The lazy days slip away in Davis, sadly veiled in sporadic rain and gray skies. However, all is not lost. For example, here’s a visit to my friend Phil’s lab in the Entomology Department of UC Davis, on the same floor where I spent three years as a postdoc in genetics.
Phil punches out paper tags to affix to his ant specimens:
A preserved ant is glued to the tag with special glue that has to be used immediately before it dries up:
The glued ants are then temporarily stored in boxes awaiting the collecting information:
The collecting information is put on other tags using offset printing on tiny labels. Here’s an example. The pencil shows how small the tags are:
This is a specimen of the world’s smallest ant, Carebara sp. nr. atoma, collected by Phil on a recent trip to New Guinea.
We measured it under the scope, which gives readouts in millimeters. Here’s the width of the head of the specimen above: 0.275 mm. It’s so small that it’s impossible to dissect the head, but inside is a brain that codes for a huge set of complex behaviors exhibited in all ants. This is amazing!
Body length: 0.76 mm.
To show you how small this ant is, here’s the specimen of Carebara next to a “regular size” ant also collected in New Guinea, Mesoponera sp. It’s about ten times as large as the tiny ant, which is just a speck on the paper:
These ants are so tiny you wouldn’t be able to see it: these are collected by sifting leaf litter or soil using a Winkler sack (see here).
Davis is the site of the University of California’s only veterinary school, and so they keep both large and small animals for teaching instruction. We visited the outdoor pens to see them.
Here I’m petting a friendly cow (photo by Phil Ward):
The cow stuck out its tongue at me:
They also had llamas. They spit on people when they feel threatened, so you don’t pet them.
This must be a fancy breed of goat. Look how high its eyes are placed:
There was also a tiny bearded goat. With its short legs, I wondered if it had a gene for dwarfism. (I know that at least one reader will be able to tell us about these goats in the comments.)
Davis also has a lovely duck pond near the administration building, so I was able to get my mallard fix. I do miss my ducks!
Here’s a drake with unusual markings and a lovely but very orange bill. I wonder if he’s a hybrid between a wild mallard and a domestic Pekin duck (the white ones):
Davis has an In-N-Out Burger store: part of a highly rated chain of burger stands found mainly on the West Coast, but also in a few other Western states. So of course we had to go there for dinner.
Our dinner: I had a Double Double, animal style, with fries and a Diet Coke. That was a big burger!
In-N-Out was one of the late Anthony Bourdain’s favorite restaurants. Here he extols it and then eats a Double Double, also Animal Style. (Readers can explain that in the comments.)
And recycling bins in Davis with a bit of humor:
“Here’s the width of the head of the specimen above: 0.275 mm. It’s so small that it’s impossible to dissect the head, but inside is a brain that codes for a huge set of complex behaviors exhibited in all ants.”
Given the size of our human brain in comparison, how is it possible that an ant is smarter than some humans…yet it is.
This is awesome!
That means … umm, never mind.
The drake mallard almost certainly has fairly recent Pekin ancestry. Such “piebald” mallards are common in some places.
GCM
I was too impatient to wait for someone to explain “Double Double, Animal Style,” so I googled it:
“In-N-Out’s Double-Double Animal-Style Burger has 2 beef patties fried in mustard, caramelized onions, cheese, and special mayo-ketchup sauce”
Are the burgers *literally* “fried in mustard”? Or is that just a grammatical boo-boo?
I’m suddenly hungry.
Yes, literally. Not like deep-fried; the patties are spread with mustard then “fried” on a griddle.
“(I know that at least one reader will be able to tell us about these goats in the comments.)”
Yeah, so OK, I’m predictable. You want to make something of it?
The long-eared goats are Nubians, which originated in Africa and India. For many years they were the most popular breed in the US.
The little ones are Nigerian Dwarfs, also originating in Africa.
They are both dairy breeds, which means that the calories that they ingest go largely toward the production of milk. Both breeds have high butterfat compared to the “Swiss” breeds (the ones with upright ears).
UC Davis has a world-class goat department. Several faculty and staff are heavily involved in the American Dairy Goat Association, which is good for all concerned.
L
“UC Davis has a world-class goat department”
So they are the GOAT of goat departments?
Nice one! Although some people may want to call Mr. Stevens on you, so be careful.
Thanks! I knew you’d enlighten us. Those Nubian goats have beautiful markings.
Mmmm…goat cheese.
Seems the double burger, as good as it sounds, is missing this one ingredient.
The goat with the high-set eyes will be one of the many Nubian strains. My favourite goats are the Toggenburgs, with coats the colour of cocoa and friendly temperaments. For entertainment purposes, the character of the British strain is hard to beat. I’d swear half of them are psychotic!
Long ago, I used to milk goats twice a day, and the smell of a goats warm coat is very comforting (you end up with your face shoved into the goat’s flank as reach underneath to milk).
Edit: I see Linda answered whilst I was typing!
Joannie Rowe retired from teaching a year ago, and is now a Prof. Emerita, but she’s still involved.
She has Toggs, and has had National Champions. Her animals are beautiful and productive, and an excellent representation of that breed.
L
Very good! It has been a long time since I’ve mounted insects. Those take me back.
Are the recycle bins supposed to be turtle heads?
Fish, I think!
One of the beauties of collecting ants is that they don’t take up as much space as collecting cars. It’s cool that everything needs to be tiny: the mounts, the labels, the measuring devices. It’s its own little world of amazing biology.
It was fun going to the School of Agriculture fields when I was at Virginia Tech. The farm animals were always docile and liked being talked to. Some of the cattle had windows installed in their abdominal walls so that researchers could look inside them at will. The cattle didn’t seem to mind. One of my colleagues was a famous chicken geneticist. I never asked how he chose chickens, but I should have.
This just in! I found a 2023 profile of chicken geneticist Paul Siegel on the Virginia Tech web site that tells all about why he loves chickens. He’s 90 and still going at it. https://news.vt.edu/articles/2023/06/cals-paul-siegel-profile.html
UC Davis used to hold an annual Picnic Day. The band at Berkeley would go up and march in a parade and then visit various food booths and displays. It was common to invite a date and I invited my future wife. We were visiting the Sick Animal Barn when it started to rain and we were sort of trapped there for a couple of hours. We talked and really got to know each other. Very romantic. She married me anyway and we recently celebrated our 65th anniversary.
They still have Picnic Day–I saw an ad for this year’s event.
I don’t go to the local In-Out — their burgers are not that great. But, the main reason I don’t go to In-Out is the presence of Bible verses on their products. Why give money to a business that insists on feeding customers religion along with the fries.
“driech” – the man needs the word “dreich” in his vocabulary (usual Gaelic rules concerning vowels : the more the merrier).
That sounds like a challenge.
If you make another visit to Davis in the future, my ranch is only an hour away and I would be happy to let you visit with some very nice llamas. Or if you would like I would be more than happy to bring one to you. Every year I take UC Davis vet students hiking with llamas in the Sutter Buttes so they get some first hand experience with these wonderful creatures, and no one gets spit on.
Love In-N-Out burgers and while other members of the family like double, doubles, I prefer single cheeseburgers. I think the single cheese burger has the perfect ratio of bun to meat to cheese. So if very hungry I’ll have two of those rather than a double, double. Sadly, the nearest In-N-Out is 20+ miles away, so it is just a rare treat.
Just in case anyone doesn’t know, llama spit is not just saliva, it has stomach acid and a bit of their most recent meal mixed in, making it stinky.
Is it a Shakespeare nod – “Double, double, toil and trouble …”
… you know what, don’t answer that – I’m goin’ w/ Bill.