Fauna Thursday: Sheep are lawn care experts; learn more about this invasive bug; beavers get their own conference

Sheep on the White House lawn in 1919. (Photo by Harris & Ewing, Library of Congress via The Washington Post)

Tired of mowing your grass? Consider this: Sheep are lawn care experts. They are gentler grazers than goats or horses, clipping grass tops and nibbling weeds homeowners would like removed. They leave about four inches of the blade: just the right height, says Michigan State University Extension, to maximize root growth and shade out weeds. Any lower, as some lawn companies mow, and the grass will grow even faster to reach the sun, necessitating more mowing.

Michael J. Coren of The Washington Post reports: "'Sheep love the sweet tips of grass, and biodiverse diets like the weeds in your yard' including bittercress, chickweed and onion grass, says Cory Suter, owner of Lamb Mowers, who grew up farming on a Mennonite homestead in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 'That’s a perfect buffet for our sheep.'”

Scientists working to prevent another devasting global avian flu outbreak have found a possible solution. They "used gene editing to identify and change parts of chicken DNA that could limit the spread of the bird flu virus in the animals," reports Norrie Russell of Lancaster Farming. "Researchers were able to restrict — but not completely block — the virus from infecting chickens by altering a small section of their DNA. The birds showed no signs that the change in their DNA had any impact on their health or well-being."

A spotted lanternfly egg mass and
an adult. (USDA photo)

The spotted lanternfly, Lycorma delicatula, has indeed been spotted in multiple states. The invasive pest is a rapacious feeder that can severely affect crops. The insect "feeds on a wide range of fruit, ornamental and woody trees, with tree-of-heaven being one of the preferred hosts," according to the Department of Agriculture. To learn how to spot, report, and prevent infestations, click here.
 

Photo by Braedon McLeod, Unsplash

Busy beavers will be the focus of an upcoming global conservation effort in Oregon, a.k.a, "The Beaver State." Robert Leo Heilman of The Daily Yonder reports: "So, it is appropriate that Canyonville, Oregon, a small town with a population of 1,660 located in the Klamath Mountains of Southern Oregon, is the global locus of efforts to restore beavers throughout their traditional range in the wild. The 2023 State of the Beaver conference (November 13-15, 2023) will draw up to 300 beaver restoration advocates and re-wilding movement activists from all over North America and Europe."

Gerkin-colored sea cucumber
(Nautilus Minerals photo via Hakai)

Just how many undiscovered creatures live in our oceans? Countless as the stars? Maybe. "Nautilus Minerals, a seabed mining company, is tight-lipped about whether Neptune’s expedition across nearly 15 square kilometers of remote seabed revealed the bounty of desirable metals it sought," reports Chris Baraniuk of Hakai magazine. "But the 4,000 photographs, likely the first ever taken in the region, did uncover something else: an array of colorful sea life including a big gray octopus with Dumbo-like ears, pale white anemones, bright orange prawns, and sea cucumbers an appropriate gherkin-shade."