Where, when, and how to find your own wild tardigrades
Moss, lichen, or most other wet plant substrate make excellent tardigrade habitats. The wetter the better - so look in moist areas or a day or two after a rain shower.
Finding wild tardigrades is fun and easy with the right equipment. They can be found on every continent. All tardigrades are 'aquatic' even terrestrial species - which live in thin films of water.
Some notes on equipment: All your really need to find a tardigrade is a microscope, a dish, some water, and time. A small dissecting microscope with a 2-5X objective and 10X eye piece(s) should work fine providing 20-50X magnification. I typically search using around 30-40X mag and then zoom in to 50X or move my specimen to a compound microscope for closer inspection.
Where:
Your best bet for a successful (water) bear hunt is to look for terrestrial species. Places with lots of terrestrial species include moss, lichen, or leaf litter.
When:
I find that a day or two after a rain shower is usually the best time to find tardigrades, especially if you are getting them from moss, leaves, or lichen from the ground. They are more likely to be more active and actually on the moss not hiding in the dirt.
Some notes on equipment: All your really need to find a tardigrade is a microscope, a dish, some water, and time. A small dissecting microscope with a 2-5X objective and 10X eye piece(s) should work fine providing 20-50X magnification. I typically search using around 30-40X mag and then zoom in to 50X or move my specimen to a compound microscope for closer inspection.
Where:
Your best bet for a successful (water) bear hunt is to look for terrestrial species. Places with lots of terrestrial species include moss, lichen, or leaf litter.
When:
I find that a day or two after a rain shower is usually the best time to find tardigrades, especially if you are getting them from moss, leaves, or lichen from the ground. They are more likely to be more active and actually on the moss not hiding in the dirt.
This is what a typical eutardigrade looks like at around 50X (10X eye peice + 5X objective) magnification on a dissection microscope. This picture was taken using an iPhone and iPhone microscope adaptor.
How:
Simple version:
Put your lichen, moss, or whatever in a shallow plate of water. Agitate your sample and look through the debris on the bottom of the dish for tardigrades.
Detailed version:
I like to collect a few moss and lichen samples at a time and bring them back to my office or lab to search through. I bring some plastic ziplock bags with a damp paper towel in them and a pair of forceps (tweezers). When I find some lichen I want to look through I use the forceps to take some (usually only a small bit - about the size of a quart or a bit bigger) and store it in a humidified bag.
When I'm ready to look at my sample, I fill a clear plastic petri dish with distilled or spring water. Then I drop in a bit of lichen (again about the size of a quarter). Then I quickly mash the sample around in the water to knock the tardigrades off the lichen (use your fingers or forceps).
Tardigrades don't swim (even marine or fresh water species) - they crawl. So when you place your dish under a dissecting microscope focus on the bottom of the dish. You will probably see a lot of debris - sand, dirt, tiny roots, some other microorganisms, etc. Too much debris can be really hard to sort through - so for your first try you might want to start with some lichen off a tree since this won't have as much dirt on it as say moss from a patch of forest.
The hardest part of this process is finding your first tardigrade. Once you find one your eyes will get trained for what to look for and it should get easier. Remember when you first put the tardigrades in water they will probably be curled up in their inactive tuns. So at first that's what you should look for. But after about an hour or so they should be kicking around and moving - this is what I usually look for.
Simple version:
Put your lichen, moss, or whatever in a shallow plate of water. Agitate your sample and look through the debris on the bottom of the dish for tardigrades.
Detailed version:
I like to collect a few moss and lichen samples at a time and bring them back to my office or lab to search through. I bring some plastic ziplock bags with a damp paper towel in them and a pair of forceps (tweezers). When I find some lichen I want to look through I use the forceps to take some (usually only a small bit - about the size of a quart or a bit bigger) and store it in a humidified bag.
When I'm ready to look at my sample, I fill a clear plastic petri dish with distilled or spring water. Then I drop in a bit of lichen (again about the size of a quarter). Then I quickly mash the sample around in the water to knock the tardigrades off the lichen (use your fingers or forceps).
Tardigrades don't swim (even marine or fresh water species) - they crawl. So when you place your dish under a dissecting microscope focus on the bottom of the dish. You will probably see a lot of debris - sand, dirt, tiny roots, some other microorganisms, etc. Too much debris can be really hard to sort through - so for your first try you might want to start with some lichen off a tree since this won't have as much dirt on it as say moss from a patch of forest.
The hardest part of this process is finding your first tardigrade. Once you find one your eyes will get trained for what to look for and it should get easier. Remember when you first put the tardigrades in water they will probably be curled up in their inactive tuns. So at first that's what you should look for. But after about an hour or so they should be kicking around and moving - this is what I usually look for.
Good luck and happy (water) bear hunting!
