Three days ago I visited Robin Elisabeth Cornwell, who lives in Colorado Springs. Many of you may recall that she was the former Executive Director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation (fR&S), and is now the only research scientist at Camp Carson, studying the effects of trauma and other experience on the brain. Robin has two cats and one d*g, a d*g I actually found somewhat likeable! Her name is Kali (after the Hindu goddess of death) and she’s a Portuguese water dog—the same breed as the Obamas’ Bo. Kali is being trained as a therapy dog to help old people. Here is Robin and d*g:
Kali, looking up expectantly for fusses. She got splattered with paint when the inside of the house was being painted:
Robin has two black cats, but both, sadly, were shy. I barely managed to get a photograph of Luna, the one pictured below, as she was always hiding under stuff when I was around.
The other black cat was Artemis, who was a bit friendlier to me and distinguishable from Luna by her lack of a collar and her possession of a white locket.
One afternoon we walked around the Garden of the Gods, a gorgeous geological formation that was once frequented by many tribes of Native Americans, and now by tourists and rock climbers. It’s a lovely place with craggy red rocks jutting above the pine forest. Moreover, admission is free: the plot of land was bequeathed to the city by the businessman Charles Elliott Perkins on the condition that they could never charge admission. That’s a refreshing change in a land where, unlike the UK, you have to pay to see everything, but it’s a source of chagrin for Colorado Springs, which knows it could make a pile by charging admission.
Wikipedia on the formations:
The outstanding geologic features of the park are the ancient sedimentary beds of deep-red, pink and white sandstones, conglomerates and limestone that were deposited horizontally, but have now been tilted vertically and faulted by the immense mountain building forces caused by the uplift of the Rocky Mountains and the Pikes Peakmassif. The following Pleistocene Ice Age resulted in erosion and glaciation of the rock, creating the present rock formations. Evidence of past ages can be read in the rocks: ancient seas, eroded remains of ancestral mountain ranges, alluvial fans, sandy beaches and great sand dune fields.
This famous formation is called “The Kissing Camels”:
There are lots of rock climbers there, who are allowed to climb certain formations. There’s one in this photograph. Can you spot him? (This is an easy one!)
Here’s a wolf spider we saw along the trail; it’s carrying babies on its back! I don’t know the species, but can some alert reader identify it? I know we have arachnid experts out there.
See the antennae on top of this mountain? This denotes the site of the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command), bunker a cold-war setup designed to monitor all air and space traffic that might post a danger to North America. It’s a joint operation with our Canadian friends.
To insulate the headquarters from nuclear attack, they built the Cheyenne Mountain headquarters and nuclear bunker in 1961, and it lies way, way below the mountains (the antennae on top are for communication. You used to be able to visit it, and see the vast underground city it comprises (including an entire lake for fresh water), but after 9/11 it’s been closed. The Wikipedia link gives a lot of fascinating information.
The facility was designed to withstand a 30 megaton nuclear explosion within 2 kilometres—the equivalent of an early hydrogen bomb! Here’s one photo of part of the anti-nuclear precautions (caption from Wikipedia):
The 25-ton North blast door in the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker is the main entrance to another blast door (background) beyond which the side tunnel branches into access tunnels to the main chambers.
It’s built not only to withstand a near direct nuclear hit, but also to be completely self sufficient (food, water, and electricity) for an entire six months—this to avoid fallout.
Tomorrow I’ll post pictures of my visit to the second reader in Colorado Springs, Stephen Q. Muth, and recount our (non-purchasing!) visits to the legal marijuana stores and “speakeasies” of Colorado.
Unless someone knows the local fauna very well, it is impossible to ID the wolf spider to species and probably even genus. The little babies hold on to tiny hairs on the mother’s back!
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Really awesome trip!
If the arachnophiles do make it to this thread, I actually had a question of my own. There’re lots of black widows in my back yard and patio — confirmed just last night by seeing a couple big ones sitting in the middle of their cobwebs as I took out the garbage, and I’ve evicted a couple from the house to the back in recent weeks as well.
But this morning, I noticed a couple orbs in the midst of two cobwebs.
Are there any orb-weavers that are known for being found in such proximity to black widows? Does the one prey on the other or vice-versa? Some sort of symbiosis?
b&
I don’t think you are seeing black widows which typically live under something – like a board or even in the corners of somewhat dank cellar steps. Their webs are kind of messy affairs and not those spectacular orbs one sees in the garden. Those rather fearsome looking garden spiders are probably Argiope aurantia and have yellow accents. Black widows have various red designs on the undersides of their abdomens – most often (in my experiences) like an “hourglass.”
I believe he’s talking about orb spiders building next to widow webs.
Yes — and the cobweb weavers are most certainly black widows. The hourglass was quite visible on the one I saw last night when taking out the garbage.
b&
For one, spiders can crowd together if the web site is attractive. But orb weavers will often have a tangle of webbing on the periphery of the orb to either serve as a scaffold for building the orb, and/or as a place to retreat to if something scares them out of the orb. I think some also use a tangle to sort of deter attacks from wasps.
Black widow webs are a tangle, but of course even tangle webs have a structure. This species will have a series of ‘drop lines’ that go to the floor, and they use that as their main way of catching prey that walks underneath the web. their silk is amazingly strong. You should feel it. Doing this is absolutely safe as no spider will rush out thinking that the disturbance is prey.
If you look in the area at night with a flashlight you may be surprised at how many widows you really have. I did that when I was a kid, looking for widows in my grandparents shed at night. Even I got a bit scared b/c there was one widow sitting in plain site about every foot; even directly overhead.
Any idea why some spiders are so much more toxic than others?
I could only speak in general, hand-wavey terms about venomous spiders on this subject, so I looked it up and found out here that the venom of the black widow is actually similar to that of related spiders. A key ingredient is a toxin that attacks neuromuscular junctions. Widows deliver a very concentrated amount of venom, however, and why they do that is implied to be b/c they have come to specialize in catching larger prey. They are certainly famous for being able to haul in scorpions, lizards, and even mice up from their drop-lines. As I mention above their silk is surprisingly strong, and so it appears that this all makes sense.
“They are certainly famous for being able to haul in scorpions, lizards, and even mice up from their drop-lines.”
Wow, I had no idea!
Thanks for all the info–fascinating!
Thanks for that. The orbs are looking ratty, so maybe the black widows got to them.
…and, no, alas, I wouldn’t at all be surprised by how many black widows there are at my place. The patio ceiling is white, so I know they don’t lurk there…but basically any nook and / or cranny (like the space underneath and around the garbage bin) is home to one…and I don’t even want to think of how many are in the weeds….
Part of it’s my fault. I hate them, but I can’t justify killing them. So, whenever I find one inside the house (which, thankfully, is almost never, like once every few years), I scoop her up with the end of a yardstick and deposit her outside.
I’m nuts enough that I have some thoughts of how to do some macro studio portraits of one, but I haven’t worked out all the critical details (such as containment) yet…and, besides, I’ve got much more pressing photography projects. I’ll do beetle portraits long before I do black widow portraits, for example…very long before….
b&
I too scoop out the beasties who are not welcome indoors & deposit them outside. Except for ticks. Those mofos go down the drain (and I feel a bit bad about it).
any spider-based questions can be referred to Catherine Scott, on twitter, @Cataranea or maybe through her site spiderbytes.org
She’s pretty awesome, and responds to everyone. do look her up.
I don’t think Ben tweets. 😉
well, he can still send any queries to her web page. and I understand, I refrained from twitter until recently. I’m not much for social media, being anti-social by nature, or by default, since people don’t seem to enjoy my company. I’ve found it a mixed bag, but not quite as annoying as facebook. I’ve limited it to science-related info, but some political crap sneaks in from time to time. and sometimes, when someone replies or favorites a tweet, I feel almost like I have real friends!
I identify with you enough that you make it almost sound appealing. 😉 I’m sure eventually I’ll have to cave to the onslaught that is social media…
“give yourself to the dark side. it is the only way you can tweet your friends” -Darth Tweeter,
😀
No, I’m a trumpet player. I leave the tweeting to the flute section.
b&
Thanks for the tip. I just asked the question on her “Who eats spiders?” post, which seemed not inappropriate since I suspect that the black widows ate the orb weavers….
b&
Kali is a cutie, but only “somewhat likable?” Boy, you’re a tough critic. 😉
Loved the photo or Artemis…splendid cat + a cool name.
Non-purchasing?
If I see a post commenting on the color of the walls I’ll have my doubts!
😉
This time they’d be effin’ green!
I can tell Robin is pretty cool by her pets. 😉
What an awesome spider! And geological formation.
And bunker…
Pretty much what I was going to write. 🙂
Pretty much what I was going to say, except I was going to call the bunker Vault 101.
Have you heard Vault 101? Kirby Krackle is a fun “nerd band” from Seattle.
I was not aware of that song 🙂
Nice.
The bunker reminded me of Terminator but I didn’t want to start on that again! 🙂
NORAD reminds me of how every Xmas they “track” the location of Santa. Fun for kids during and after the Cold War; well at least kids in Canada and the U.S.
Do you miss having a cat of your own?
There’s a stargate down there, you know.
I thought that one was destroyed…
It was replaced by the Antarctic gate.
I read when they had tours they got people asking where the Stargate was.
In South Africa, we have brown widow spiders around our homes, and it’s believed that daddy-long-legs spiders (Pholcidae), who also make untidy space webs, prey on the widows, using their long legs to keep distance from the widow fangs. But I would not call that symbiosis (BOTH parties have to benefit!), rather araneophagia!
If I had seen that spider, I would have left screaming immediately. When I was a kid, a wolf spider startled me when I was flipping over stuff in a field looking for snakes. I flipped over an old floor mat from an abandoned car & a wolf spider came running out chasing me. What a cheeky thing to be so aggressive! It scared the crap out of me & I fear seeing one every again. They also have a nasty bite that can cause necrotising of the wound.
I like the all the lovely black furred pets! My dog is named Kala (Ancient Greek for “pretty” (also can mean various other things)). My Indian friend told me it was close to Kali, the goddess of death and it was associated with black coloured things. My dog is yellow so the opposite.
Teehee, I’d be running from the snakes, not the spiders.
The worst spider bite I ever had was from a big wolf spider. I was holding it, and it bit me good ‘n long for no reason (other than b/c I was having it sit in my hand)..
I knew wolf spiders can be jerks!
I completely understand.
When I was young I was asleep in the basement when I woke up to find a huge wolf spider crawling up my arm towards my face. From then on I only slept under the covers while trying to keep my teeth clenched.
I don’t think I’ve ever jumped out of bed that fast, including the time I dreamed I fell out of the Space Needle, screamed all the way down and hit the ground.
Intellectually I have no problem with spiders, but I can’t stand to have hairy spiders touching me.
Hairy spiders and Donald Trumps hair. Both frighten me.
Anhhhh! My house I lived it had a horrible basement full of creepy crawlies. There was a dead wolf spider in an aggressive stance in one area that was always there. Terrifying!
Amazing photo’s!
Found the red rock climber ok, but Randolph Scott remains elusive.Beautiful pics.
Interesting the detail regarding Garden of the Gods donated by the guy with conditions – never to charge the public. Often this is all done in good faith, whatever the conditions by the giver, only to be ignored sometime later. I have seen those conditions agreed to and later ignored when it no longer suited the living.
Something to think about if you are considering leaving something “with conditions”.
Yeah, it’s sorta like those treaties we signed with Native Americans.
Yes. Only difference is the guy is already dead so not really that painful. The Native Americans of course, a different matter.
Of course you’re right! Much, much more evil of us. I should have found another comparison.
It is a comparison…just different. There was a rich widow around here who owned a lot of land and for some reason she willed it all to the county. Her condition was that it should all remain in agriculture. Not too many years after she died the county and the city were really seeing the dollar signs so — what to do. The county sold a bunch of the land to the city and the city, not being held to the condition, sectioned off the land and sold it to businesses and others.
So much for good intentions.
Yes, a familiar story. How devious people can be!
Here someone willed large tracks of undeveloped land to Western Michigan University with the stipulation that it remain wild. Over the years I’ve seen the University develop one parcel after another, without even a tactical dodge like the one you mention.
I agree with respect to the deviousness in which the benefactor’s wishes have been circumvented in those cases but I do wonder how reasonable it is that someone can control things in perpetuity from beyond the grave.
Some conditions – such as maintaining free public access to a beautiful landscape – are clearly in the public interest but it is possible to conceive of conditions that may be applied which become increasingly unreasonable as time passes.
Luna and Artemis? Someone’s a Sailor Moon fan.
Actually, Artemis was first – and her little white amulet is a bit like a crescent moon… and I wanted her to have a name of a Goddess. Luna, the Roman version of Artemis, was adopted from a shelter – and she already had been named ‘Luna’ – it seemed appropriate. Of course then when Kali joined the family, she too needed a Goddess name – although, she is certainly not as high a status as Artemis & Luna.
Glad you got a trip in to Garden of the Gods. It is one of those places that is not too far away from Denver that always pops in to my mind to take people from out of town.
Interestingly, there’s a dinosaur named after the gardens of the gods in Greek back in 2006.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theiophytalia
I was looking at the rocks and thinking “why the deeply eroded pockets?”
Geologising from photographs is always risky, but they look like limestone masses (detrital, or concretionary? Good question.) which have weathered preferentially. But that demands hands – on data.
We don’t have to pay for access everywhere the UK. We have National Parks too, you know and Scotland has the ‘right to roam’ in wild spaces.
“That’s a refreshing change in a land where, unlike the UK, you have to pay to see everything, but it’s a source of chagrin for Colorado Springs, which knows it could make a pile by charging admission.”
I think Jerry’s point was to contrast the US where you normally have to pay with the UK where you normally don’t (although there are certainly exceptions). The Garden of the Gods site in Colorado Springs seemingly is atypical for the US in that entry is free.
Beat me to it. cnoc, you need to reread that passage. 🙂