Text by Katrin Kaldma, www.rmk.ee
livestream | news | forum (coming soon)
Freshwater Pearl Mussel Margaritifera margaritifera
This time, the nature camera opens a window into the underwater world, making visible a true rarity of our nature - the freshwater pearl mussel - just in time for the start of the new school year. From the very first moments of the camera's activation, we witness active life, with many species passing through the "stage." Even the main characters themselves move around surprisingly much.
The pace and passage of time here are entirely different from those above water, and just as tree trunks preserve time, so too do the mussel shells. Reading the annual rings has revealed that the oldest freshwater pearl mussel in Estonia lived for 134 years (and in Finland, even 264 years). So it is entirely possible that some of the creatures appearing on our "set" lived in the same river section long before Arno's first school day in Oskar Luts's "Spring" (written in 1912-1913).
We hope to discover much new information about the life of the freshwater pearl mussel with the help of the camera during this and many future school years, and we invite everyone to share their observations and notices via the forum.
The camera setup was done by Omar Neiland, the antenna was installed at the top of the tallest tree by Urmas Sellis, and the camera is powered by a generous local resident.
