Join Earth Matter in welcoming Tino and Mycetes, our new baby bunnies! (left) Tino is a dwarf bunny, Mycetes (My) is a lop-eared rabbit
These latest compost workers are charged with eating food scraps, drinking water, pooping (into a chute to a bin under their hutch) and being irresistibly cute. They reside in a new bamboo fenced-in area with our worm bins as neighbors.
The names for the bunnies came from a NYC Parks Foundation intern, who came to the Outpost with her group on August 2. During the lunch time share session we asked the interns to suggest some names for the bunnies. Actinomycetes, the name of an important decomposer bacteria, was chosen by one of the interns who noticed the classic grayish, cobwebby growths when turning the compost in the 2 yard bin.
This prodigious and prominent group of decomposers was challenging to say aloud. So as a group we broke it down and repeated it slowly several times – Ak- TIN-O- MY- seet – ez until it became easier and easier to say. Compost, after all, is all about breaking things down. Upon the hypnotic repetition of “actinomycetes”….the names for our new bunnies were revealed.For more info about current the trends of thought on Actinomycetes (now officially called Actinobacteria) in composting, please click here. For cuddling the sweetest little bunnies you ever did see, come to the Compost Outpost.