Our habitat garden provides food, water, cover, and a place to raise young for all sorts of creatures. We talked about habitat in general in the Habitat section.
In this Creatures section we share some things we provide that may be unique to certain creatures and also some interesting things about creatures we enjoy in our yard.
Below are some of the creatures in our habitat garden — at least the ones we’ve noticed. I’m sure we have lots of tiny creatures that help run the world that are too minuscule for us to notice, or which we just haven’t been observant enough to notice … yet!
- Birds, and specifically hummingbirds
- Insects
- Butterflies, and specifically monarchs
- Bees
- Dragonflies and spiders
- Amphibians
- Mammals
- Invaders — both native and non-native
Resources
- Biomimicry Institute:
- NY Audubon:
- Xerces Society:
- David Suzuki Foundation:
- Humane Gardener:
- The Atlantic:
- NY Times:
- Valley Forge Audubon:
- EcoBeneficial:
- VIDEO: The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Yard for Wildlife – half-hour interview
- Sustainable Human:
- VIDEO: How wolves change rivers – about wolves, but more than that
Reflections
The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that’s the essence of inhumanity.
~ George Bernard Shaw
I was cautioned in school against the “mistake” of anthropomorphism. It’s a mistake to assign human feelings to nonhuman animals, my professors assured me. It’s a mistake to attribute problem-solving, tool-fashioning, language-using individuality to a mere bundle of instinct and hormones. This particular mistake even has a name: the pathetic fallacy.
The science that’s uncovering the individual complexity of other creatures is happening alongside the science that’s uncovering the monstrous mess our species has made of the planet, and it’s impossible not to wonder whether the real fallacy isn’t the pathetic fallacy itself. Wouldn’t it completely change our relationship to the living earth if our default position in every encounter with other living things was a willingness to see something of ourselves in them? Spiders and all?
~ Margaret Renkl, NY Times “What if spiders are people, too?“
We should remember in our dealings with animals that they are a sacred trust to us … [They] cannot speak for themselves.
~ Harriet Beecher Stowe
The greatest ethical test that we’re ever going to face is the treatment of those who are at our mercy.
~ Lyn White, Director of Animals Australia