I Built A Mini Backyard Ecosystem...Here's What Happened

 I Built A Mini Backyard Ecosystem

Hi! I'm so glad you're here.

This is a Fourth of July special for all of my American viewers out there! Happy Fourth of July!

I'm currently questioning my life choices, because this project was crazy difficult.

(That's why this post doesn't have any coded elements or games; the experiment was very time consuming)

I mean, how do you even build an entire ecosystem?

You guys really wanted me to do this, so this post came to life.

And, I'm happy to say that it was definitely inspired by the votes for "Mini Ecosystem" on the Environmental Vote Machine in the sidebar. 

Thank you to everyone who commented and voted on the Environmental Vote Machine for this project, because it was (exhaustingly) fun.

The picture below was my vision, but my ecosystem turned out...a bit different. :)

Now, let's see what I've gotten myself into this time! 

Objectives

Before I started, I made a few rules for myself to make sure I treated the ecosystem and its tiny residents respectfully.

• I’m making a tiny ecosystem just to see what happens in it.
• I’m not going to trap or hurt any animals that end up inside it.
• I’m only keeping it for a short time, not forever.
• I’ll try not to mess with it too much and just let nature do its thing.
• When I’m done, I’ll put everything back outside where it belongs.
• I just want to watch and learn from it, not control everything.
• I won’t leave anything worse off than when I started.

Starting off with figuring out how to build the ecosystem. I thought about using a terrarium, but I decided against it. I wanted this project to be as kid-friendly and budget-friendly as possible.

So, I decided to use something I already had a lot of: Magna-Tiles.

Here's the ecosystem from above:

After I built the basic structure, it was time to move it outside and make it as natural as possible!

I was super determined at first, but by the time we finished setting everything up, that determination had faded. 

We couldn't find any animals or insects to add. 

I was pretty discouraged, because having animals in our ecosystem was a key part, but I eventually decided to wait until the evening, when it wasn't so hot outside.

I decided to put the ecosystem on a shady part of the counter until 7:00 PM, when the animals would come out.

Something funny I saw while we were under construction was a tiny white spider that wandered in on its own. We had to gently guide it out, because construction zones are...not exactly safe.

 A wasp also quickly conducted a brief "aerial survey" of the construction site. We saw some gnats, too, which showed that we had a nice damp environment that insects could explore later.

Now came the hardest part: waiting until 7:00 PM PST to see who would move in.

(Later...)

I thought 7:00 PM would bring a flood of visitors, but only a few curious flies showed up.

The next morning, at around 8:00 AM PST, a lot of animals had come to explore.

First, there were some more flies who landed on the veggies and decaying plants, and even fought one another for it!

Next, a wasp stopped by and carried away tiny cashew and walnut shavings, presumably for its nest.

Then came the funniest visitor of them all. A lizard casually wandered over, grabbed an entire cashew, circled the ecosystem like it owned the place, and sprinted away with its prize. Unfortunately, I didn't get this on video, but I got a very blurry clip of the lizard in the rocks nearby.

Needless to say, it was amazing to see all the animals exploring on their own, and we didn't have to catch a single one and escort it in!

By the way, we saw two birds just relaxing in our backyard as well.

This experiment reminded me that ecosystems aren't something we control. If we provide food, shelter, and water, nature often surprises us all on its own.

And that's the end!

What do you think of this mini ecosystem? Let me know in the comments if I should do a part two improving on this ecosystem!

Thank you for visiting and Happy Fourth of July!