Mammals glow

Warning: There is a photo of a dead mammal to follow.

I had read that our opossums fluorescence with UV light. In fact, I have been waiting for just such an opportunity to shine my UV torch on one, alive or dead. So alive was preferable, but I don’t often see live ones at night, let alone in the night. I have even gone back to a dead one on the road after dark. But darn, someone had always dragged it away. Yum for that someone. LOL

Yesterday, Jim was outing looking for parts that had fallen off the mower. He found one part and then he found a young dead opossum. I know sad right. However, Jim took a photo knowing I would be interested. So here was my opportunity and I would not even have to drive to it.
So with my UV torch, we went to search after dark to see for ourselves. It glowed pink and blue!
Unfortunately for me the dead critter was gone. All we found were just a few tufts of fur. However, I am happy that the opossum made a nice meal for someone. And now I won’t be driving after dark looking for a dead opossum in the road.

As we walked back to the house, Jim spotted a Goatweed Leafwing perched for the night. A pretty convincing leaf on the Greenbriar.

Of course, in our path we saw the usual glow-in-the dark critters, like the millipedes, grasshoppers and the scorpion. Fun stuff the UV!

Biofluorescence: mammals that glow in the dark

Bugging Out

Why Some Scientists Want to Stop Naming Organisms After People

Keep looking!

The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.

3 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *