Great Horned Owl: The Tiger with Wings

The only thing scarier than a tiger is a tiger with wings. That’s the nickname of the fearsome bird of prey, the great horned owl. With its glaring yellow eyes, horn-like feather tufts, and high-pitched screeches, you can understand why it’s so frightening. These terrifying birds of prey are found throughout the continental United States, as well as in Alaska. Like most other owls, the great horned owl is nocturnal, spending its nights awake in search of prey.

Great horned owls are one of North America’s largest owl species, however, they only average about three to four pounds. They make up for their size by being great hunters and having very few predators. Their sense of hearing is so acute that they can detect a mouse stepping on a twig from a distance of 75 feet (23 meters). This owl is one of the very few animals that will hunt skunks, and they may eat more than 4,000 mice and other rodents per year!

The majority of their diet consists of mice, voles, rabbits, and other small mammals. Their flight feathers have such soft edges that they allow them to fly virtually silently and ambush prey, feeding on hawks, crows, waterfowl, and other birds, including smaller owls. To make things even spookier, the great horned owls are rarely even seen due to their nocturnal habits and excellent camouflage.

Crows: The Mega Murder

Spine-tingling omens of death, or just misunderstood? Crows’ association with death and darkness may stem in part from their reputation as scavengers. They could sometimes be seen circling around battlefields and cemeteries, so people imagined that a lurking “murder” of crows, as their groups were named, meant that someone nearby would die soon. But other than easily accessible roadkill, crows actually eat very little carrion overall , as their beaks are too dull to break through the skin of most animals. 

It’s not just what crows eat that scares people though, it’s also their uncanny intelligence and behaviors—from their ability to memorize and recognize human faces, to using tools to scavenge for food, to even holding crow “funerals.” This is where the birds will gather around a dead crow and make loud “scolding” sounds for 15-20 minutes, in what researchers have discovered to be a method for crows to determine the cause of death and spread news of danger to others.

Perhaps the scariest sight of all is when crows congregate in large roosts together over late fall and winter in murders of a few hundred up to even two million crows. As cities have grown larger and more widespread across the country, these massive groups have begun to move into urban areas—which in Minneapolis, MN, residents have dubbed their annual “mega-murder.” While crow sightings probably don’t foreshadow death and despair, these little goths are perfect to celebrate in our spookiest season.

Black Vultures: Scary Scavengers

Vultures—scraggly-looking, corpse-eating, bald buzzards—are pretty metal. But even more metal? The black vulture (Coragyps atratus). Black vultures live in the southeastern United States, and their range extends through Mexico into South America. They are found in Mayan hieroglyphics and codices, often as a symbol of death, and Mayan texts describe how they will pluck out the eyes and intestines of their prey first. Spooky!

Like most vultures, black vultures primarily feed on carrion, but they will kill and eat the young of other animals as well. While feeding on rotting animal carcasses sounds like something out of a slasher flick, this gruesome behavior actually helps clean up dead animals from the environment and prevent the spread of disease and bacteria.

Black vultures have a worse sense of smell than turkey vultures, so they will wait for turkey vultures to locate “fresh” meat, and then swoop in and feast—fighting off any turkey vultures in the process.

A stomach-churning fun fact—vultures have extremely strong stomach acids to digest their specific diet, and when threatened, they will vomit up this harsh, stinging acid on their attacker as a defense. This tactic seems to work well, as adult vultures have few natural predators!

Common Loon: Will Seal Your Doom

The common loon’s beady little red eyes mean evil dwells within them, right? Surely they are the spawn of the devil herself. Not to mention their eerie bird calls that sound like something straight out of a horror movie and send shivers down your spine. Listen below while you read their tales of woe!

Loons are masters of the outfit change, as their feathers transition from a tuxedo-like black and white color scheme during warmer months to a softer gray and white during the winter months. 

These demon-like water birds are found breeding on lakes surrounded by forests in Canada and the northern United States, including Alaska. In the winter they migrate from northern lakes to coastal ocean waters. Mainly built to live in the water, loons have solid bones (as opposed to the hollow bones of most flying birds) that help them swim underwater to catch their prey. They typically stay close to the water’s edge but only come ashore to nest.

As for their red eyes filled with ill intent, this trait is actually thought to potentially help loons locate prey more effectively while submerged. They can eat quite a lot, too: biologists estimate that loon parents and their two chicks can eat about a half-ton of fish over a 15-week period.

Bloodthirsty for more spooky content? Read last year’s Halloween blog about wildlife-inspired horror movie icons.

It makes sense then that the monsters from our horror films would be inspired by the wildlife who might’ve hunted us just thousands of years ago. Although most people aren’t in any real danger from venomous spiders and snakes, these fears live on as ghosts in our central nervous system – and in our horror films. From mind-controlling fungi to carnivorous predators, we’re taking a look at the wildlife that inspired some classic horror monsters.

Designed as a mix between an organic and mechanical creature, the xenomorph has been frightening audiences for nearly fifty years. The creature itself is an amalgamation of several different species – primarily from terrestrial and marine wildlife.

Pharyngeal jaws from moray eels: Pharyngeal jaws are a “second set” of jaws contained within an animal’s throat, or pharynx, distinct from the primary or oral jaws. While most bony fish have them, moray eels have muscles that are more like bungee-jumping cords, giving them the special ability to sling their pharyngeal jaws forward and backward. Moray teeth are sharp and curved, helping them hold onto large prey—other fishes, octopods, squids, and crabs. 

“Acid” from bombardier beetle: In Aliens, the xenomorph is able to offensively spray acid on its targets and although we don’t know what chemical it uses – we do have a real life acid spitter among us: the bombardier beetle. It lives in nearly every continent on earth and is most notable for their ability to shoot a boiling, corrosive substance at predators. 

Facehugger is a horseshoe crab: Its design has been unchanged for over 450 million years – making it an ancient alien in and of itself. They use their chelicerae—a pair of small appendages—for moving food into the mouth. Their diet mostly consists of small clams, crustaceans, and worms. But in the Aliens universe, it also includes humans.

Although they may look similar, horseshoe crabs couldn’t be more different from their fictional counterparts. Horseshoe crabs live in the ocean, can’t jump, and are harmless to humans. Instead of taking lives, their uniquely colored, bright-blue blood is used to research and produce life-saving antibiotics. 

It may seem obvious, but the actual inspiration for Dracula is not as clear as you might think – some say the author was inspired by the infamous murders of Vlad the Impaler, while others speculate that he was inspired by the Hungarian serial killer, Elizabeth Báthory. The real source, however, has already been overlooked – the original vampire had been lurking in the jungles of Latin America for over 26 million years when their discovery made national headlines as the first-ever bloodsucking mammal: the vampire bat. 

While the author, Bram Stoker, was working on his novel, he found a clipping of a New York newspaper about vampire bats – which became the inspiration for the plot of Dracula. Stoker did not research the actual behavior of vampire bats, and wrote them off as malevolent demons but this could not be further from reality. While he was right in that vampire bats hunt at night and feed on mammalian blood (though feeding on humans is exceedingly rare and harmless) – similar to Dracula – he overlooked their kind and highly social nature! 

Vampire bats will often start their blood hunts alone, but always return home to the roost and share their meals – generously feeding bats who were unsuccessful in their hunts. These bats are also selective in who they share dinner with, meaning they seem to have friends, acquaintances, and bats who they tend to avoid. All this to say, a real vampire would be more likely to host lavish feasts with close friends than live alone in a Transylvanian mansion.

In Jaws, Bruce actively seeks out humans and hunts them down – a massive waste of energy for any real great white shark in the wild. Let’s take a look at the largest great white shark in living history – Deep Blue. Despite being similar in size to Bruce, she has been filmed calmly approaching divers, even allowing free diver and model Ocean Ramsey, to hold on to one of her fins while swimming with her. 

In fact, fatal encounters are so rare, more people win the lottery every year than are killed by sharks. In the United States, only 24 people have been killed by sharks since 2000. Regardless, the public perception of sharks has devastated the shark population since the film’s release. So much so, that Steven Spielberg himself has expressed regret about making the film: “I truly, and to this day, regret the decimation of the shark population because of the book and the film.” 

Instead of simply creating zombies, the studio responsible for the Last of Us decided to create a new type of infected creature for viewers to experience that hadn’t been seen before, one that is taken over by a fungal infection instead of a virus or bacteria. Unfortunately, this fungal infection is very real – just not among humans. 

Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, also known as the “zombie ant fungus”, does this very thing to unsuspecting carpenter ants all across the jungles of Latin America. Curiously, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis does not affect the brain directly – it takes over the ants’ muscles and uses its body like a walkie-talkie to communicate with each other and influence the brain from afar. Once an infection is underway, the neurons in the ant’s body—the ones that give its brain control over its muscles—start to die. If this is right, then the ant ends its life as a prisoner in its own body. Its brain is still in the driver’s seat, but the fungus has the wheel. 

Similarly to the infected carpenter ants, clickers become disfigured from their infection. But unlike carpenter ants, after several years of infection, clickers lose their eyesight and rely on echolocation to communicate and find prey. The voice actors took inspiration from dolphins to create a language for the clickers that’s unique to each individual, simulating the communication happening in a family pod of dolphins. 

Test your knowledge to see how well you know bats, one of the natural world’s unsung heroes. You’ll learn they are not as spooky as they seem, they are actually important pollinators and insect-eating omnivores. From pollinating native plants to eating their weight in blood-sucking mosquitoes; they help make our outdoors (and homes) a safer and better place.

It turns out that the spooky mythologies surrounding these creatures are long-standing traditions that were developed from ancient humans’ understanding, or fear, of the natural world. This year, we are taking the opportunity to delve a little deeper into the strange stories of how these four groups of wildlife—bats, owls, toads, and crows and ravens—have become integral parts of our horror culture over the course of thousands of years. 

Bats: A Tradition of Fear 

Of all wildlife species, bats seem to be most intensively associated with Halloween; and for good reason— bats have been a symbol of the holiday since its origins. Given their tendency to gather in the autumn before migration and hibernation, swarms of bats are a common sight during dusk this time of year.  

Halloween as we know it was thought to have stemmed from an ancient Celtic festival called Samhain (pronounced saw-wen), meaning ‘Summer’s End.’ During this time, the decaying of the land and oncoming darkness of winter was thought to evoke spirits from nearby ancient burial mounds. 

To ward off those vengeful spirits, the Celts built huge, symbolically regenerative bonfires to invoke the help of the gods. These massive light sources attracted swarms of insects at night, which in turn attracted hunting bats. These opportunistic bats, swooping near the fire and capturing an insect before darting away, were interpreted to be the spirits of the dead which would only be scared off by their gods’ divine fire.  

Christianity heavily influenced our views on bats during the Middle Ages. In the Bible, the bat is depicted as an inherently unclean animal unfit for consumption, perhaps because bat roosts can develop a layer of guano, or feces, on the floor which was rightfully associated with illness. But it was Dante’s Inferno, a 700-year old epic medieval poem, that solidified bats as an allegory for the devil and his domain. Dante’s still-famous poem described Devil’s wings as looking similar to those of a bat. 

Associating with bats quickly became linked with witchcraft, an offense punishable by death. Even nobility could not avoid this association; a French noblewoman, Lady Jacaume of Bayonne, was burned to death simply because crowds of bats frequented her garden. In reality, those bats were likely taking advantage of the insects drawn to her flowers.  

More recently, the author Bram Stoker added more fuel to the fire when he published Dracula in 1897. Dracula was described as a monstrous blood-sucking vampire that could transform himself into a bat. Stoker was inspired by real vampire bats, which feed on the blood of vertebrate animals—but they feed on wildlife and livestock, not on humans, and only drink a tiny amount of blood which leaves their hosts basically unharmed. And their victims don’t turn into vampires! 

Owls: Soul Birds of Antiquity 

Owls, like bats, are flying creatures of the night. But unlike bats, owls boast a more complicated mythos containing two conflicting depictions of the creature: one as a wise, helpful mystic and one as guardian of the dead. 

This division seems to stem from the conflicting views of ancient Roman and Greek mythology. Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, was often depicted with an owl companion. Athena’s owl was hailed as a symbol of knowledge and insight, and therefore owls were treated with reverence within Greek culture.

On the other hand, in Roman mythology the owl was a bird of ill omen that fed on human flesh and blood. When Rome defeated Athens in 146 BCE, this more malicious depiction of owls began to dominate both areas and spread into the world form there. 

This depiction of owls was so pervasive that it affected Roman language. The Latin word ‘strix’ meant both ‘owl’ and ‘witch in the form of an owl.’ Romans did not always believe that owls were natural creatures, but instead were witches that had transformed into owls in order to fly to a Sabbath, a gathering of witches. Even today, ‘strix’ is used as the genus name for earless owls, including spotted owls and great gray owls. 

The Roman concept of witches transforming into owls may have come from the myth of the harpy, a creature with the torso of a woman and legs and wings of a predatory bird. Interestingly, the harpy is thought to itself have been modified from the depiction of a soul in Egyptian mythology.

To Egyptians, Ba, or Ba-birds, were physical manifestations of the departed dead which had the body of a bird and head of a human. 

And it doesn’t stop there. A plaque from the Sumerian period, from about 1800 BCE, clearly portray a woman with feathered legs and owl feet, flanked by two owls.

This is thought to be a carving of Ereshkigal, goddess of the underworld, and the first ever depiction of a witch in association with owls, and origin of the Ba-bird. Remarkably, this means owls have been connected with witchcraft and the underworld for nearly 4,000 years! 

Toads: A Witch’s Companion 

Toads have long been associated with witchcraft, though their role in the demonic arts has shifted throughout history. The toad’s original association with witches probably came from the idea that toads are toxic, and could therefore be used to craft maleficent poisons.  

Although biochemistry had not been invented yet, the poisonous nature of some European toads was well known by as early as 200 BCE. We now know that all toads in the bufo genus produce a sticky secretion exuded from their skin when threatened; a milky, moderately potent poison, called bufotoxin, that contains hallucinogens as well as other chemicals that can affect heart and motor function.  

Though not a particularly potent poison, bufotoxin can be fatal in large doses, and it is likely that ancient peoples had become aware of this by watching other animals react poorly to eating toads. 

With verifiably toxic capabilities, toads became a classic ingredient for any medieval mythological witch’s brew by the 1600s. Their association with witches was especially solidified in 1623, when Shakespeare published Macbeth and introduced Paddock, a witch’s toad familiar, in the opening scene of the play. 

At this point, the toad’s role in witchcraft began to transform from a simple ingredient to a witch’s most trusted and intelligent demonic familiar. This shift in importance can be traced to the Spanish Inquisition of the 17^th century. Specifically, in 1610 the Spanish inquisitors of Navarre reported that they had discovered a sect of witches in the nearby mountains. They claimed that the devil had been recruiting witches at an alarming speed in Navarre, and that he had gifted each new witch with a toad.  

These were no ordinary toads, apparently, as the inquisitors described such a familiar as “…A demon in the form of a toad with its face like a man’s, dressed in finely tailored velvet and cloth.” This creature would become what was known as a ‘dressed toad,’ a hyper-intelligent maleficent force that called witches to Sabbath and instructed them in the Devil’s evil plans. According to the inquisitors, the witches fed human flesh to their dressed toads as reward for their assistance. 

We may never know why the inquisitors of Navarre chose to embellish such a strange tale. In all likelihood, they sought to justify their war by claiming to rid it of what they considered a horrible demonic presence. At the end of the day, the moderate, defensive toxicity of bufo toads likely predisposed them to an association with evil intent—and the rest was history. 

Crows and Ravens: Auguries of the Afterlife 

Like owls, crows and ravens have a complicated, multi-faceted history in mythology. Across the world, these corvids have become known either as creative, intelligent mischief-makers, or messengers of the dead. 

To many native tribes of North America, the raven was not only the creator, but also a fortune-teller, hunting companion, or informant. Some Sioux legends tell of chieftains who kept pet ravens that learned multiple languages and served as spies for their tribe. A similar legend exists in Norse mythology; Odin, the All-father, kept two ravens named Huginn (meaning ‘thought’) and Muninn (meaning ‘memory’) as informants on the world of men. Indeed, it is true that all corvids—including crows and ravens—can learn to mimic human speech. 

In most cultures around the world, though, crows and ravens were not just seen as intelligent, but were also tightly linked to the realm of the dead. Edgar Allan Poe’s famous line “Quoth the Raven, ‘Nevermore,’” has had Americans associating ravens with demonic presences since 1845. In Germany, it was believed that ravens could locate the souls of the dead. In Sweden, the raven’s harsh calls were traditionally considered to be voices of inappropriately buried murdered people. Incredibly, paleolithic cave paintings found in Spain and France, made some 15,000 years ago, include images of ravens sitting on posts near burial sites— meaning it is possible that these early cave people already worshipped ravens as guides to the afterlife. 

Even the Qur’an’s version of the story of Cain and Abel features a raven who taught Cain how to bury his murdered brother. In the story, Cain, having murdered Abel, did not know how to dispose of the body. Looking around he noticed two ravens—one dead, and one alive. The living raven dug a hole in the ground in which it buried its dead mate, revealing the solution to Cain. 

This tale may have been based on observations of real crows. Although crows have never been known to bury their dead, they do use their beaks as a digging tool, and they have been observed to ritualize the death of their own kind. These ‘funeral’ rituals consist of several crows surrounding their dead companion in a big, raucous mob for about twenty minutes. It is thought that crows do this to investigate and share information about the circumstances of the death, so that they can all avoid a similar fate. 

Why are corvids so often associated with the afterlife? These birds’ common practice of scavenging no doubt spurred associations with death, especially in autumn when inexperienced animals begin to die in large numbers as their summer resources dwindle.  

In addition to scavenging the bodies of other wildlife, crows have also long been associated with battlefield graveyards, where they are often seen taking advantage of an abundant food resource. Because they couldn’t break human skin very well, these crows tended to eat the eyeballs or other soft tissue first— an understandably gruesome sight.  

Corpse eating became an especially potent problem for the crow’s image during the Middle Ages, when the Black Death, an outbreak of the plague, devastated Europe and killed around 50 million people. With an excess of bodies filling the city streets of Europe, the crow’s opportunistic eating habits were suddenly visible to many scared and confused people. 

During this time, plague doctors began wearing costumes with masks similar in structure to a crow’s face. At the time doctors did not know about germs. They assumed the plague was transmitted by ‘bad air,’ and put fragrant herbs in the mask as an attempt to keep them from falling ill while treating patients. The shape of the beak was supposedly designed to give the air enough time to be cleansed by the herbs before it reached the doctor’s nose. 

In reality, the disease was caused by bacteria and was transmitted through flea bites or contact with the infected. It was the plague doctor’s protective suit, gloves, and prodding cane that kept them at lower risk of infection, not the crow-shaped mask. In any case, the plague doctor’s crow mask, seen when they were handling patients that would almost certainly die, undoubtedly fueled anti-crow sentiment across Europe. 

The truth is that the crow’s tendency to scavenge on anything available—including human corpses—has been beneficial to both humans and other wildlife. Crows and other corvids serve as nature’s clean-up crew by removing carcasses from the environment that would otherwise become bacterial and viral breeding grounds! 

Halloween is a time for family fun and spooky decoration. But as we ramp up for the scary season this year, take some time to appreciate the fascinating and complex creatures that we love to fear. These “scary” creatures pose no real threat to humans; in fact, many of these animals should be scared of us. The National Wildlife Federation is working every day to protect our most endangered species for many Halloweens to come. Here is how to support and contribute to NWF. 

Here are six species traditionally considered spooky or scary – that actually need a little help from us.

The spruce-fir moss spider: tiny & mighty but endangered

Our diverse and unique public lands in the United States are home to special habitats and ecosystems that may not exist anywhere else in the world – which means that they’re also home to species that don’t exist elsewhere. 

The spruce-fir moss spider, the world’s smallest tarantula, only lives in the highest elevations of the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Its world matches its size: This tiny spider thrives in a microclimate of moss mats on boulders kept damp by Fraser fir trees above the boulders.   

While the spruce-fir moss spider makes spooky cobwebs for itself to attract prey, that doesn’t mean the species as a whole is thriving. An invasive insect has been killing the Fraser fir trees responsible for keeping the spider’s mossy home damp. The double threats of climate change and habitat loss through logging are hurting this arachnid, too, which is why it’s been listed as endangered since 1995.

Little brown bats are facing a frightening problem

Infested with disease and blood-sucking with a penchant for human victims? It’s pretty batty that bats are the only mammals that can fly, but U.S. bat species aren’t anything like Count Dracula. While bats do host a number of viruses that can be transmitted from animals to humans, they don’t roam the skies looking for people to infect with disease – if anything, they want to keep their distance from us, but sometimes habitat loss gets in the way of that. Giving bats lots of space and staying out of their habitat reduces disease transmission, and human cases of rabies are very, very rare. 

In fact, bats help humans out big-time – little brown bat colonies can consume thousands of pounds of insects each year, including crop pests that cause problems for farmers. 

The scary truth about little brown bats is that their U.S. populations have declined by 90% over the course of a decade due to white-nose syndrome, a fungus that grows on their skin and causes hibernation problems, dehydration, starvation, and death. As one of the most common bat species in the U.S., it’s concerning that even little brown bats need proactive conservation actions thanks to how much white-nose syndrome has decimated their colonies.

Like most wildlife species, little brown bats can benefit when people build havens like bat houses in their yards for them – and if you want to help them, taking other steps to Garden for Wildlife is effective, too. 

No “purranormal cativity” here – just bobcats! 

The most common wildcat in the U.S., bobcats tend to make themselves scarce – it’s quite rare for a human to spot them. However, that doesn’t mean they’re assisting witches with occult activities in the dead of night. Instead, they prefer to hunt at night. Like many other predators at the top of food webs, bobcats act as a keystone species in their ecosystems – they keep other populations of wildlife in check and prey on sick or weakened individuals. 

While bobcats are not federally listed as threatened or endangered, they’re still dealing with the threats that all wildlife face these days: climate change, habitat loss, pollution, and more. The beauty of the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, which has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives by a bipartisan group of senators and representatives, is that it allocates resources to states to take proactive action to conserve wildlife before they need the emergency-room protections of the Endangered Species Act. 

State fish and wildlife agencies are experts on the challenges facing wildlife in their states. For example, in New Jersey, The Nature Conservancy partnered with the Division of Fish & Wildlife to restore habitat for bobcats, which nearly went extinct in the state. We think that’s pretty meow-some! 

Witching hour or water shortages? Both are chilling!

Spending part of its year in the Southwestern U.S., the common black hawk cuts a formidable figure and feeds on other spooky critters, including frogs and lizards.  

Thanks to climate change, the West has been increasingly dealing with droughts and water shortages. This problem is hurting wildlife and humans alike – the common black hawk, for example, only lives and hunts near flowing streams in the U.S. portion of its range. It also spends its time near streams courting and raising young, so the presence of water is vital to its life cycle. 

Smart water management is important to adapting to climate change for both Western communities and wildlife. Read more about the National Wildlife Federation’s work to conserve Western watersheds and rivers here. 

What’s the fun in being a big, scary snake if your habitat is disappearing? 

While the handsome black pinesnake might seem like it would be at home in a dungeon or creepy crypt, it actually lives in the sunny longleaf pine forests of the Southeastern U.S. 

Once one of the most sprawling ecosystems in the U.S., longleaf pine forests only exist in 3-4% of their historical range today due to development, habitat fragmentation, and fire suppression. Fire plays a critical role in the longleaf pine ecosystem – it keeps the forest floor free of hardwood tree species, allowing wildlife species to build nests and dig burrows in the sandy soil. Black pinesnakes spend much of their time in burrows and even hunt small mammals by trapping them in tunnels and squeezing their bodies against the tunnel wall, trapping and suffocating their prey. Clearly, the longleaf pine forest is critical for the long-term survival of the black pine snake. Since 2007, the National Wildlife Federation and Alabama Wildlife Federation have collaborated with private landowners to restore this incredible habitat so that these snakes can do what they do best – scaring the smaller members of their food chain. Read more about this restoration work here.

“Zombie” frogs are hurt by pollution, too 

Wood frogs, which primarily call Alaska and the Northeast home in the U.S., are practically members of the living dead – during winter, they literally freeze and later reanimate. How do they pull this off? Well, they stop breathing and their hearts stop beating, but they produce a special glycerol-based substance that acts as antifreeze and prevents ice from forming within their cells. If the water within a cell were to freeze, it would expand and the ice crystals would tear the cell apart, killing the frog. Through this process, nearly 70 percent of the frog’s total body water is converted to ice. This adaptation allows the wood frog to survive even in the Arctic. 

Despite this preternatural trick, life isn’t all treats for wood frogs and other amphibians. In fact, amphibians are the most threatened class of vertebrates on the planet. With semipermeable skin and porous eggs laid in vernal, or seasonal, pools of water, wood frogs are at a higher risk of being affected by pollution, climate change, and disease. In other words, we’ve got to keep our land, air, and water clean so this friendly zombie can keep freezing itself to its heart’s content! 

If you also agree that the threats facing these species are goosebump-raising, then we’ve got the perfect action for you to take. The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act was drafted to help all of these species and so many more by investing in conservation work done in every state and by federally recognized tribal nations. This legislation needs as many congressional champions as possible. Tell your representative and senator to cosponsor Recovering America’s Wildlife Act today so that all of these amazing, spooky species can get back to what they do best – sending shivers up our spines!

Want to learn more facts about Halloween? Read more in our blogs.

Palm oil is the most widely consumed vegetable oil on the planet and can be found in approximately 50% of products sold in supermarkets – from shampoos to instant noodles and, of course, candy. It is also responsible for driving deforestation in Indonesia and other tropical nations. This year alone, 800,000 acres of land have been burned to make way for oil palm plantations – hurting wildlife like the Sumatran tiger and orangutans and releasing massive amounts of carbon pollution into the atmosphere along the way. These fires have turned the sky red in Sumatra and their smoke has caused air quality to become extremely hazardous, putting millions of people – especially children – at risk of severe air pollution. It has been reported that the 2015 forest fires in Indonesia contributed to over 100,000 premature deaths.

If palm oil has been so destructive to our environment, then why does it remain such a popular ingredient? The reality is that palm oil is a particularly versatile oil given its chemical properties, and oil palm has the highest yield of any oil-seed crop (e.g. soy, canola and sunflower), meaning that it requires less land than any other crop to produce the oil needed to meet today’s market demands. In fact, if we were to replace oil palm with other oil crops, more farmland would be needed, which would result in additional deforestation.

The solution, then, is not to do away with palm oil. Rather, we should strive to make its cultivation more sustainable by achieving a high production yield with as little impact on the environment as possible, all while upholding human and labor rights. Fortunately, certification systems exist to facilitate this. The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which certifies approximately 20% of global palm oil, sets a variety of sustainability requirements to reduce deforestation and conversion of other natural habitats (like carbon-rich peat swamps) and eliminate human rights and labor violations in palm oil production. In the past, the RSPO received major accusations of greenwashing and came under fire for not going far enough to ensure that certified palm oil was truly sustainably produced. A scientific analysis by NWF and academic partners found that RSPO-certification did reduce deforestation from business-as-usual, but that important changes to the Standard would be necessary to make these impacts meaningful at scale. Fortunately, in late 2018, the RSPO adopted new and more stringent requirements, becoming a true “No Deforestation” standard and marking a big win for wildlife!

At this moment, not all of the palm oil that goes into making candy in the U.S. comes from certified plantations, so it is hard to hit the supermarket with a clear conscience. Chocolate production, which we’ve previously written about, can also have a major impact on wildlife habitat. In late 2017, a coalition of companies and NGOs formed the North American Sustainable Palm Oil Network (NASPON), and committed to increasing the amount of certified palm oil in the North American market to 100%. There are still, however, major supply-chain challenges to ensuring that all of the palm oil in American products is sustainably produced, and NWF remains committed to helping companies overcome them.

Deforestation, scorched earth and homeless animals certainly paint a spooky picture during Halloween, but solutions exist to minimize the negative impact of palm oil production. Through organized and collaborative consumer pressure, we can push companies and manufacturers at home to source certified palm oil and encourage their suppliers to adopt stricter sustainability practices. Sign our petition demanding sustainable Halloween candy and put pressure on candy-makers to end deforestation:

I WANT SUSTAINABLE CANDY

Company sustainability claims must amount to something. Certification systems must reward truly responsible production to help shift the market from business-as-usual. The trick to achieving sustainable palm oil is increased accountability for palm oil producers, manufacturers, and retailers—the best treat you could receive this Halloween.

The Legend of the Rougarou

The rougarou (or loup-garou) is a monster from Cajun folklore. In the legend, this beast is often described as having the body of a man and the head of a wolf or a dog and prowls Louisiana swamps looking for misbehaving children. The stories were most likely inspired by European stories of werewolves that the Cajun people brought with them as they migrated to Louisiana. 

How a person transforms into the monster doesn’t seem to be entirely clear. Nor is it clear if the rougarou only prowls during a full moon, like a werewolf. One thing that does seem certain, though, is that some of the rougarou’s preferred haunts are the swamps of central and eastern Louisiana.

Tragically, many of the swamps that helped shape Cajun culture and inspire stories of the rougarou have been cut off from the Mississippi River that once built and maintained them. River levees constructed for flood protection and navigation have starved many swamp areas of sediment and flowing water, leaving trees standing in stagnant waters that are too deep for new trees to sprout, and making them increasingly vulnerable to rising sea levels and storms that bring in salty water from the Gulf that could destroy these freshwater ecosystems.

Restoring Louisiana’s Swamps for the Long-Term

The loss of this important habitat is not inevitable. Two projects that would help restore and maintain swamp habitat are:

•  Increase Atchafalaya to Terrebonne Marshes project which would dredge the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to increase the flow of water from the Atchafalaya east into the Terrebonne Basin. The swamps and marshes of the Terrebonne Basin, along Louisiana’s central coast, are far away from both the Atchafalaya River, the last major distributary channel of the Mississippi, and the Mississippi River. Starved of sediment and experiencing saltwater intrusion, these wetlands are rapidly converting to open water. This restoration project would dredge the Intracoastal Waterway to increase the flow of Atchafalaya River water east in the Terrebonne Basin.
  
  
• River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project would help restore and maintain one of the Maurepas Swamp – one nation’s largest forested wetlands. This restoration project would reconnect this swamp with the Mississippi River, preventing land loss in the swamp, the conversion of swamp (tree-dominated wetlands) to marsh (grass-dominated wetlands), as well as push back against saltwater intrusion due to rising sea levels. In addition, the fine sediment from the river may also increase ground elevations in parts of the swamp to the point where some places remain dry for long enough for seeds to germinate, perpetuating the swamp into the future.

Louisiana’s swamps have always held an air of mystery and menace about them that have inspired stories like the fabled rougarou that emerges from the foggy darkness under night’s cover and vanishes at dawn.

These swamps are also important habitat for a lot of very real wildlife, including the Prothonotary warbler, the American alligator and the river otter. But as Louisiana continues to lose a football field of wetlands 100 minutes, its iconic swamps and marshes are in very real jeopardy.

By implementing projects that both mimic and restore natural processes and flows, we can make real progress on restoring and preserving as much of this important habitat as possible before it – like the rougarou – vanishes without a trace.

Star-Nosed Mole

The star-nosed mole (Condylura cristata) is appropriately named for its unique star shaped “snout”. These small moles can usually be found in wet lowland areas of northeastern North America.  While this multi-purpose organ could be mistaken for a Halloween mask, it actually serves an extremely important purpose. Star-nosed moles are nearly blind and use their tentacle-like noses to sense their surroundings, navigate through the soil, and find food. They can even smell underwater by blowing air bubbles onto objects and inhaling them to pick up scents.

 Eared Grebe

While the eared grebe (Podiceps nigricollis) may look like a typical bird from afar, their distinct, spooky red eyes fit right in on Halloween. Grebes can be found throughout North America, and in parts of Africa, Europe and Asia. Grebes are water birds that are flightless for nine months of the year. They typically feed on insects, but also dive in water to catch crustaceans, mollusks, or small amphibians and fish. When they are not breeding, their typical habitat includes saline lakes or coastal estuaries.

Tufted Deer

The tufted deer (Elaphodus cephalophus) are small deer that have fang-like teeth that are straight out of a vampire movie. These teeth are only found in males, grow up to 1 inch in length, and are used to attract a mate. Tufted deer usually weigh somewhere between 37 and 110 lbs. In comparison, the more commonly known white-tailed deer can weigh between 100 and 150 lbs. during the summer.  Tuft deer are native to China, and inhabit damp forests at higher elevations.

Hellbender

Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are giant salamanders native to North America. Hellbenders can grow up to 15 inches long and can weigh up to 5.5 lbs. This makes them the largest salamander species in North America, and the third largest in the world. In addition to their large size, their beady eyes and slimy skin makes them a perfect Halloween creature. Their intimidating appearance is also thought to be the inspiration for their name. However, they are essentially harmless to humans.  Hellbenders mainly eat crayfish or small fish, and breathe through pores on their skin.

Humpback Anglerfish

Humpback anglerfish (Melanocetus johnsonii) also known as blackdevils are deep water fish. Both males and females have a few unearthly tricks up their sleeves. Females grow a fleshy dorsal spine on their head that they use to attract prey like a fishing pole. Their mouths are so limber, they can even eat prey twice their body size.

Living in the vast depths of the ocean where sunlight does not penetrate, finding a mate can be difficult. Males have evolved to have their digestive system degenerate as they mature; making it impossible to feed on their own. In order to survive, he must attach himself to a female as a parasitic appendage.

Add to your costume next year and symbolically adopt a critter!

Adopt a Critter