Mount Rainier National Park: Wildflowers and the Pacific Jumping Mouse

NATIONAL PARK SCOUTS · MOUNT RAINIER

The Meadow That Races the Snow

Host: Jenni · Guest: Ranger Kat · Topic: subalpine wildflowers, hoary marmots, Pacific jumping mice

INTRO

Jenni: It's early July at Mount Rainier. I'm standing at the edge of a meadow called Paradise. And most of it is still buried in snow. Big lumpy snowbanks, like giant scoops of vanilla ice cream. But right at the edge of the snow where it's melting into little trickles, something is poking up. A white flower. And a yellow one. So close that the snow is still touching its leaves. This winter, the snow here was up to 20 feet deep. That's taller than a two-story house. And in just a few weeks, this hillside will burst into purple, blue, red, and yellow. Thousands of flowers blooming at almost the exact same time. How do they get ready so fast? Today we find out. Let's go. [theme music]

Welcome to National Park Scouts, the show where curious kids discover America's wildest places. I'm Jenni. This is our fourth and final adventure at Mount Rainier. At least for now. We've met a sleeping volcano, glaciers that flow like the slowest rivers on Earth, and ice worms that live inside the ice. Today the snow finally melts, and the mountain throws a party. We've got a flower race, a whistling neighbor, and a tiny mouse that can jump way farther than you'd guess. [theme music]

THE GREAT FLOWER RACE

High on Mount Rainier are subalpine meadows. Sub means below, and alpine means the rocky top of a mountain. So subalpine means right below the top. Up here, snow can hang on into June or even July, and frost can return by late August. So each flower gets a few weeks to grow, bloom, and make seeds. It's like squeezing your whole summer vacation into just two weeks. So how do they do it?

A head start underground

Many of these flowers keep a head start hidden underground. The glacier lily grows a small bulb, like a tiny onion, packed with food it saved from last summer. It stays alive all winter under the snow. In spring, its leaves can start growing while they're still buried in snow. So the moment the snowbank melts back, [pop sound effect] a yellow flower right at the snow's edge. That's how the glacier lily got its name.

Why they all bloom at once

Glacier lilies and white avalanche lilies are the first sprinters. Then by late July and early August, the rest of the meadow catches up. All at once. Blue-purple lupine, bright red paintbrush that looks dipped in paint, and American bistort, a fluffy white flower that looks just like a cotton swab. So why all at once? Park scientists say the flowers are competing for pollinators. The bees and butterflies that carry pollen from flower to flower so plants can make seeds. Short summer, tons of flowers. Only so many bumblebees, so the whole meadow blooms together, every flower shouting, pick me, pick me.

Sunrise or Paradise: which blooms first?

Here's a puzzle, scout. One side of the mountain is called Sunrise, and the other side of the mountain is called Paradise. Higher on a mountain is colder, and colder usually means later flowers. The meadows at Sunrise are about a thousand feet higher than the ones at Paradise. Which one do you think blooms first? Surprise! Most years they peak at about the same time. Paradise gets buried in some of the deepest snow in the country. But Sunrise sits on the drier side of the mountain. Less snow means less to melt. So Sunrise gets a head start of its own. So the reason all these meadow flowers bloom at the same time is they are competing for pollinators before the short summer ends. [transition music]

GUESS THAT PARK SOUND

Okay, scouts, it's time for Guess That Park Sound. This is the part of the show where I play a sound from the park, and you get to guess what's making it. Are you ready? Listen in. [hoary marmot whistle]

Ooh, was that a referee? A tea kettle? What did you hear? Hold on to your guess. We'll find out right after this. [pause to guess]

AD BREAK

THE HOARY MARMOT REVEALED

Jenni: That piercing whistle came from a hoary marmot. Hoary is an old word for frosty gray, the color of their fur. These marmots are about the size of a house cat, and that whistle earned them a nickname. Whistle pigs. When a marmot spots trouble, one whistle warns the whole neighborhood. And in summer, the meadow is their salad bar. Rangers at Mount Rainier once wrote that a marmot rarely says no to anything green or blooming. So, yes, they eat the flowers all summer, getting as round as they can before their long winter sleep. That whistle belongs to another meadow resident who's racing the clock before winter. Now let's meet a much smaller athlete doing the exact same thing. [transition music]

THE PACIFIC JUMPING MOUSE

Down in the wet grass along Mount Rainier's meadows and streams lives an animal you'll almost never see. The Pacific jumping mouse. It snoozes through the day and comes out from dusk until dawn, a real night owl. Well, night mouse. Its body is about as long as a crayon with gold and orange sides and a dark racing stripe down its back. Its back feet are so big that scientists named it Zapus, which means big feet, and its tail is even longer than its whole body.

A leap of five feet

When danger comes near, it doesn't run, it launches, leaping more than five feet in a single jump. Compared to your size, that's like you jumping the length of a school bus with room to spare. And that long tail? It's the mouse's secret. It keeps the mouse balanced in mid-air so it lands ready to jump again. Jumping mice are excellent swimmers too. What can't this mouse do? It has other tricks as well. When two jumping mice argue, they drum their tails on the ground super fast. And it weaves a secret grass nest, a dome about the size of a softball with just one door. It eats mostly seeds, snipping down grass stems to reach them, and leaving the stems in a neat little pile. Baby jumping mice are born in July or August, four to eight at a time. Each one is pink, with no hair, and its eyes shut, and it weighs less than a paper clip. About a month later, they're on their own.

Sleeping through the winter

Then in the fall, it curls into a ball in an underground burrow, wraps its tail around itself like a scarf, and sleeps for up to eight months. That's longer than your whole school year. How do you think a mouse can go that long without eating? Here's how. Step one, eat a lot. Before winter, the mouse eats until it doubles its body weight. That extra weight is fat, and fat works like a battery, storing energy for later. Step two, slow way down. Its body cools to about 36 degrees. That's like as cold as your fridge. Everything slows down, so the fat battery lasts all winter. Step three, wake up in spring, a lot thinner and very hungry. Now think about those babies born in late summer. They have just a few weeks to grow up and double their weight before the snow comes back. Everything in this meadow is racing the same clock, and the clock is the snow. [transition music]

WILDCARD: BEAT THE MOUSE

It's wildcard time, and today we're playing Beat the Mouse. Our Pacific jumping mouse has set the mark. Five feet in one jump. Now, some challengers are stepping up. For each one, you guess, does it beat the mouse's five feet or fall short? Ready?

Challenger number one. The house mouse. Same size, same name. Do you think it beats the mouse or falls short? [clock ticking]

It falls short. A house mouse can jump about one foot. And here's a secret: jumping mice aren't even close cousins of house mice. Their family includes jerboas, little desert hoppers on the other side of the world.

Challenger number two, the African elephant, the biggest animal on land. Do you think it beats the mouse or falls short? [clock ticking]

It falls short. Way short. Zero feet. Elephants can't jump at all. They actually stand on their tiptoes with leg bones pointing straight down. Great for holding up a giant body. Not great for leaping.

Challenger number three, you. Do you beat the mouse or fall short? [clock ticking]

Most kids your age can jump about three feet from a standing start. So for most of us that falls short, but hang on to that thought because it's gonna come in handy for your scout mission.

The last challenger. The froghopper, a bug about a quarter of an inch long. Its babies hide in meadows inside blobs of foam on plant stems that look exactly like spit. Do you think it beats the mouse or falls short? [clock ticking]

It falls short. It jumps about 28 inches. But here's a twist. Let's measure by size. That jump is about 100 times the froghopper's own body length. Our mouse jumps about 15 times its body length. If you could jump like a froghopper, you would clear an entire football field. So, for distance, the champion of Beat the Mouse is our Pacific jumping mouse. But size for size, the gold medal goes to a tiny bug that lives in spit foam.

ASK A RANGER

Jenni: Now for something special. All series long, we've heard from Ranger Kat, who spent her summer helping visitors explore Mount Rainier. I asked her, is there a crazy fact about wildflowers or the short growing season that you could share?

Ranger Kat: This summer I had a great time leading guided hikes for visitors through some of our wildflower meadows at sunrise. One really cool wildflower fact I learned is that their bright colors actually helped boost their metabolism, and that allows them to turn sunlight into energy more efficiently through photosynthesis. Don't let their pretty colors fool you though. These flowers are extremely hardy and they stay low to the ground to help insulate their roots. Their roots also grow together, intertwining with other wildflowers in the meadow to help control soil erosion. They're such a good example to remind us that nothing in nature can thrive alone.

Jenni: Wildflower hikes at Sunrise, that might be the best job in the world. And those bright petals soak up sunshine like a dark t-shirt on a sunny day. And those roots twisting together underground, like the whole meadow is holding hands to hold the soil in place. Nothing in nature can thrive alone. That might be my new favorite sentence. It's also why we stay on the trail in those meadows. One step off the trail can crush several plants at once. Then I asked her, when working with visitors, what do kids seem to enjoy the most?

Ranger Kat: We love seeing kids interact with the park in any way, but one of the most popular things that kids will enjoy is our junior ranger program. When you visit, be sure to ask a ranger for a junior ranger book, then complete as many pages as you can. Our book has lots of fun activities that help you learn about the park, explore the resources, and understand why it's important to protect them. When you're done, bring the book back to a ranger at a visitor center to take the junior ranger pledge, and then you can get your official Mount Rainier National Park Junior Ranger badge. Lots of kids like collecting these from every national park they visit. We also have special junior ranger programs that run all summer long. While there's no age limit to participate in the Junior Ranger program, Mount Rainier is unique because we also have a Citizen Ranger program. This is designed more for adults and is open to absolutely everyone who wants to give it a try.

Overall, I think the thing kids enjoy most at our park is really interacting with it, with the rangers, with their loved ones, and with the nature around them. Of course, seeing animals is almost always the highlight of any kids or adults visit. We rangers love that, but we love it even more when kids and adults learn how to interact with our animals in a safe and responsible way. Things like not feeding any animals you encounter in the park, no matter how big or small, and maintaining that rule of thumb distance with our wild animals makes the park more fun and safe for everyone to experience. We can't wait to see you at Mount Rainier National Park.

Jenni: Grown-ups, did you hear that? You can be citizen rangers. And here's the rule of thumb. When you see a wild animal, stretch your arm out, give a thumbs up, and close one eye. If your thumb covers the whole animal, you're far enough away. If it's peeking out around your thumb, time to back up. Ranger Kat, thank you so much for your valuable insights this series, and for caring so much about making sure kids can explore and enjoy the beautiful Mount Rainier. Scouts all over the country got to see your mountain through your eyes.

SCOUT MISSION

Every scout needs a mission. Here's yours. If you're at home, put a piece of tape on the floor, measure five feet, and put down another. That's how far a Pacific jumping mouse can leap. Line up your family and see who can make it with a standing jump. If you're at Mount Rainier, head to Paradise and walk the Nisqually Vista Trail. Remember it from our glacier episode of our Mount Rainier series in Washington State? It's an easy paved loop. Go in late July or early August and count how many flower colors you can find. Five, seven, and stay on the trail so those flowers and their hand-holding roots are there for the next scout!

OUTRO

That's a wrap on Mount Rainier. We found fire hiding inside a frozen giant, rivers made of ice, worms that live in a glacier, and a meadow that turns into a rainbow in just a few weeks. Thank you for exploring this mountain with me. Next time, we're heading somewhere brand new. And I mean brand new. This fall, a place in Arizona officially became America's newest national park. With rock towers balanced on tiny tips, mountains rising out of the desert like islands, and a spot where four different worlds meet. Can you guess where we're going? Scouts, your next adventure is waiting.