Blue Urine

[Anne Robertson]

Further to the Blue urine story…

This from MNR

 

Blue rabbit urine and deer urine is not unheard of this time of year as the common buckthorn berries are now on the ground and being eaten when found.   The berries have a very strong blue/purple pigment and stain anything they touch.  When eaten in abundance the pigments are partially released in the urine creating this blue tint.

 

I am not aware of there being any blue pigment in the bark of common buckthorn so it is not likely the cause.  The rabbits will eat the bark of the shrubs girdling the stems.  This will result in the death of the girdled stem, which is not necessarily a bad thing considering common buckthorn is an invasive species and detrimental to a woodlot.

 

 

 

Anne Robertson

n8tur...@sympatico.ca

 

[Fred Schueler]

Quoting Anne Robertson <n8tur...@sympatico.ca>:

> Further to the Blue urine story.

* sounds like they're just making this stuff up on the fly. I've done
experiments, and only the bark produces the blue-turning urine, not
the fruit (the fruit produces purple poops from Waxwings). I've never
seen Hares or Rabbits girdling Buckthorn - they just eat the twigs.

fred.
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Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
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[Stew Hamill]

On 3/4/2013 9:32 PM, Anne Robertson wrote:

The rabbits will eat the bark of the shrubs (Common Buckthorn) girdling the stems.  This will result in the death of the girdled stem, which is not necessarily a bad thing considering Common Buckthorn is an invasive species and detrimental to a woodlot.

Not sure if this refers to Cottontail Rabbits or Snowshoe Hares, but it would be nice if this happened. I have a lot of Common Buckthorn and a lot of Snowshoe Hares, but I've never seen a Buckthorn which had been chewed or girdled.

Stew

[Fred Schueler]

* I suspect this is an MNR underling's fantasy. I think that girdling
is done by Voles under the snow, and I've only ever seen it on Apples
or Manitoba Maples. I've searched the database for "debark" or
"girdle" on Rhamnus records, and all the hits I get refer to
co-occurring species (mostly Ash or Scots Pine).

[Owen Clarkin]

The inner bark of Rhamnus catharica, which is an unusual bright yellow-orange, is apparently a very strong laxative just as the fruit is.  I suppose the small mammals learn to stay away from girdling the tree from prior experience with twigs.

I see that R. cathartica bark was for sale on amazon as a laxative, though it is "currently unavailable":
http://www.amazon.com/Buckthorn-Bark-Rhamnus-cathartica-Herb/dp/B008TADLBI

Perhaps a business venture could be to cut down all the invasive R. cathartica buckthorns from local natural areas and sell the ground-up bark online.  Finally a use for the tree!

Owen

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[Fred Schueler]

Quoting Owen Clarkin <wre...@gmail.com>:

> The inner bark of Rhamnus catharica, which is an unusual bright
> yellow-orange, is apparently a very strong laxative just as the fruit is.
> I suppose the small mammals learn to stay away from girdling the tree from
> prior experience with twigs.

* it's notorious that the berries come through Birds pretty rapidly,
but in decades of feeding Rh. cathartica to Goats and Rabbits, I've
never seen any laxative action in them - and captive Goats and Rabbits
eat the bark of the bigger stems down to the wood, instead of just
nipping the twigs, as their wild analogs do.

I see the woodlot association has my essay on this subject still
online - http://www.ont-woodlot-assoc.org/sw_nonfibre_redskies.html -
it's always puzzled me why they chose to put this one up.
Incidentally, this is the second google hit for 'red blue "long may
they wave"'

fred.
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