Day 5: Sonora Desert Museum and the Sunset after the Storm

Thursday was awesome! We went to the Sonara Desert  Museum. Which don’t be fooled is much more a zoo than the traditional museum you’re thinking of. I got to crawl through caves, walk through the desert ecosystem, sit with hummingbirds buzzing around me and see so many different kinds of wildlife, from mountain lions to ocelots, eels, tarantulas, coyote, black bears, rattle snakes, elf owls, javelina, beavers coati, and butterflies,  My favorite part was learning about the cacti. Actually my friend Farida and I made a video about cacti for your educational enjoyment.

After the video, both Michelle and Farida ended up with barbs in their hands from the prickly pear  (yep, we ate the fruit. It was a bit sweet and extremely seedy, but not in a shady way. ) Furthermore,  Farida was showing me how the teddy bear cactus works (it pretty much allows a limb to fall off if gently knocked completely damaging whatever is below it as the spines are barbed and face backwards to create extreme pain as you pull them out. Farida drops this rock on a part of the TB cactus, a piece falls off and rolls in the path. We can’t leave this pointy bulb just sitting around, so she goes to throw it, and as she releases it it slips out of her fingers and the barbs stay attached to her fingers. Her face showed that it was excruciating.

Later a docent was telling us about how painful pricks from a cactus can be, it was nearly impossible for me to keep a straight face as Farida and Michelle simultaneously say, “I can only imagine.” With far too much conviction. The docent also told us about mesquite powder and jojoba beans. Mesquite powder is formed by grinding down the seed pods of the mesquite. She let us try some. It was sweet like sugar with a slight hint of mesquite BBQ taste. She then explained how jojoba bean oil is in many cosmetics. She pointed out the shrub the beans come from and let us put some of the tasteless, odorless, waxy-oil on our hands. It perfectly models the natural oils released by human skin and hair glands.

Overall, it was probably the most fun I've ever had at a museum. Just as we were leaving we saw the monsoons falling near Santa Rita. We drove home on winding roads through mountains covered in Saguaro (see my video for this type of cactus).When we got home, I went for a very humid run. A rarity in this part of the country. I saw two fuzzy rabbits and one jack rabbit with the huge ears. I kept a steady pace to ensure that no cattle came after me.  After my run and advice session about all the cool stuff to see in LA, I sneaked off to watch the sunset. They say that the sunsets out west are the best. I completely agree. It was the most beautiful sunset I've seen.  As I walked the dusty, dusky path back to the range. A skunk ran out in 30 meters a head of me. Bats flew close over head. Something  kept rustling in the shrubs to my right. I’m hoping some small herbivore as I quickened my pace. At least I didn't see a tarantula.

I was late to dinner but was saved a huge slice of vege lasagna. I made it just in time for Angela’s talk on Caterpillar immune systems and parasatoids. We came up with the idea of tracking mortality rates (due to parsatoids vs. pathogens vs. predators) by injecting caterpillars with computer chips so you could see how many are preyed on. Maybe someday a scientist will do an experiment using my idea. 

Tomorrow (Friday) is cleaning and packing up to head to South West Research Station, which is supposed to be the ritz of research centers, guess we’ll see.