From One End

Aside from having more activities in my life than there are hours to accommodate my favorites, I certainly have diversity. Yesterday I was immersed up to my elbows so to speak in elk – one of the hoofed mammals closely related to us – humans. They are herbivorous only but birth young before fully developed which requires producing milk as all female mammals do.
Today I observed the dissection of 4 year old Chinook salmon by a biologist who related each body part to the counterpart in humans. She demonstrated on a female and a male to illustrate to school kids valuable sex education which kids in local schools need, mostly because the facts have to be reviewed and reiterated before the reality sinks in. Oh there were lots of giggles but mostly by the boys when they saw the size of the sperms sacks. The ovaries were so indistinct but the thousands of eggs were taken from the female before the ovaries were extracted.
Fish are the most primitive of vertebrates, the first animals and they developed in the water. I was privileged to have the gills for McNary Ed Center. I have them preserved in alcohol and they will be on display for the public. I thought the gills would be especially educational because frogs and other amphibians lay eggs that hatch in water and absorb oxygen while they grow lungs. Then they have to escape to be land animals forever after. That is until they mate and the females lay eggs on water plants and the cycle goes on and on, as long as there is survival. Sadly, in McNary pond, bull frogs, non natives, have wiped out the Western Spotted Frog. I haven’t figured out how to catch bullfrogs. I have it on good authority the legs are very tasty.

Naomi Sherer