COME ALONG ON OUR FERRY RIDE AND SEE A BIT OF WILDLIFE IN MANNING PARK

 After catching the ferry from Vancouver Island on our way home to Oliver, we stopped for the night at Mule Deer Campground in Manning Park.  There were lots of boats of all sizes on the water.

Two smaller ferries alongside our boat.

Truck only ferry on the left, our berth was on the far right.

A ferry from the mainland heading to the berth we just left.

Shadowfax, one hundred feet long.

Shadowfax passing Swartz Bay where we just departed from.

One of many sailboats.

Active Pass which the ferries go through enroute to Victoria and Vancouver.

Another smaller ferry.  This one is heading to Saltspring Island from the mainland.

Whale watchers.

Chipmunk eating Saskatoon berries beside our campsite.

Song Sparrow with supper.

Song Sparrow with supper.

Chipmunk with a parasitic warble bot fly.

The chipmunk is likely infected with a parasitic warble, a bot fly in its larval stage. The larvae of bot flies (of the family Oestridae) are parasites on a wide range of mammals. The various species of bot fly are host-specific, so a rodent bot fly (genus Cuterebra) cannot infect humans.  This fly’s life cycle is interesting, if a bit unpleasant from the chipmunk’s perspective. The female typically lays her eggs along runways or at entrances to a rodent’s burrow. The eggs hatch in response to the sudden increase in temperature and moisture that happens when a rodent passes by, and the larvae enter their victims through the nose, mouth, or a small cut in the skin. Eventually they migrate to locations under the skin, where they develop into “warbles” that contain a breathing hole. When they mature, 20 to 40 days after the original infection, they emerge as leathery, black larvae. They then pupate in the soil, emerge as adult bot flies, and mate.

 Compared with other parasites, fully grown bot fly larvae are huge in proportion to their host – 20–42 millimetres long by 7–10 millimetres wide. Though the swelling is undoubtedly uncomfortable and may even prevent the chipmunk from moving around freely, it’s not necessarily a major health risk. Once the larva crawls out, the animal will be relieved of its burden. The hole the larva leaves behind can, however, become infected and cause more problems than the warble itself. There’s no easy way to remove a warble, though, so we can’t do much more than cheer on the chipmunk and hope for the best.