Critters That Glow In The Dark

Luminescent (top) & Fluorescent animals

In Part IV of our All About Color series (June 28, 2020), we discussed the signals exchanged between male fireflies and their female glowworms, and talked about sea creatures that generate their own light (bioluminescence); additionally, we examined some organisms (like scorpions) that show surprising colors under ultraviolet light (fluorescence).  These are areas of study in which exciting things are happening right now and we would like to point out some of the more interesting discoveries.  Some of them have been discovered since that article appeared. (Underlined items link to recent articles.)

For a long time, it was believed that the vast majority of bioluminescent sea creatures spent part or all of their lives in the deepest, darkest parts of the warmer oceans, although some (jellyfish, comb jellies, and some squid) rose to the surface at night before daylight drove them back to the depths during the day.

Lanternfish

As better and better deep sea exploration is done, scientists are seeing more and more sea creatures that glow, either to lure prey into their mouths or to escape predators. Better cameras that can withstand the greater pressures at greater depths showed them some surprising animals glowing right along, in some previously unknown places. For instance, only recently bioluminescent species were found near the sea floor of even the coldest arctic waters.

Newer, stranger, and larger animals have been found.  For example, some squid shoot out a glowing liquid instead of the usual ink in order to confuse predators while the squid escape.  There is at least one squid that changes the color of its luminescence to match moonlight  and sunlight. Translucent skin allows a high level of transmission of light, especially in the blue-green color range. At least three species of sharks found off of the coast of New Zealand are known to light up their undersides with a blue-green glow, which makes them difficult to see. These are not the tiny bottom-feeding sharks, either. They are at least six feet long and inhabit the area of the sea from a depth of 200 meters to one of 2000 meters (650’ to 6500’). This range is sometimes called the Twilight Zone and isn’t as dark as the lightless regions previous known species inhabit. As late as 2020 these sharks were believed to be the largest living vertebrates  capable of luminescence.

 

Bioluminescent shark

But, wait a minute, what about whale sharks?  Whale sharks are huge fish that have skeletons of cartilage instead of bone.  They are filter feeders that swim through the water with their huge mouths open, scooping up plankton, fish eggs, and small fish.  Well, they aren’t bioluminescent; but they ARE fluorescent! It turns out that they have blue dots on their backs that glow green when they are in relatively shallow water. The current theory is that they use the dot patterns to communicate with each other so that they can school together in large groups, either for hunting prey or mating. More work needs to be done on this phenomenon.

Whale shark

Now it is generally conceded that approximately 3/4 of marine life glows to some degree or other, but we are far from understanding all the ways they accomplish this.  Now if we only we had a glowing whale….

When an animal is bio-fluorescent, it is usually because it has taken in a short wavelength of ultraviolet (UV) light and then re-emits it as a longer wavelength of a color from the visible spectrum. There are other ways to do this, but we do not yet really understand them.

Fluorescent coral

Scientists have known for a long time that animals that find food and/or shelter on coral reefs adopt colors or patterns that make them hard to see among the coral occupants (camouflage). However, these creatures themselves can see light wavelengths that we — and the predatory fish that might feed on them — cannot see. This property is known as bio-fluorescence, and does seem to extend to wavelengths longer than just UV.  Most of these animals are relatively small — a few inches long at best. For example, some crustaceans send our light signals when it is mating time. But as scientists began to study such animals, they found larger and larger specimens.

Not so long ago, a supposedly scholarly paper announced that there were no bioluminescent or bio-fluorescent non-flowering plants, amphibians,    reptiles, birds, or mammals. Wrong on all counts.  The amphibians may take the blue ribbon. Of 32 species of frogs, toads, and salamanders studied in 2020, all 32 showed some ability to glow. In 2017 a fluorescent glow-in-the-dark frog was discovered in Argentina. This polka dot tree frog produces a blue-green pigment that has been determined to be bile produced by its bile ducts. It is not yet known whether the dots serve a specific function, are non-functional, or are structural colors made by layers of clear materials.  We discussed structural color in a previous post. 

 

Chameleon & Gecko

Reptiles are just beginning to be studied for bio-fluorescence.  So far chameleons and geckos have been found to glow in the dark. Some have such translucent skin that even their bones are seen to glow.  In 2016 researchers looking for fluorescent corals came across a fluorescent sea turtle.  Bear in mind that the ancestors of these animals lived as long ago as the dinosaurs. It might tell us something if dinosaur fossil bones and teeth are studied to see if they had any glowing properties.  And yes, such properties can sometimes be detected in very old specimens — especially if they were buried soon after death.

Puffins in mating colors

 

Birds may be the hardest to study because they are difficult to track in flight, but we know parakeets, eagles, herons, owls, puffins, and some penguins are already on the list. Some of these birds are nocturnal hunters.  Others migrate long distances and rest overnight on land or water.  The ability to glow could break up their silhouettes and confuse nighttime hunters. Some, like the puffins, have showy beaks during the mating season and these have glowing parts. Fluorescent bird feathers would likely be significant in mating rituals.

Springhare

There are already a number of placental mammals on the list and more being found all the time.  The numbers indicate that they may be much more widespread than we thought.  I wish that I had known that there were three species of flying squirrels (two of these have undersides that glow pink under black light) here in the U.S. long ago when my sister-in-law was raising them. So far my favorite glow-in the-dark mammal is the Springhare, a sweet little animal from Africa, very rare — only 2 species are known.  It looks like it has a short-eared bunny head on the body of a tiny pouch-less kangaroo. 

 

Echidna

The most recent shock was that not only was an unusual animal capable of glowing, but that it may have been doing so for an EXTREMELY long time!The animal is the platypus, an almost-mammal belonging with the echidna in a group called  monotremes.  These animals are members of an ancient group that have warm blood and fur, but lay eggs.  Once the babies hatch, a milk-like substance oozes from the parent's body to feed the young.  The echidna has a body which is covered with sharp spikes. Examination with an ultra-violet detector shows that when the animal crouches down on its nest those spikes glow a bright white. Not something a predator is likely to put in its mouth!

Next in line come the marsupials whose newborn, while in a very tiny, "unfinished" state,  has to crawl up the mother's fur to her pouch and fasten itself to a nipple.  Eventually it begins to spend some time outside the pouch, but still returns to it for some months. It had been known for years that the pouched American opossum could glow, but no one cared to investigate further. So it should not have been such a shock to find that the wombat, the bush-tailed possum, the koala, and the bandicoot could glow. Now we can tentatively add the Tasmanian Devil.  Museum specimens may be able to tell us about the extinct Tasmanian Wolf and Tiger.

Bandicoot & Tasmanian Devil

There is enough work here to keep both professionals and amateur scientists busy for years.  Yes, you read that correctly. While the search for new bio-luminescent creatures is usually the province of of professionals requiring cutting edge technology, bio-fluorescence needs much simpler and relatively inexpensive equipment and training to find — it seems that until recently, it just hadn’t occurred to anybody to take a serious look at the phenomenon! (And if there isn't a company out there making UV flashlights 24 hours a day, they are missing a trick!  This is fun everyone can get in on!)

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

The ‘Escences' of Light: All About Color, Part IV

Peacock feather earrings

Yes, I know that "essences" is spelled with three S's, but that is not what we are featuring today. I want to discuss the subjects of iridescence, pearlescence, opalescence, luminescence, phosphorescence and fluorescence. We touched on these topics when we discussed structural color and observed iridescence in a peacock feather and a butterfly's wings (August 14, 2019 post). Now I want to treat iridescence and its related phenomena in greater detail.

Soap bubble

Iridescence is an optical phenomenon that appears  when certain substances seem to change colors as the viewer changes the angle of observation, or the angle of light changes. You have seen it on the surface of a soap bubble. feathers, insect wings, oil slicks on wet pavement and the insides of some seashells. Often the effect is the result of structural color caused by microstructures in the material that interfere with the direction of light rays. The word iridescent comes from the Greek word iris, which means "rainbow" and the Latin word escent which means "having a tendency toward". (Learn more about the origin of the word in our April 27, 2020 post.)

Oil slick on wet asphalt

The thickness of the layers of the iridescent materials influences the pattern of light interference. Thin films like oil slick or soap bubbles are most likely to produce temporary iridescence. In an oil slick, the different colors indicate different thicknesses in the layers of oil.

Hummingbird photos by J.J.

More permanent effects are caused by many layers of structure like those in a hummingbird's feathers, the scales of a butterfly's wing, or the layers of nacre in an abalone shell. The range of colors in natural iridescence may be narrow, shifting between only 2 or 3 colors, or as wide as the whole visible spectrum. The rainbow colors require quite elaborate arrangements of micro-structure.  A few minerals show this kind of iridescence. One of the most startling places to find the effect is from the iridescent scales on the abdomens of tiny male peacock spiders from Australia. This is easily mistaken as a threat display, but it is really part of an elaborate courtship routine. And he had better do it right or the female will kill and eat him! (You can see his performance on You Tube or BBC).

We can create artificial iridescence with diffraction, which in this case refers to the spreading of light around an obstacle or forcing it through a small opening, creating an interference effect.  We see the affects of this in DVDs, CD's, smart phones with iridescent back panels, and glitter nail polish.

Mother-of-pearl inside shell

Pearlescence is an effect related to iridescence where some or all of the reflected light is white and iridescent effects produce rainbow colors. The term pearlescence is used to describe the situation when a structure within a surface causes light to be reflected back, but some or all of the light that is reflected back is white light. However, pearls can be many colors besides white — pink, blue, green, gold, grey or rainbow-colored. Artificial pearlescence can be made with certain pigments and paints. This effect is largely used in the automobile industry.  Pearlescent paints and finishes can be found in craft paints and nail polishes, as well.

Fresh water pearl jewelry

Natural pearls occur in the soft bodies, or mantles, of mollusks like oysters and some species of freshwater mussels. The pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in response to the presence of an irritating intruder in the shell. Most people believe that the irritant is a grain of sand, but it is far more likely to be a parasite. A sort of allergic reaction by the mollusk causes a pearl sac to close around the intruder.  Tiny crystals are deposited around the sac in layer after layer. This process goes on as long as the mollusk is alive. Perfect pearls are round, but pearls come in many shapes, depending upon the shape of the irritant inside. Irregularly-shaped pearls are called baroque pearls. Cultured pearls are "grown" at pearl farms where small particles are inserted into the mollusks' bodies. In this way the size and shape of the resultant pearl can be controlled.

Opalescence is an optical phenomenon displayed by the gemstone opal. This is due to the layering, spacing, and size of the many crystals of silicon dioxide, in the form of microscopic spheres, and the included water and/or air in their microscopic structures. When the sizing and spacing of the spheres is small, refracted blue-green colors are prevalent, sometimes with flecks of other colors.  This is precious opal. You can see it in the opal set into the head of this silver fish pin. The dark spot in the "eye" is a bit of stone around which the opal formed.

Precious (top) & common white opals

When the sizing and spacing of the molecules is somewhat larger, the colors yellow, orange, and red appear. This kind of gem is called fire opal. When the sizing and spacing is larger still, a milky, hazy sheen of light appears within the stone. This material is called common opal.  Exposure to heat can cause the water in the stone to break down and the fire and glow disappears. The stone is said to 'die'. During the Bubonic Plague, this effect was seen when the wearers fell prey to the extremely high fevers that the disease caused. Because people at that time did not understand diseases very well, the opals were sometimes blamed for the wearers' deaths. It became a forbidden gem and didn't regain its popularity until the 20th Century.

Honduran black opal

Opal can be found as inclusions in many different minerals. It can form in wood which later becomes petrified. It has also been found in fossil shell and bone. It is a fairly soft material, which is often "sandwiched" between a layer of dark stone, to reflect more of its brilliance, and a hard, clear quartz to protect it from wear.  It needs to be protected from heat, and opal rings or bracelets should never be worn while washing dishes.

Phosphorescent pigment before & after 'charging'

Phosphorescence occurs when the phosphorescent material is "charged" by exposure to light — usually ultraviolet light. Then the energy that has built up is stored for a period of time and released slowly.  Some minerals, including some diamonds, are naturally phosphorescent. Oddly, phosphorus, for which the phenomenon was named, is not one of them. These materials can sometimes be activated by body heat or by being vigorously rubbed. When the energy is released immediately after exposure to light, the phenomenon is called fluorescence. The study of phenomena like this led to the discovery of radioactivity in 1896.  There are practical applications, such as fluorescent lights and items like clocks that glow in the dark.

Scorpion fluoresces under UV light

Incandescent steel

Luminescence, sometimes called cold-body radiation, is a spontaneous emission of light from a substance that is not caused by heat.  It can be caused by electrical energy, chemical reaction, sub-atomic motion or stress on a crystal. This distinguishes it from incandescence, which is light being emitted by a substance that is being heated. For example, a fireplace poker left in the fire too long might begin to glow.

Luminescence has some interesting practical uses. Some examples are: lasers, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), dosimeters to detect harmful radiation, luminol to detect the presence of blood at a crime scene, and photoluminescence used in microbial diagnosis.  That last use is playing a part in the current fight against corona virus and other causes of deadly epidemics.

Fireflies (30 second exposure)

Bioluminescence is, to me, the most fascinating ‘escence’ of them all. It is light emitted from living organisms.  One summer night long ago I was riding around on dark rural roads with some college friends. Suddenly we saw an area ahead of us that was glowing and pulsing. We stopped, climbed over a fence, crossed a field and reached a tree-shaded place by a creek. On the ground were hundreds of small bodies flashing yellow, green, and a reddish light, more or less in unison. None of us had ever seen glowworms, but we realized that was what they were. Glowworms are the females of some species of fireflies (which we called "lightning bugs"). Their heads and eyes mature to adulthood, but their bodies remain in the larval state — unable to fly. We knelt down to watch. After a few minutes, we became aware of smaller pulsing lights overhead. The males had arrived. They flew intricate back-and-forth patterns before dropping down to mate with their choices of females. As mating progressed, the females went dark and the males flew away. They may have been an unnamed species, because they rarely flash red and the males are supposed to attract the females — not the other way around.  We walked in awed silence back to the car, aware that we had experienced something rare and wonderful.

Bioluminescent comb jellies

You may have recently seen film of surfers riding glowing waves at night along the California coast. The light was caused by algae in the water, disturbed by the rolling waves. It is a charming sight, but not a welcome one for scientists. The algae use up much of the oxygen in the water. If they stay around very long, this causes harm to the beds of giant kelp in the water, along with all the marine life that lives in their shelter. This can also be harmful to migrating marine animals like whales and dolphins.

Bioluminescent sea creatures

Most bioluminescent animals live in the sea. Exceptions are the fireflies, some earthworms, and a few cave species that use luminescence to attract prey. Click beetles use flashes of light when in flight to attract mates, but they also flock together on the ground and appear to use the lights as a warning signal there. Some fungi are luminous, perhaps to attract animals that will carry some of the fungal spores away with them.  Bacteria may be luminescent. Many organisms produce their own light, but others harbor luminous bacteria in various parts of their bodies.

In the ocean, particularly at great depths, many — perhaps most — animals have some luminous features. As we develop better and better instruments to send back information on sea-floor dwellers, we are seeing some wild and wonderful luminous species. Animals use luminosity for a number of reasons. An obvious one is to identify mates of the correct species and attract them.  A sudden flash of light to confuse or startle a predator comes in handy.  Being able to mimic another animal — particularly one that is poisonous or just tastes bad — is a distinct advantage.

Angler fish (public domain illustration)

A marine animal that spends a lot of time close to the surface, like a firefly squid, may have luminous organs on the underside of its body that break up its outline and allow it to appear to be part of the surface waves. The angler fish dangles a luminous lure above and in front of its huge mouth to collect unwary prey. His stomach stretches so much that he can eat animals that are nearly as big as he is!  Some sea creatures use clouds of luminescent bacteria the same way the octopus uses ink — to provide a "smokescreen" while making a quick getaway. Animals that regularly eat luminous prey usually have opaque black stomachs. After all, it doesn't pay to advertise your last meal to a predator who might make you its next one!!

I hope you have enjoyed our excursion into the ‘escences’.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Earth Day 2019: An Open Letter from Annake, J.D., & J.J.

Dear Readers,

Welcome to Earth Day, 2019.

Annake:  In 1967 I was teaching science in a secondary school not far from Washington, D.C. I was privileged to work on a committee that developed a mandate to include the Earth Sciences — Astronomy, Geology, Meteorology and Oceanography — in science education for grade levels K through 12 all across the United States.  We also developed standards for the most important topics to be taught at the various levels. We did a massive amount of research for this project. Much of what we learned, particularly in meteorology and oceanography, we found very distressing. We agreed that much more attention needed to be paid to climate change, air pollution, water pollution, ocean pollution and vanishing species. Our program was approved. Many publishers vied to make good textbooks for the program. I still have a couple of those "first edition" textbooks.

We put the program to work the following year. Quite a number of our students were interested in the issues we raised and went on to take follow-up courses in college. A few even chose one of those fields for his or her profession. Unfortunately, not enough people listened to us or to the scientists whose work we respected and described. That was more than half a century ago. These are not new issues.

... and Oceanography

Now hardly a day passes that we don't see pictures of some large-scale disaster or hear cautions about new ones yet to come — some of them in the very near future. We assumed that the Earth had such riches that we could exploit them forever. We thought that the oceans were so huge and so deep that nothing that we did to them would make any difference. We imagined that huge numbers of species of plants and animals could go extinct and it wouldn't matter to us.  Well, we were wrong!

Kaibab Squirrel

I don't have grandchildren. If I did, I would be worried that their children would not know the beautiful creatures of the Rocky Mountain West (much less those of the rest of the world) except from the pictures that I, their great-grandmother had drawn for them. They might never know the joy of watching a young eagle swoop and dive, riding the thermals just for fun. Or see a native trout swim up through clear water to snatch a fly from the surface. Or see a family of mountain goats dash nimbly down a steep rock face. Or see Kaibab squirrels frisking along the rim of Grand Canyon.

I cannot fight on all the ecological fronts, but I have chosen to use my art, my writing, and my voice to support efforts to protect, preserve, and propagate the wonderful creatures we still have around us.  That is my Earth Day promise.

ANNAKE

Rocky Mountain Bighorn, needlepoint by Annake

J.D.:  In the early 1970’s, I spent a year taking classes on one of the University of Colorado campuses. Two courses stand out in my memory: Environmental Economics and Biogeochemical Cycles. In the first, we ran cost-benefit analyses on the pluses and minuses of various environmental policies. In the latter class we examined the interaction between all of those systems and cycles we were exposed to in high school science classes – like the Krebs cycle, or the eleven-year cycle of sunspot activity.

A half-century after completing those classes, two conclusions have stuck with me: first, when you stack simple systems one on top of the other, and then hook them together, things get very complicated and hard to predict. Second, when it comes to building, maintaining, and modifying complex systems that are robust, redundant, and efficient, Nature does an infinitely better job than humans.

So, when it came time to make an appeal to preserve and conserve the ecology of this planet and the multitude of endangered species we share it with, I decided I would simply speak to your self-interest.

Wood Frog

Amphibians — frogs, toads, and salamanders — as an order are under massive threat of extinction. Species after species are suffering huge population losses, and we don’t understand why in a lot of cases. Why should we care about a bunch of small, slimy, cold-blooded creatures? They aren’t a potential food source, they aren’t cute and cuddly, most of them aren’t even pretty. Why should we spend our limited resources on trying to save them when other things demand our immediate attention?

Many amphibians can regrow lost limbs and we don’t know yet how they do it. Researchers are racing to learn all they can before their study subjects disappear. Many species of amphibians estivate: they survive in a state of “suspended animation” through extended periods of extreme climate conditions with minimal signs of life, then miraculously emerge when conditions improve. You don’t have to stretch your imagination very far to see the medical benefits to you, personally, of being able to regrow a lost or damaged limb or survive a crisis in suspended animation.

Endangered Buckwheat

Let's consider plants. There is an extremely threatened type of wild buckwheat in western Colorado that grows in alkaline clay, a notoriously tough soil to get anything to grow in. Buckwheat is a good food plant (just try some buckwheat pancakes, they’re delicious) and this particular variety of plant has been observed hosting over fifty different pollinator species, which local crops may depend on with the spread of honeybee diseases.

Hummingbird Moth, a pollinator native to Colorado

Endangered Milk Vetch

Also in our region of the state there are two highly endangered species of milk vetch, an unlovely name for a pretty ordinary-looking plant. Vetches are members of the pea family, so they fix nitrogen in the soil to keep it fertile. One of these species also concentrates selenium in its parts. Selenium is an important micro-nutrient that is essential for people in small doses, but harmful in higher concentrations — fish from many impoundments in Colorado are inedible due to selenium from agricultural runoff. Milk vetches are members of the genus Astralagus, the same sort of plants as what’s in the herbal supplement section in your grocery store. It's been used for centuries to treat a variety of human ills. Who knows what medical benefits we might miss out on if these plants are lost.

There you have my argument for supporting endangered species preservation: no blaming, no fuzzy New Age philosophy, no moral arguments; just cold, simple logic. Your ability to grow food, treat your ills and injuries, have safe water to drink, even air to breathe, could depend on plants and animals that are close to being gone forever. We need to save these organisms and every one that we can of thousands more because our very existence may depend on them.  We don’t know nearly enough to replace them or bring them back when they’re gone.

J.D.

J.J.:  Greetings to the readers of Cuttings from Annake’s Garden.  I'm J.J. I'm so pleased to make your acquaintance. I understand that you have "met" me through some of my photographs. Thank you for your positive comments about them. Positivity is very important to me. Like Annake and J.D., I am a blogger. Since this is Earth Day, it seems like the perfect time to tell you about my work and to explain why I do it.

Meerkat

After I became discouraged with seeing all the negative posts on Facebook™, I made a commitment to share only Positive posts on my Timeline, letting it be known that my Timeline needed to be a place anyone could come to, from teen to great grandparents; knowing they would not have to see negativity, but instead be uplifted by Positive shares. That was when I created Facebook™ Critter Friends (FBCF).  ("Critter" is simply a term of endearment encompassing all animals, including our pets.) It did not start off with a bang, as it was not your typical project. It was NOT a charity, nor a fundraiser, you were NOT expected to go out and adopt a pet. In fact, you needn't even have a pet, as this was about the love of critters and the fact that anyone could participate. It confused people as they thought there must be a catch. However, the only stipulation to participate in FBCF was (and is) to change your profile picture to that of a pet or critter for one day.

Cheetah cubs

The FB Critter Friends Albums belong to everyone who has participated, by having a critter as their profile picture. Some critters are wild and funny, some are sentimental, perhaps a share of a beloved pet who has passed over the Rainbow Bridge. I've invited artists and photographers, thinking what a positive way to showcase their work. The result is not only the Critter albums, it is much, much more! We have an awesome group of loving, caring people, who may not use the same spoken language, yet understand the universal language of respect and love of our Critter Friends. If you are a positive person, who promises to share with no negativity towards animals, you are a perfect FB Critter Friend.

"Are You Nuts?", photo by J.J.

I work on many albums daily. Humans and critters are similar in surprising and wonderful ways. We have a Rainbow Bridge album where we recognize our beloved pets who have gone on before us. We have albums which show kids and critters, different species who get along just fine, older humans and critters, a black and white album, as well as a colorful critter album. There are some informative albums, fantasy albums, oceanic critters, butterflies. My favorites are the ones that make people smile.

Endangered Lemur

I do see more Positive signs in the treatment of critters and the attitudes toward them. More people than ever are concerned about endangered species all over the world. There are more and more groups working to help those displaced by natural disasters and to find them Forever Homes. Scientists are really studying how critters do the amazing things they do and are even using what they have learned to make people's lives better. For example, look at all the dogs and others that have become service animals. People pledge more money for rescue and adoption efforts. Zoos are no longer just for entertainment, but now serve as educational institutions and places where endangered species are not only protected, but also able to grow their numbers so that someday they can, hopefully,  be returned to the wild.

The goal, of course, is to teach people to love and respect critters. There is so much to learn from them.  And new species are being discovered and identified all the time. My goal is to help educate so that generations from now, the critters we learn to love will no longer make lists for endangered or extinct species. I, for one, cannot imagine a world without critters.

 J.J.

Best Wishes to all of you, for a Happy Earth Day!

Picture Credits: All needlepoint, drawings, and other artwork are by Annake (photos by J.D.);  "Geology" photo by J.D.                                   Wood Frog courtesy of National Parks Service;  Buckwheat and Milk Vetch photos courtesy of USFWS 
 All other photos by J.J.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Creatures of Sea and Shore: Seascapes, Part V

Pelicans 3, photo by J.J.

Probably nothing increases the interest of a seascape design more than adding the image of a live sea creature to it. This may be something small like the seagull and fish I showed you in my tongue-in-cheek picture called "Seafood Surprise". It may even be as elementary as a few seabirds, each indicated by a vaguely V-shaped line. On the other hand, the animal may dominate the design, using the sea simply as background. Think of a hump-backed whale rising out of the water. In this issue, we will be featuring marine life in needle arts, art prints, and photographs, beginning with this photograph by J.J.  While these pelicans do not live in the sea, they certainly depend upon it for their survival. Their species has been sustaining itself this way for a very long time and their bodies have been modified to do so in the most efficient manner.

Tropical fish needlepoint by Annake

Fish, of course are the elemental sea creatures and come in a seemingly endless variety of shapes and colors.  The fish that live around coral reefs are especially colorful. Some, like seahorses and sea dragons, are so surprising and unlikely-looking that they seem to have been designed by Walt Disney! Others are so well camouflaged that you hardly notice them at all. If you would rather portray living animals than true seascapes, you can't go wrong with fish. They can carry a composition by themselves, with just a watery background to set the stage.

Colorful fish design for upcoming needle arts projects

Many fish are sleek and streamlined. These inspire me to do stylized and even semi-abstract designs.  This one made me think of doing a project in reverse applique because of its black over-all shape and vivid areas of color. I still intend to use the design in that way, but decided to sketch it on canvas and do it in continental stitch first. Sometime later I will cut the outline out of black felt and applique the colored areas from the back (a technique called reverse applique) vivid scraps of silk and satin. Then I will applique the whole construction onto a watery-looking fabric and frame it or make it into a pillow or wall hanging. Use these links to see a pair of these finished fish designs. [Links to the fighting fish and goldfish] We will show both styles of needlework in future posts.

Photo by J.J.

Fish are not easy to photograph in the water, but J.J. was patient and  "caught" this one lurking just under the surface.  It would be relatively easy to add one like it to either a saltwater scene or a lake shore composition.

It is easy to be interested in — and even concerned about — animals like dolphins and cuddly sea otters, but J.D. was adamant that I include some of the creatures who are far less like us, but just as interesting and beautiful in their own ways.  J.J. was able to creep up behind this little fellow while his stalked eyes were looking the other way.  Just look at the intricate construction of his body and the delicacy of his coloring. Isn't he wonderful?

Crab photo by J.J.

Sea turtle print by Annake

Here is a sketch of a sea turtle that I made long ago in the tropics and which we have made into a print. Sadly, all sea turtles are endangered now. I always thought of this one as a male, swimming through a bed of kelp and sea grass.
From the day they hatch, the males spend their entire lives at sea. The mature females travel huge distances and undergo great physical struggles to return to the beaches where they hatched and lay their eggs.

J.J. found this shy little octopus hiding in a very shallow tide pool, waiting patiently for the next tide. They can remain out of water for a surprisingly long time and even travel over land for short distances. They are very intelligent and can solve puzzles. As anyone who has tried to keep one in an aquarium can tell you, they are "escape artists" who make Harry Houdini look like an amateur!

Octopus photo by J.J.

Sea Otter

Now let's look at some of those warm-blooded sea mammals that we respond to more readily. Here are three who spend most of their time in the ocean, but come on shore occasionally to rest or to deliver and care for their babies. Who doesn't like a cuddly-looking sea otter?

Galapagos Sea Lions

This is a mother sea lion with her pup. You can tell that they are not seals because they have small external ears, while seals do not.  I wanted to use this print to make a point about horizons. When a horizon is very low, as this one is, it makes any figure in front of it — whether person, animal, or rock — look larger and more imposing. In this picture, the sea, while important to the setting, can be very simple and understated. The sea lions have very streamlined bodies and are a good choice if you are just starting to draw animals for your compositions.  Or you can easily cut out their shapes from a photograph if you prefer.

Walrus

All right, so he was grumpy and probably didn't want to pose for his portrait. Not even animals in zoos or wildlife sanctuaries always enjoy close attention from we strange two-legged creatures who want to sketch or photograph them.  Fortunately a good long lens allows one to get a good image without getting too close to the grumpy ones. I think he shows a lot of character, impressive teeth (the Inuit call walruses "tooth-walkers" because they use their tusks to haul themselves out of the water and up steep slopes), and a really great mustache!

We hope you have enjoyed this post as much as we three enjoyed putting it together for you.

This is the last article in the Seascape series, at least for now. We may ‘re-visit’ it from time to time. Look for an article on Skyscapes sometime in May.

J.D., J.J., and

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.