What Happened After Creating a Storm In My Giant Rainforest Vivarium
Summary
TLDRIn this episode of the Ecosystem Vivarium series, the vivarium's creator introduces 'Pantdora,' a 1,000-gallon cloud rainforest vivarium teeming with tropical plants, fungi, and an intricate food web of creatures. With the early arrival of simulated rains, the vivarium's weather system is activated, leading to a termite nuptial flight that attracts various predators. Inside, termite alates find their way in, potentially starting new colonies. The creator also shares surprising discoveries, including a new male sun skink named Drake with unexpected climbing abilities and the revelation that a previously assumed male sun skink, Smaug, is actually female. Additionally, there are newborn chicks and guinea pigs that will contribute to the vivarium's nutrient cycle. The episode ends with a teaser about the next vivarium biome, inviting viewers to vote on the Community Tab.
Takeaways
- 🌳 The Pantdora vivarium is a 1,000 gallon cloud rainforest ecosystem featuring a diverse array of tropical plants, fungi, and animals.
- ☔️ The early arrival of rains triggers a simulated weather system change, leading to a resurgence of activity within the vivarium.
- 🐜 Termite alates, future queens and kings, engage in an annual nuptial flight, attracting predators for a feeding frenzy.
- 🕷️ Various predators, including geckos, jumping spiders, tree frogs, and cane toads, take advantage of the termite flight to feed.
- 🦗 Termite alates also invade the Ant Room, where they may become food for other creatures or start new colonies.
- 🐸 The discovery of a sun skink with an orange head and lack of speckles leads to the realization that the previously assumed male, Smaug, is actually female.
- 🐣 Indoor incubation of Rhode Island Red chicken eggs results in the hatching of chicks, which are then acclimated to their new environment.
- 🐷 The birth of skinny piglets, which are precocial and able to walk and feed soon after birth, is another sign of new life within the vivarium.
- 🍄 The rainy season brings forth new mushrooms and plant growth, indicating a healthy and dynamic ecosystem.
- 🦀 The unexpected sighting of a crab in Aqua Noctis suggests that some of the original pond inhabitants have survived.
- 🐉 The introduction of a new male sun skink, named Drake, to the vivarium offers potential for future breeding and adds to the ecosystem's biodiversity.
Q & A
What is the name of the vivarium described in the script?
-The vivarium is named Pantdora.
Why did the narrator decide to simulate rain in the vivarium?
-The narrator simulated rain because the natural rainy season had arrived early, which is a significant event in the life cycle of the organisms within the vivarium.
What is a nuptial flight?
-A nuptial flight is an annual event when termite alates, the future queens and kings, fly out from their colonies at night to mate and start new colonies.
Why didn't the narrator introduce toads into the vivarium?
-The toads are invasive and would eat almost every creature they could fit into their mouths, including tree frogs, geckos, and sun skinks, disrupting the balance of the vivarium's ecosystem.
What was the surprising discovery about the sun skinks in the vivarium?
-The surprising discovery was that Smaug, initially thought to be a male sun skink, was actually a female. This realization came after the introduction of another male sun skink with distinct characteristics.
What are the three most popular biomes suggested by the viewers for the next vivarium?
-The three most popular biomes suggested by the viewers are Swamp, Cave, and Canopy.
Why did the narrator decide to use guinea pig poop as fertilizer?
-Guinea pig poop is classified as a 'cold' fertilizer, meaning it can be added fresh to plants without burning them, making it an excellent source of nutrients for the vivarium's soil.
What is the significance of using egg shells in the vivarium?
-Egg shells are rich in calcium and minerals, which are beneficial for plant growth. When scattered in the vivarium, they help to replenish the soil with these essential nutrients.
How did the new rains and cooler temperatures affect the vivarium's ecosystem?
-The new rains and cooler temperatures led to an explosion in plant life, the return of various insects and predators, and overall invigoration of the ecosystem, simulating a natural environment.
What is the narrator's plan for the chickens and guinea pigs?
-The chickens will be added to the narrator's collection of egg-laying chickens, and their eggs will be consumed. The guinea pigs will be used to enrich the vivarium's soil with their waste and to provide interaction with the human caretaker.
What is the narrator's final decision for the next ecosystem vivarium?
-The narrator decided to let the viewers vote on the Community Tab to determine the type of biome for the next ecosystem vivarium.
Outlines
🌧️ Simulating Rainy Season in Pantdora Vivarium
The video script introduces Pantdora, a 1,000 gallon vivarium housing a cloud rainforest ecosystem complete with tropical plants, fungi, and various creatures. The creator discusses the early arrival of rains, signaling the need to simulate weather changes. This triggers a series of events, including the termite alates' nuptial flight, where future termite queens and kings emerge to mate and start new colonies. Predators, such as geckos and cane toads, take advantage of this event for a feeding frenzy. The script also teases an upcoming change involving the vivarium's inhabitants and the potential for new introductions to the ecosystem.
🐸 Unexpected Discoveries in Pantdora's Ecosystem
The video continues with the creator's surprise at finding a new termite species in the vivarium and the decision not to introduce invasive toads that could disrupt the ecosystem. It then reveals a significant discovery about the resident sun skinks, realizing that one initially thought to be male, named Smaug, is actually female. This leads to the introduction of a new male sun skink to the vivarium. Additionally, the hatching of Rhode Island Red chicks is mentioned, with plans for their future role in the ecosystem. The chicks are described as being precocial birds, ready to feed on their own, and the creator shares his excitement about their growth and development.
🕷️ New Life and Adaptations in Pantdora
The narrative moves on to the introduction of the new male sun skink, named Drake, into the vivarium and his initial exploration of the environment. The video also covers the discovery of new mushrooms, the growth of various plants, and the activity of a millipede and a huntsman spider. The creator expresses joy at finding a crab in Aqua Noctis, the vivarium's pond, indicating that some crabs had survived. The video ends with the sun skink displaying unexpected climbing abilities, which surprises the creator and the other sun skink, Daenerys.
🌿 The Dynamics of Pantdora's Ecosystem
The script describes the cautious exploration of the new male sun skink, Drake, in the vivarium, his encounter with the resident female sun skink, Smaugette, and his eventual ascent into the canopy. It also details the growth of the chicks, their diet, and their interactions with the environment. The creator discusses his plans for the guinea pigs and the importance of their waste as a fertilizer. The soil ecosystem in Pantdora is shown to be maturing, and the addition of guinea pig manure and egg shells is highlighted as a method to enrich the soil and support the nutrient cycle within the vivarium.
🐔 The Role of Guinea Pigs and Chicks in Pantdora's Nutrient Cycle
The video script explains the importance of the guinea pig manure and chick egg shells in the nutrient cycle of the vivarium. The creator adds these to the soil to provide essential nutrients for plant growth. The response of the ecosystem to the additional nutrients is described, with an explosion of plant life and the return of various insects and ants. The sun skinks' behavior, including Drake's hunting and basking habits, is also discussed. The creator reflects on the cycles of nature and the dynamic, ever-changing nature of life, concluding with a teaser for the next ecosystem vivarium and an interactive call to action for the viewers.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Vivarium
💡Termite Alates
💡Nuptial Flight
💡Sun Skinks
💡Invasive Species
💡Precocial Birds
💡Cold Fertilizer
💡Eggshells
💡Soil Ecosystem
💡AntsCanada Ant Channel
💡Ecosystem Dynamics
Highlights
Pantdora is a 1,000 gallon cloud rainforest vivarium featuring a complex ecosystem of tropical plants, fungi, and a variety of creatures.
The vivarium's simulated weather system is manipulated to induce a rainy season, leading to surprising animal behavior and new discoveries.
Termite alates, future queens and kings, engage in an annual nuptial flight, attracting predators for a feeding frenzy.
A gecko feasts on termites attracted to a light-colored wall, while a tree frog and cane toads also partake in the termite bounty.
Termites manage to infiltrate the vivarium, potentially starting new colonies and adding to the ecosystem's diversity.
The discovery of a sun skink with an orange head and lack of speckles leads to a gender revelation about the resident sun skins.
The introduction of a new male sun skink, named Drake, to the vivarium could potentially lead to mating and the birth of live young.
Hatching chicks from Rhode Island Red chickens are incubated indoors for protection, showcasing their precocial bird characteristics.
Guinea pig babies are born with fur and open eyes, ready to explore and feed, unlike other rodents.
New mushrooms and plant life emerge post-rain, indicating a healthy and evolving soil ecosystem.
The unexpected survival of a crab in Aqua Noctis pond suggests a hidden resilience within the vivarium's aquatic life.
Drake the sun skink displays unexpected climbing abilities, interacting with the vivarium's canopy and impressing the resident female sun skins.
The chicks' growth is rapid, highlighting the importance of a balanced diet and the natural cycle of life in the vivarium.
The use of guinea pig manure and egg shells as fertilizer introduces essential nutrients into the soil, promoting a natural and sustainable ecosystem.
The explosion of plant life due to the new nutrients and changing seasons demonstrates the dynamic nature of the vivarium's ecosystem.
The potential for the sun skins to mate and give live birth adds a layer of excitement and anticipation for the future of the vivarium.
The decision-making process for the next ecosystem vivarium involves community input and careful consideration of feasibility.
Transcripts
This is Pantdora, my 1,000 gallon cloud rainforest vivarium, complete with an array of tropical
plants, fungi, and a menagerie of creatures that live together in a complex foodweb.
I’m actually also working on a next vivarium to connect to Pantdora, but more about that
later, because something major is about to take place in our contained rainforest.
The rains had come early!
Yes!
This meant it was time to affect our simulated weather system!
Rains, I summon thee!
This is the story of what happened when I launched rainy season in my giant ecosystem
vivarium, but little did I know, this cosplaying of Mother Nature would lead to some pretty
insane revelations about the animals in our rainforest, as well as take me on the wildest
adventure with some unexpected newcomers!
Welcome to Season 2, Episode 6 of my Ecosystem Vivarium series here on the AntsCanada Ant
Channel.
Please SUBSCRIBE to the channel, and hit the BELL ICON.
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
The past two months have been quite hostile due to the heat of where I live, and lots
of creatures in Pantdora had disappeared underground to hibernate through the heat, and some plants
have dried up sacrificing its foliage to preserve its hydration, but the rains had thankfully
arrived early this year, and to my sheer awe, with the cooler temperatures and moistened
air, the great awakening of Mother Nature had begun.
Outside my home, something incredible was taking place.
There wasn’t a light around my place that wasn’t swarmed by an army of flying troopers.
These were the future queens and kings of termites.
These termite alates were waiting their whole lives to fly on this night, an annual event
called a nuptial flight, in order to congregate from all across the region to meet at the
lights, in hopes to find their one true mate, to marry and start new termite colonies with.
Some queens and king termites had already begun to break off their wings, and began
to scramble around in search of a partner to pair up with.
It’s a truly remarkable event because every species of termites knows their specific night
in the year to fly, and this particular wood-eating species was the first termite species to fly
this year.
But the termites weren’t the only ones waiting for this night, for their nuptial flight festivities
were also a feeding frenzy for predators who’ve been braving the harsh dry summers where food
was scarce.
The summer fast was finally over.
All geckoes around my home were coming out of hiding to gorge themselves on the termite
buffet.
A jumping spider had gotten lucky, as well.
Another gecko was having a feast picking off termites that landed on his light-coloured
wall, making the termites easy to spot.
In the shadows of this rock pillar, was a tree frog waiting for the termites to come
to it.
But the most conspicuous of creatures to emerge, were these.
Cane toads!
The large toads hopped all around picking off the termites that fell to the ground.
They had enormous appetites and would be eating up every single termite they would find!
But this termite nuptial flight was not only taking place outside, but also inside my Ant
Room.
Somehow despite having all my windows closed, the termite alates still manage to make their
way indoors, and were now swarming around Pantdora, attracted to the lights and wanting
to get in.
Ok, in that case, here you go, Termites.
Enjoy our Pantdoran soils!
A bunch of termites alates were now inside Pantdora, and would either be food for our
various rainforest creatures, or perhaps pair up and start new termite colonies inside our
vivarium.
We already had another termite species living here, but I felt it wouldn’t hurt for them
to have some competition.
Now, some of you may be wondering, why I didn’t catch any toads to put into our rainforest.
Well, the toads are invasive and would pretty much eat every single creature it could fit
into its mouth, including all our tree frogs, our geckoes, and even our sun skinks.
But speaking of new additions and sun skinks, I have the craziest news that I didn’t have
on my bingo card, regarding our resident sun skinks that absolutely blew my mind!
The next morning, I spotted this.
Opening the glass holding container and lifting the hollow rock.
It was another sun skink caught from my yard, but there was something very special and different
about this sun skink.
Let me know if you guys notice it.
I placed in a roach, and he instantly went in for the kill.
Mmmm delicious!
Here, let’s give him another one to welcome him.
He happily grabbed the roach from my tweezers and scarfed it down.
I was glad to see that he was not afraid of us.
But were you able to spot why this sun skink was special?
The sides of this sun skink lacked the speckles that were seen on our other sun skinks.
His sides were plain, but what truly blew my mind was his head, which was orange.
Why was this significant?
Well, when researching these sun skinks, I had read that males had thicker necks and
orange faces during breeding season, and so based on that description, I deduced that
our Smaug, who was pretty thicc at the neck and kinda had an orange tip of the snout going,
was a male, and that our second more slender sun skink, Daenerys, I had placed in later
for him, was female.
But when I laid eyes on this new guy, I instantly realized “Oops.
Perhaps I should have asked for Smaug’s pronouns...”, and as I spotted our less
orange Smaug, staring at our new handsome male sun skink through the glass, I knew that
Smaug, was actually a Smaug-ette!
Oh man!
Smaug is female?!
Anyway, shell shocked by this realization, I resolved to make the introduction of our
new truly manly sun skink to our rainforest, where he could live and hopefully mate with
his two sun skink princesses.
I couldn’t wait to see him interact with the females, and little did I know, their
interaction was not what I expected it would be.
But before adding him in, a soft noise was coming from another area of the Ant Room,
that made my heart leap.
Within my incubator were a series of eggs, laid by various pets of mine.
I’ve been waiting with great anticipation for any of them to hatch.
And to my utter joy, I spotted a mass of brownish orange amidst the eggs, breathing its first
breaths of air.
What is it you ask?
A chick, born from my Rhode Island Red chickens in the yard.
I’ve been incubating the chicks indoors, safe from fire ants outside my home, which
are a big threat to them at this age.
But this chick was not alone!
It had a sibling.
Now, I had a special plan that had to do with our rainforest Pantdora, for when these chicks
would finally be born, and I couldn’t wait to carry it out, but for now I placed the
newborn chicks into their rearing quarters to begin this first stage of their life journey.
They were quite sleepy, but the moment I mentioned the F word “Food” they instantly perked
up.
Chickens fall under the category of precocial birds, meaning they can get up and feed on
their own right off the bat, unlike altricial birds who are born rather bald and helpless,
and require parental care at birth.
I had to just show the chicks with my finger what to peck and they instinctively understood
the assignment and began to feed.
They were just so cute!
I would often place my hand over them, and they would simply snuggle beneath my palm,
just as they would under mom.
They did a lot of sleeping and eating, and rightfully so, because nature had equipped
them with superpowers of rapid growth, and you guys will be shocked at the size of these
little chicks by the end of this video!
But, guys, there’s more!
I wasn’t the only new mother in town, for across the Ant Room was another nest.
This here is a skinny pig, basically a guinea pig with less hair.
She is one of my rescues, that I’ve had to separate from my other skinny pig rescues,
because just this morning we spotted a surprise.
See it?
And just like our new chicks, it’s not one surprise, but two.
A black skinny pig baby!
Now you’ll be surprised to know that newborn guinea pigs, like chickens, are born with
fur, fully able to walk, open their eyes to see, and feed on their own, unlike other rodents
like rats which are born helpless, naked, and unable to eat solids.
They're a little nervous with handling right now, but I’ll be handling them every day
so they get used to human interaction.
These baby skinny pigs as early as now will be able to nibble on solids, while also suckling
from mom, but just like the chicks, I have some interesting plans ahead for Pantdora
and these skinny pigs coming up!
Now as for Pantdora, another discovery was waiting for me in the most unexpected place.
The new rains had brought about some new mushrooms springing forth from the soils, mushrooms
I hadn’t seen before.
Any mushroom experts out there care to guess the species?
The new rains almost overnight caused certain shoots to spring forth like this new asparagus
fern stalk, and these vines which were starting to reach its tendrils outwards.
I spotted a millipede moving like a toy train across the forest floor.
These millipedes were some of the few creatures that enjoyed the heat of the summers.
I then spotted a giant huntsman, who was either Lady Death Strike, a giant huntsman I thought
had died but I discovered was still alive, or another grown up huntsman I placed into
Pantdora as a baby.
It was one of two adult huntsman spiders that lived in this rainforest, along with a whole
lot of babies that were frolicking the lands.
All the predators of the rainforest were quite happy about this new cooler season, as they
had an abundance of prey now.
The crickets were back to their normal social selves breeding again due to the drop in temperatures.
But the real surprise I was talking about, was waiting for me to discover it in Aqua
Noctis, the blackwater pond.
As usual, the pond was full of beautiful fish, plants, and vine roots.
I was happy to discover the java mosses were also doing quite well… hey, what is that?
I spotted a peculiar movement across the floor, and when I realized what it was I shouted
for joy!
A crab!
Awesome!
There were still crabs in Aqua Noctis, or at least one.
I had thought the crabs I placed into this pond had all died out of old age, but nope!
Seems like this little guy had been hiding from us.
I wondered if it too had retreated into the rocky outcrop due to the heat.
It was now going about its usual business eating up decaying and edible material all
around the pond.
I wondered how many other crabs were still scuttling around these waters, but I was so
happy to see that we still had water crabs in Pantdora.
So, Smaug!
I mean, Smaugette?
I’m sorry, I had thought you were male, all this time!
My bad!
It’s time to introduce you to your new King.
As soon as Smaugette, saw me approaching with the new male sun skink, she dashed away.
I placed in the rock platform.
Welcome to your new home my new sun skink.
I lifted the cover and he immediately ejected.
As soon as he realized he was somewhere new, he began to explore his new home.
Using his tongue he sniffed the ground and moved cautiously across its surface.
He had to be careful in these unfamiliar territories.
These were new lands, but he could definitely smell female sun skinks in the area.
He then turned to crawl into the darkness of a cave opening, the cave of Smaugette!
I looked around and couldn’t see into the darkness into which he had gone, but just
a few seconds later, I saw a quick commotion in the leaves.
Woah!
What’s that?
I scanned the foliage, and chuckled when I spotted the orange head of the new sun skink
peeking from the back of the vivarium.
Hilarious!
Smaug had chased him out, and I looked back at the cave to see Smaugette standing firm
at the entrance.
“And never come back, you creep!”
Wow!
Seems like Smaugette had some warming up to do!
She dashed right back into her cave, which she wasn’t willing to share with some random
male.
A little frazzled by the encounter, he continued on to explore these new lands.
He began to climb the Hallelujah Tree Stump.
It seems the crickets had a heads up of his ascension as they had all disappeared to hide
from the brand new predator in town.
He decided to station himself up here which had an amazing view of the forest.
He liked it here and I liked seeing him here getting comfy, but he would soon surprise
me with what he was about to do next in the presence of his new female forest mates.
Now speaking of new forest mates, I’ve been thinking long and hard about our second vivarium
that I’ve been wanting to build as an attachment to Pantdora, and I’ve held a few polls to
pick your brains as to which type of biome we’d create as an extension to Pantdora.
So far, it seems the consensus is that either Swamp, Cave, and Canopy being the most popular
choices.
I cover all the options in the last episode, so I won’t go over them again here, but
I do see that there seems to be a split between poll results and the comments.
In the polls, it seems Swamp and Cave are winning, but in the comments it seems Canopy
is winning by a lot!
My issue now is that I have to assess how many of the poll votes are from people who
have not watched the last episode which covers the pros and cons of each biome type and the
possible animals housed in each.
It matters because so many of you mentioned that you switched your votes after watching
the last episode, and the comments all seem to be screaming CANOPY as the next vivarium
attachment.
I decided I would ponder over our options over the next day or so, and have a closer
look at more of your opinions, before letting you all know which biome type I decide for
our second giant ecosystem vivarium.
As I looked up on the moss wall, I spotted Daenerys, our other female sun skink who was
now watching the strange new male who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere.
He was cute, but Daenerys chose to lay still and just watch.
Suddenly, he spotted her, and decided to do something I totally didn’t expect from a
sun skink.
He leaped up and grabbed onto the asparagus ferns hanging from the canopy.
He was now officially up in the vines.
What?!
I didn’t know sun skinks could do this.
They’re ground dwelling lizards, but clearly our male sun skink had some hidden climbing
skills up his sleeve.
I wondered if Daenerys was impressed.
He was now arboreal, with ghost ants running about at his feet.
Suddenly, he began to move, but where could he go now?
Don’t tell me he was about to balance on those thin vines!
I was quite nervous for him as it was a long fall to the bottom.
Daenerys watched barely entertained by his daredevil antics.
He jumped at some nearby fern branches and had suddenly taken on the aura of a tree skink,
a sun skink no more.
Like a masterful Cirque du Soleil performer, he climbed and looked around for his safest
route across the canopy, balancing even on the thinnest of vines to the very top of the
vivarium.
Daenerys expected him to plunge to his death at any moment, but she decided to keep watching.
After hanging there for a bit, he then went on to perform his second death defying trick.
He crawled across the vines carefully, calculating where he would execute his next stunt.
I think his main objective was to get closer and closer to Daenerys, and hopefully check
her out up close, but these were unfamiliar lands, with a strange geometry to say the
least, and then suddenly, bam!
He instantly went from tree skink to spider skink, spider skink!
He hung upside down like a gecko, not knowing where to go next from here.
It was then that I realized that Daenerys, was gone.
She had grown bored and left.
Uh-oh!
Now, how was he going to get down?
I bet he felt real silly right now.
It was then that I decided to name this male sun skink “Drake”.
The next day, I peeked into our chick nest, and our twins were up and ready to go.
I also noticed that they were bigger and had wing feathers already growing in!
They were ready for their first lesson, that a whole new world existed outside the nest.
Using a saucer, full of mashed up hard boiled egg, I began the bonding process by using
my finger to teach them that the egg was ok to feed on, I began to desensitize the baby
birds to the wide expanse that was the outside world.
Eventually they filled up their gizzards and lost interest in the egg, and set off to do
some exploring, but not too far from mom.
Side by side, the twins began to explore the floor of the Ant Room.
Oops!
Gotta clean that up.
After several minutes of exploration, I placed them back into their nest where they crawled
up into a corner and slowly drifted off to sleep.
These chicks would be doing a lot of sleeping over the next few weeks as their growth would
be insanely fast.l, as mentioned.
In terms of diet, they ate a staple of a high quality chick rearing pellet, supplemented
with lots of mealworms which I mixed into their dish every day, and they had a hoot
gobbling up.
Have a look at them feed!
It was amazing to watch the chicks instinctively know to locate the worms’ head, crush it
and render the mealworm immobile before swallowing it down.
Watching them feed on mealworms truly made me understand how dinosaurs eventually evolved
into birds.
Our chicks were well on their way to a healthy life, and I needed them to be.
It did look like one chick was beginning to look bigger than the other, which to me meant
that they were probably male and female, but I won’t be able to tell for sure until they’re
a bit older, and we all know how accurate I am at guessing genders.
But, some of you may be asking, what my plans are for these chickens, and what was I planning
to do with the guinea pigs?
Well, AC Family, I bet the answer to that is not what you’re expecting!
On the forest floor, I spotted a pair of mating millipedes, but the one on the bottom had
just finished a molt, and was still white and hardening.
I mean, you couldn’t wait a bit there, buddy?
Anyway, I also spotted a land planaria, a type of flat worm, which normally I found
gross, but it had actually been over a month since I’d seen one crawling around in our
rainforest.
It seems the cooler temperatures were slowly waking up the planaria population of Pantdora,
which I was actually pleased to see.
But as I was scanning the forest floor and all the new plant life that was beginning
to spring forth from it, I realized that the soil ecosystem has had five months now to
mature and evolve, and judging from its colour, I felt it was time for a rejuvenation of sorts.
You see in nature, the soils are constantly replenishing with nutrients, as foliage falls
to the ground and decays by way of soil creatures, as animals die and decay, and as animals leave
behind various organics and the magic stuff “poop”.
This is why I needed our guinea pigs.
You may be surprised to know that Guinea pig poop is an excellent fertilizer for plants,
as it is classified as “cold” fertilizer, and won’t burn your plants when added fresh
from guinea pigs’ butts, unlike chicken poop which is considered a “hot fertilizer”
and must be aged for several months before being added to plants.
I proceeded to add the fresh guinea pig poop, our great “cold” fertilizer to the forest
floor.
Those beige pellets are leftover pellets that were collected in the tray of their nest,
but they’ll also make great food for our soil creatures and add to the soil’s nutrients.
I also, topped it all off with a fresh layer of leaf litter.
This great mixture would soon release new nutrients into the soils, thereby rejuvenating
it with nitrogen and useful food for the plants.
Now what did I need the chicks for if I wasn’t going to use them for their poop?
Well, it’s not exactly the chicks, I needed.
I need these.
Their discarded egg shells.
I crumbled them up and scattered the pieces all over Pantdora, so they could release some
great calcium and minerals into the soils.
This was key because the calcium would be absorbed by our plants, which would then feed
prey insects, and then pass on the calcium to our predators.
It was amazing to know that we were allowing for more nutrients to enter the system that
was our rainforest in a cool way that Nature had intended.
A few days later, it seemed the extra rains, cooler temperatures, and new nutrients caused
an explosion in plant life.
Our vines were now officially climbing the closest things they could grab in their environment
and would soon be expanding on the network of vines in our canopy.
The new asparagus stalks were thicker and ready to just explode into our rainforest
to add to the greenery.
New ants were making a return to the forest now after being MIA all summer, including
dwarf ants, and members of the Dark Horde, the invasive black crazy ants.
As for Drake, our new male sun skink, he enjoyed life in his new kingdom, as I spotted him
frequently hunting the forest floor, and he eventually made his way to the favourite basking
spot of Smaugette and Daenerys.
I never saw them hanging out together, and I could see the lizards taking shifts at the
basking spot.
When Drake was up there, the others were elsewhere, and when Smaugette or Daenerys were up there,
Drake was hanging out somewhere else, but I knew it would take some time for the females
to warm up to him, which is what happened when I first introduced Smaugette and Daenerys.
If they do end up mating, these sun skinks allegedly give live birth, meaning they totally
forgo the egg laying stage and just give birth to little sun skinks.
That would be very interesting to see and I hoped to see little sun skinks frolicking
our rainforest soon.
You know, I must say, it’s been an honour and privilege to be able to be a witness to
the magnificence of Mother Nature with regards to cycles.
Seeing how Pantdora and all the life within has evolved through the different seasons
has been nothing short of mind boggling.
It reminded me that in life, nothing is permanent, it’s never static, but always dynamic, ever
changing with time.
Whether it be times of famine or times of feast, in life change was the only thing constant,
and I resolved to remember this fact whenever I would feel times were challenging or tough.
Life itself is also a beautiful cycle, and as for the chicks, look at how big they are
today at eleven days old!
Those feet are prehistoric-looking!
Now don’t worry, I won’t be eating these chickens.
I’ll be adding them to my collection of egg-laying chickens, and eating their eggs.
They call chicken eggs nature’s multivitamin, and they’re one of my favourite foods!
As for the skinny pigs, they were growing more and more each day, and were soon very
comfortable with me handling them.
Guinea pigs don’t come from tropical climates.
They originate from the cold mountains of South America, so I also don’t think they
would do well released into our rainforest, but depending on what our next vivarium will
be, I did have some other mammals in mind that we could add to Pantdora’s tropical
system.
Speaking of which, AC Family, after much thought, I’ve finally decided on what biome would
work best as our next ecosystem vivarium.
After carefully looking at all your input, and assessing which of the options was the
most feasible right now, the biome I’ve decided for our next giant ecosystem vivarium
is…
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Happy Mother’s Day!
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