-16T12:31:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-16T12:31:55","slug":"track-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/track-field\/","title":{"rendered":"TRACK & FIELD"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

On your mark\u2026. Get set\u2026 HOP!<\/h4>\n

This morning, just in time for Easter, I saw my first Eastern Cottontail of the year. An article I read while eating breakfast had me thinking about track meets, and I\u2019m sure that\u2019s why I noticed, for the first time, how runners imitate the posture of a rabbit as they settle into their starting blocks. Human runners have to fold themselves up to gain the potential energy advantage of a crouching leg, but rabbits are always ready for the starting gun.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/h4>\n

In 2009, Usain Bolt set a record of just over 23 mph in both the 100- and 200-meter, but he\u2019s an exception, even among world-class athletes. It\u2019s nothing out of the ordinary for Sylvilagus floridanus<\/em> to reach speeds of 18 mph, and they can maintain that speed for close to 800 meters\u2026 while zig-zagging to change direction every few strides. Let\u2019s see Bolt try that!<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Most sprinters are specialists. But cottontails and other Lagomorphs (with the exception of pikas, Ochotona princeps<\/em>) also excel at hurdles, steeplechase, and in other field events. Okay, they can\u2019t throw a javelin or a shot-put, but they leap to the top of the score board when it comes to jumping.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You want to see a long jump? At first, 4.8 m (15\u2019) may not sound like much compared to the current world record of 8.95 m (29.4\u2019). But\u00a0 consider this: a 15\u2019 leap is 10x the average length of an adult cottontail\u2019s body; 29 feet is barely 5x the average height of an adult American male.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

How about the high jump? The men\u2019s record stands at 2.45 m (8\u2019), just 1.4x the average height of the jumper. While courting, both male (buck) and female (doe) cottontails will jump 0.6 m (2\u2019), nearly twice their height, to demonstrate their worthiness to a potential partner. By that standard, not even elite human athletes would be able to find a mate.<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once the mating ritual (which also includes a little boxing, just to keep things interesting) is complete, 1-12 kits are born approximately 28 days later. A doe will often mate again within hours of giving birth\u2014what a woman! Admittedly, since she\u2019ll only visit the nest to allow the young ones to nurse, she\u2019s not going to win any \u201cmost attentive mother\u201d awards.<\/h4>\n

But, to be fair, staying away keeps predators from getting wise to the location of the nest. It will take her 3 weeks to wean one set of youngsters, then she\u2019s got about 1 week to recuperate before the stork arrives again.<\/h4>\n

Still not impressed? She may have up to 7 litters in a single year.<\/h4>\n

Now, I call that<\/em> a marathon.<\/h4>\n

\"Eastern<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2011 <\/em>Next-Door Nature. Thanks to the photographers who granted permission to use their photos, and to those who made their work available through the Creative Commons license:<\/em> Porsupah Ree<\/a><\/span>, Robert Helfman<\/span><\/a>, and Michael Connell<\/span><\/a>.<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD On your mark\u2026. Get set\u2026 HOP! This morning, just in time for Easter, I saw my first Eastern Cottontail of the year. An article I read while […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"

BY KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we\u2019re twenty years into the Information Age so I\u2019m pretty sure everyone in this courtroom knows that, to quote a famous New Yorker <\/em>cartoon, \u201cOn the Internet, nobody knows you\u2019re a dog.\u201d The anonymity baked into the the interwebs means we\u2019re all free to be whatever, or whomever, we want to virtually be\u2026 even if we want to be someone else.<\/h4>\n

Identity theft may seem like a new and viral meme, but I assure you, creating a counterfeit profile is a prehistoric trope. It\u2019s older than Dick Whitman snagging Don Draper\u2019s dog tag in Mad Men (2007).  Older than Mrs. Doubtfire\u2019s dad-turned-nanny (1993). Older than the King of Ruritania\u2019s body-double in The Prisoner of Zenda (1894). Older, even, than the sibling-switch of Esau and Jacob in the Book of Genesis (6th century BC).<\/h4>\n

No, we need to travel even further back in time\u2014way, way back\u2014to the Pennsylvanian epoch over 300 million years ago, and what must surely be the first, the most diabolically devious, the most indelible stolen guise in the entire history of Planet Earth.<\/h4>\n

I intend to demonstrate, beyond any doubt (reasonable or otherwise), that the defendant\u2014Armadillidium vulgare<\/em>, aka \u201cpillbug\u201d\u2014is an imposter!<\/h4>\n
\"\"You already know he\u2019s a shape-shifter. Thanks to a body composed of overlapping plates he\u2019s a skilled conglobator\u2014transforming at a moment\u2019s notice from a scurrying, nearly two-dimensional, thumbnail-sized oval into an almost perfectly symmetrical 3D sphere. This is no parlor game, folks.  Crumpling to the size of a baby aspirin is a prescription for prevention of detection by those who would expose his true nature. (It also limits dehydration, but I digress).<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Don\u2019t be fooled by this roly-poly fellow\u2019s non-threatening demeanor and diminutive stature. His rap sheet is a phone directory\u2019s worth of aliases: pillbug, wood bug, pea bug, potato bug, and doodlebug, to name only a few\u2026 but he is NOT a bug.<\/div>\n

That\u2019s right, this armored charlatan may claim to be kin to bedbugs, ladybugs, mealybugs, spittle bugs, stinkbugs, and other insects whose identities he has appropriated, but take a closer look and even without a DNA analysis the evidence is indisputable.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #1:<\/strong>  Insects have a single pair of antennae. If the defendant would untuck enough to show his face to members of the jury, you would see that he has not one, but TWO pair of antennae.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #2:<\/strong>  Insects have 3 pairs of jointed legs, clustered on the thorax. The defendant has 7 pairs of jointed legs\u2014one pair for each of the 7 segments that constitute his torso. But don\u2019t take my word for it\u2014count them yourselves.<\/h4>\n

\"\"Exhibit #3:<\/strong> As adults, insects breathe using a system of apertures and tubes called spiracles and tracheae, respectively. The defendant\u2014who, while not aquatic is clearly in some legal hot water here\u2014breathes using gill-like structures.<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #4: <\/strong> True bugs have piercing and sucking mouth-parts that place them in an insect league of their own. The defendant has no such anatomical features.  Just look\u2014he\u2019s not even able to use a straw!<\/h4>\n

Exhibit  #5:<\/strong>  Speaking of drinking\u2026 insect have a waxy, water-resistant epicuticle that deters desiccation. The defendant does not, which leads me to wonder if his repeated requests for a glass of water are due to the dry air in this courtroom, or a case of nerves born of a guilty conscience?<\/h4>\n

Exhibit #6:<\/strong> No courtroom drama would be complete without a reference to sex so let\u2019s talk about reproduction. Insects employ a diverse set of parenting strategies, including: oviparity<\/em> (eggs are deposited and develop outside the female\u2019s body); ovoviparity<\/em> (eggs develop inside the female\u2019s body and hatch immediately after being laid); and even viviparity<\/em> (young gestate inside the female and are born, not hatched). But the one strategy insects do NOT use is the marsupium<\/em>. That\u2019s right, a pouch tucked under the thorax in which newly hatched young develop until they are old enough to venture out into the world on their own\u2026 a pouch just like the one you would find on the defendant\u2019s own mother!<\/h4>\n

Members of the jury, the facts speak for themselves. The phony before you is not a bug. He has far more in common with a shrimp, a crab, or a lobster than any insect. Literally. Because this common pillbug is, in reality\u2026<\/h4>\n

\u2026a terrestrial CRUSTACEAN!!<\/em><\/h4>\n

[Audible gasps from the courtroom audience]<\/em><\/h4>\n

Your Honor, the prosecution rests.<\/h4>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n\n
\n\n

\u00a9 2010 <\/em>Next-Door Nature. Thanks to the photographers who granted permission to use their photos, and to those who made their work available through the Creative Commons license: Alan Howell<\/a><\/span>, Andy Purviance<\/a><\/span>, Brian Gratwicke<\/a><\/span>, and Dany Sternfeld<\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/h4>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[425,16],"tags":[59,18,25,27,437,439,442,31,12,440,32,14,435,15,17],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mammals","category-wildlife","tag-animal-behavior","tag-backyard-wildlife","tag-biology","tag-breeding-behavior","tag-eastern-cottontail","tag-lagomorphs","tag-mammals","tag-natural-history","tag-nature","tag-rabbits","tag-suburban-wildlife","tag-urban-wildlife","tag-vertebrate","tag-watchable-wildlife","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nTRACK & FIELD - Lafayette Park Conservancy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/track-field\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TRACK & FIELD - Lafayette Park Conservancy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD On your mark\u2026. 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