Hi everybody. My name is Ranger Karl and welcome to Shenandoah National Park.
We're out here today exploring some of the beautiful natural areas that make this park
so exciting. Now when you folks come out and visit the park or maybe think of visiting this area or
even looking at the landscape here behind me, you might consider what you could do out in these wild
lands. You might get excited thinking about the different animals and plants that you can see
out here interacting together. Now what we see throughout here, all of this mighty grassland
and even the trees in the distance, of course that's plants and animals helping
to fulfill their role in the ecosystem. Working together to make sure that nature is one cohesive
web. Now you're probably watching this, maybe from the comfort of your own home, and even at
home we all have our own specific roles, or maybe chores that we all have to do to work together.
Now you might have a favorite chore that you like to do at home, and maybe some that you aren't so
fond of. This could be things like taking out the garbage, doing the dishes, or cleaning your room,
but they're all very important things to do. Now out here in our national parks and wild lands
we all have roles as well. The rangers that you come into contact with here at Shenandoah
all have their individual roles. They could be working at the visitor center that you
see there in the background, or maybe they're helping to keep visitors safe, or even clean up
our historic buildings and our hiking trails, but those animals that you see and get excited
about and even the plants on the ground all around us each have their own roles as well.
You might see those animals out in nature acting on their roles, migrating through the park and
through the air above us, or even grazing and feeding, and the plants of course. A lot of people
come out to enjoy the blooms of our flowers in the spring and summer which of course attracts the
pollinators like the bees and butterflies. Again, all of these different things working together.
But what happens once those animals leave? And what happens to the things that they leave behind?
Or maybe, when a tree falls in the forest or this grass dies back, what happens next? There is a
lot of life after death here in Shenandoah, and of course that's all still just a part
of that very same ecosystem web that we see. Now looking around there's actually a lot of litter
in this park, but it's not litter that you might think of, the trash that's carelessly
tossed aside by people. Instead, this litter is going to be fallen leaves from the fall time,
or needles from our trees, or even an entire fallen tree. Now there's a lot of things working
together to clean up these dead plants, or even dead animals, or even droppings left
behind by some of our other animals to be able to recycle that nutrition back into the soil.
So, recycling means taking something old and making it new. Either finding a new way to use it,
turning it into something else, something different to be usable, but putting it back into
use for ourselves. Now a nice example would be you have a lot of old t-shirts in your closet. Maybe
they don't fit you quite the same or maybe they're ratty and torn through.
Maybe you go in pick out your favorite ones, snip out some of the parts of that shirt, and then
sew them all together back into a beautiful nice comfy blanket. You're recycling something old and
making it usable again. Turning it into something new. Now we see this if we pick up a glass bottle
or a plastic bag and we recycle that as well, but throughout this it is a process. It doesn't just
immediately become something new. It has to be broken down and changed. We see that exact same
process out in nature. There is a lot of litter in those fallen leaves and those broken branches,
but a lot of our natural recyclers are going to be breaking that down and turning it into something
new. And that again is a step-by-step process involving a lot of different animals, a lot of
different organisms working together. Now in that process of recycling, all the nutrition that we
see out here in the forest, that very first step is done by a certain type of animal out here in
the park. I like to think of these animals kind of like the trash collectors that go out and clean up
after the other animals that have gone before them. We call these animals scavengers. Now a
scavenger is a creature that eats almost entirely dead things. Again, something that died naturally,
and they go in and that's where they get their food from. Animals like a coyote, or even a bear
can sometimes be a scavenger if they need to, but there's other animals, actually birds, that
are almost completely scavengers. Out in nature here in Shenandoah, we have two types of vultures.
We have the turkey vulture and the black vulture. And you can see them out in the park, sometimes
feeding on a dead animal also known as carrion, maybe along the road or out in a meadow, or even
circling above from one of our many overlooks as they look for that prey. Now again these are
animals that almost entirely eat dead things, but that means in order to find it and then eat it
and get nutrition from it, they need a few special adaptations, or traits to be able to survive. Now
imagine you were building a bird from scratch, and you're trying to make it so that it can scavenge
or eat all of this dead carrion in the park. What kind of traits do you think it might need. Well of
course first and foremost they have to be able to find the food. A turkey vulture is actually
going to be following its nose from high above. They have a very very strong sense of smell.
A turkey vulture can actually smell something dead from up to a mile away, and then of course they
can circle around swoop down and get that meal. Now a black vulture doesn't quite have the same
sense of smell as their cousin does, so instead they're relying on their eyesight, much like
many other birds of preys like hawks or falcons might use. And not only are they circling above
looking for food, but they're going to be keeping an eye on those turkey vultures because they know
they have that strong sniffer. So if they see the turkey vultures starting to land, they might just
follow them down and see if they can get a bite or two of that free meal. Now of course after
these birds have found that meal they then have to be able to actually eat it, so they have very
strong beaks to be able to pull off parts. But also one of their main traits, or adaptations,
to eat these dead carrion it's actually also one of their most noticeable traits as well.
You can see the bald head on a vulture: a red bald head on a turkey vulture, black bald head
on a black vulture. That bald head, lack of feathers, is actually because of the food that
they eat. As they're biting into that maybe not so nice meat, they don't want to get any of that mess
in their feathers, because getting that mess in their feathers could lead to infection and lead
them to getting very sick. So that's actually why they had their bald head. So they found the food,
they've eaten the food, that last important step is to be able to digest and get nutrition
from that food. Now just like us we have stomach acid inside for us to help break down and digest
the things that we eat. Vultures and other animals have that too. But to compare the two, the stomach
acid that we have is about the same strength as the acid we might find in the juice of a lemon.
Of course, pretty strong acid, helps us to digest that hamburger or salad that we had for lunch.
But the acid in the stomach of a vulture is going to be much much stronger. It's about that of a car
battery acid. So again, much more strong acid helps them to really break down and fully digest
that food, so that way they can help put that nutrition back out onto the nature around them.
Now again these animals are very large birds. A vulture’s wingspan can be about six feet long,
so again they might be pretty noticeable as we see them from our overlooks. But
if we take a moment to go a little bit further out into the forest around us,
out into the nature and take a closer look at some of those smaller animals,
we might just find some of those often overlooked creatures that are helping to break down,
and working just as hard as the vultures to help keep this park clean and healthy.
Many organisms and animals out in nature are actually natural recyclers. We call
these animals detritivores or detrivores. But what exactly do those words mean?
It simply means that they eat detritus, another word for waste. Now out in nature
there's a lot of litter, but this waste doesn't come in the form of
plastic bags or styrofoam cups. Instead, it might come in the form of a fallen log,
or even the leaves left behind after fall and this is exactly where we find those detrivores;
usually smaller animals that are out amongst the leaf litter or underneath the fallen log that are
actually eating that stuff. Now looking for some of these recyclers might bring us to some unsavory
places that we really don't want to look, but again, finding those creatures like millipedes,
pill bugs, slugs, or snails, you have to look really really close, down in all of the dead
leaves. Because that is exactly what they're eating. Now if we're looking for an animal like
an earthworm, another common type of detrivore, they're going to be living in the deeper,
moist soil, squirming through the mud, eating the dead plants, or even the bacteria: the small
small microscopic animals living in that soil as well. And this is important because as they
eat them and digest them, they're putting that nutrition back into the dirt to help keep our
ecosystems nice and healthy. Now there's even some detrivores out there that specifically eat scat,
or droppings, left behind by larger animals. Some of these creatures like dung beetles will actually
go out, collect some of those droppings, some of that scat, roll it up into a big ball and push it
back to their burrow. And while it's back there they'll use it to eat, or lay their eggs in it,
or even use it to attract a mate. Butterflies that we see out here in the Big Meadows area,
of course beautiful insects that are living off of the nectar and pollen of those lovely flowers,
they'll even eat the scat of other animals too. I like to think of it like when we're taking our
vitamins in the morning. Those butterflies are picking through that scat and getting
some very precious vitamins and minerals to help them survive. Now this is not only great for them,
but it's great for us too, because it helps to reduce parasites or even diseases
that could be in those animal droppings. And it's great for the forest because without
those detrivores eating those droppings, it can take four to six months for animal scat to fully
go back to the soil on its own. Now of course these detrivores, these detritus or waste eaters,
are a very important step of recycling nutrition back in the forest. But after they break
that bigger stuff down into smaller pieces, something else comes in to finish the job.
Now that next very important step in the process is done by an organism known as a decomposer.
Now I know what you're thinking. When you're out in the National Parks, the only fun-guy around is
going to be the park ranger, right? But of course we have a lot of other fungi here in the park,
and they are that very important decomposer. Now what exactly is a decomposer? They are organisms
that actually fully take that smaller item that's been broken down by our detritivores,
and they break it down even further, and they take that nutrition and return it back to nature. Now
a fungus like a mushroom that we might be familiar with is neither plant nor animal,
but it is something that lives entirely off of dead or rotting material. We're very familiar with
funguses like those mushrooms, but actually what we see here is a very very small part
of the entire thing. Most of what this organism is is actually going to be underneath,
so in the ground underneath the wood as well it spreads out in this big network, kind of
branching out like the roots of a tree. And we call those roots mycelium. And that mycelium
not only allows that fungus to anchor to its home, but it's also how it pulls the nutrition
out of the things that it eats. Now every single type of fungus, mushroom or other versions,
have their own specialty in what they eat. Some, like what we're seeing here, of course grow
on that hardy woody trees or fallen logs. Other ones might grow in the damp, cool,
dirt and soil, eating the nutrition that's underneath them now even others. If you ever
have helped out with a chore of cleaning out the refrigerator and you push all that food
and notice in the way way back there's something that's been left behind and forgotten,
you might have even seen some fungus growing on that in the form of mold. But all of this fungus
is very very important, and very key to recycling all of that nutrition back in the forest around
us that we know and love. Now we even help recycle fungus as well in the form of some mushrooms that
we might eat. For example, the mushrooms that you might like enjoying on a slice of pizza.
So the next time you're out in the park, or out in one of these natural forested areas,
you can act as a little bit of a detective and look around for the signs of this recycling and
cleaning up process around us. Maybe by seeing the mushrooms growing on a fallen log, or in the dirt,
or even seeing the burrows carved throughout those very same fallen logs left behind by some
of those detritivores or scavengers that have been eating that very same food, but not only
can you see this process and be that detective, but you can be a part of that process as well.
Now even though we don't live off of waste, we are still a part of this ecosystem. And that means
that we are stewards. But what does it mean to be stewards of our natural areas? It means that it's
one of our roles to help protect that nature and take care of it for the plants and animals that
live out and around us here. Now that's because things as simple as our trash and litter can take
a very long time to fully break down and go back into the soil, or biodegrade. A tin can,
for example, can take up to 100 years to fully biodegrade back into the soil. Plastic bottles
and other plastic containers can take even longer. Sometimes up to 450 years or more to break down.
And glass containers never fully break down if we cast them aside. And this of course
can be very harmful. Not only does that waste build up and start to block our views and our
pretty overlooks here in the park, but they can harm the environment and the animals that live in.
For example, those plastic rings of pop containers can actually tangle around fish, or small mammals,
or birds. Fishing line can wrapped around legs, and beaks, and bodies and make movement difficult
or even dangerous for certain animals. And some food or some litter can even be mistaken as food
by certain animals. And of course eating pop tabs, bottle caps, or even cigarette butts
can be deadly to many animals. So what is it that we can do as stewards of the park? Well simply
pack out what we pack in. If you have a picnic in an area like this here in the national park,
of course take all that trash back with you. If you find garbage out about along the trail, pick
it up. And of course, you can always teach others what you know about being stewards of this land.
Now what exactly do we do with all that garbage that we might pick up?
Well, if it's recyclable you can drop it in a bin just like this.
Of course, there's a lot that we can learn about taking care of this earth from the other creatures
that we see out and about. Those detrivores, scavengers, and decomposers of the world,
those natural recyclers, can teach us a lot about what we can do and what our role is as visitors
and lovers of these natural areas. Now not only can we learn from them, but we can learn in some
other ways too. By interacting with these ecosystems, going out and enjoying our
park. Because up here, especially on a ridge mountain park like Shenandoah National Park,
we're protecting not only the land at the top and the air and the water, we're also
protecting the land air and water down below us, as all of that funnels back down into the valley.
So it's very important to be able to take care of that land around us. Not only up top but down
outside of the park too. And of course you can learn not only by interacting with that ecosystem,
but by certain techniques. Like maybe a song.
[singing] We can learn from nature's best recyclers,
like detrivores and fungi and even scavengers, to make the planet healthy by making nature cleaner,
if we each do our part. As the life of a tree comes to an end, critters like the millipede,
help to take all the nutrition and cycle it again, for future use by other things.
Animals like vultures that clean up after others, teach us how to do our part.
By picking up the litter to make the world better is a great place to start
So if we all work together, and take on this endeavor, to help preserve our wild lands.
We can enjoy all these splendors, if we all remember, nature's care is in our hands.
We can learn from nature's best recyclers, like detrivores and fungi and even scavengers,
keep the planet healthy by making nature cleaner, if we each do our part.
Keep the planet healthy by making nature cleaner, if we each do our part. If we each do our part.