Shrimp in the Desert
Recent rains have partially filled a cattle tank where the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy has been doing a survey documenting migrating water birds. Although I did see several birds and a few Killdeer, there were no ducks this time. Before I left, I decided to go down to the water’s edge and look for tiny toads or frogs. There was lots of activity by something that looked like brown tadpoles.
Tadpole Shrimp (Triops)
I took photos and several video clips and headed home. After looking at the video, I realized they behaved a little like Shrimp and after a bit of Googling, I found out they are called Tadpole Shrimp! It is truly amazing what might be hibernating in the mud just waiting for a little rain! CLICK HERE for some information about these creatures.
Click Below for my YouTube Video.
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These are so cool! Interesting looking creatures. I’ve only seen this kind of thing on TV of little shrimp that will hatch out in pools after years in dry soil just waiting for some water to reproduce.
Just looked at some of your Instagram pics and I want some of your rain! Annoyingly dry here but summer seems to have finished so if we’re going to have cool, cloudy and windy weather it may as well rain!!
Still haven’t gone back to G+ but I want to sort through a couple of weeks worth of photos and get some blog posts organised….I have not actually missed the place and have enjoyed spending less time on the internet! But like you with Instagram I post a few photos to Facebook, far fewer comments and very quick to respond to, unlike G+ which is so slow. 🙁
I could hardly believe what I was seeing so you can probably imagine my excitement! Hope you get some rain soon.