The Cheeseman Environmental Studies Area has welcomed a brood of mallard ducklings swimming in the arboretum’s pond, along with four adults.
While the Cheeseman ESCI area provides a home for these ducklings, they still face danger there. A red-tailed hawk caused the ducklings to scatter, diving in to attack one of the adult ducks.
Ducklings are not the only babies welcomed to De Anza’s campus, the Kirsch Center has been raising monarch butterfly caterpillars after students discovered eggs on native narrow leaf milkweed present in the garden.
The caterpillars are kept in mesh enclosures to ensure they have a safe environment to mature and are released back into the wild as adult butterflies after they emerge from their cocoons.
The Cheeseman Environmental Studies area is a hidden oasis on campus, its 1.5 acres filled with a diverse life from California’s various biomes including birds, bees to coastal redwoods and even a saguaro cactus.
