Friday, September 28, 2012
Amarillo News Channel 10!
This morning I visited the local Amarillo news station with my advisor, Dr. Ray Matlack, to watch him film his weekly educational segment, "West Texas Wild." I got a behind-the-scenes look at the blue screen, the cameras (all taller than me), and I met a few of the news anchors. We hung out all morning comparing wildlife stories and discussing tornadoes with the storm-chasing meteorologist (he is braver than me!). Afterward Ray and I scoped out some waterfowl on a flooded lake; it's been raining all week and numerous species are very pleased with the churned sediment and elevated water levels. Be sure to tune in every Friday morning to learn a little more about wildlife in the Panhandle of Texas, and be on the lookout for more videography and educational films, because Ray and I have plans, and soon I'll be coming to a television near you!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sequoia National Forest, Week 1
The end of a run is almost as busy as the beginning of a run. For us, a "run" is classified as a four week period in which Primary Sampling Units, or PSU's (defined in our training book, by the way, as "a unit which is primarily sampled"...), are set and checked once every seven days. Each PSU consists of three stations, and each station has one each of a camera trap, bait, and hair snags, as well as a track plate box to collect the tracks (and hopefully hair) of whomever or whatever decides to enter (or, more commonly, destroy) the box.
The end of Run 1 saw everyone arriving on that Friday sweaty, dirty, and smelly... well, that's not particularly any different from field days all over the world, but the end of a run involves pulling all field sampling material and organizing (organizing?!) data by the end of business, so we were all rushing about. Luckily, we had a week of office work between runs.
The office week included sorting photos ("is that a cow?"), washing track plates, organizing all written data for each PSU, and re-sooting track plates. Our track plates are metal sheets burned with an acetylene torch, the result being a black ash that gets on the paws of an animal and is then pressed onto sticky paper as it walks through the track plate box. I was really excited to learn how to use the torch, as it was highschool the last time I touched one. In learning how to use the torch, I was reminded of our oxyacetylene lesson in highschool in which one of my fellow classmates caught his pants on fire and didn't realize it until the flames were licking up to his thighs. No one was hurt too badly, so I can laugh in hindsight, but the acetylene torch is no joke and a lot of caution goes into sooting track plates.
With trucks cleaned, blisters healed, and new partners, we embarked south into Sequoia National Forest!
For this first week I was assigned SCA volunteer Katy, a really awesome chick with zero fear and an intense love for soccer. We were stationed near an area known as "The Needles." The name comes from the intensity of the granite peaks that cap the landscape. Additionally, the lines on the topographic map are so close together that it looks like needles drew it!
The end of Run 1 saw everyone arriving on that Friday sweaty, dirty, and smelly... well, that's not particularly any different from field days all over the world, but the end of a run involves pulling all field sampling material and organizing (organizing?!) data by the end of business, so we were all rushing about. Luckily, we had a week of office work between runs.
The office week included sorting photos ("is that a cow?"), washing track plates, organizing all written data for each PSU, and re-sooting track plates. Our track plates are metal sheets burned with an acetylene torch, the result being a black ash that gets on the paws of an animal and is then pressed onto sticky paper as it walks through the track plate box. I was really excited to learn how to use the torch, as it was highschool the last time I touched one. In learning how to use the torch, I was reminded of our oxyacetylene lesson in highschool in which one of my fellow classmates caught his pants on fire and didn't realize it until the flames were licking up to his thighs. No one was hurt too badly, so I can laugh in hindsight, but the acetylene torch is no joke and a lot of caution goes into sooting track plates.
With trucks cleaned, blisters healed, and new partners, we embarked south into Sequoia National Forest!
For this first week I was assigned SCA volunteer Katy, a really awesome chick with zero fear and an intense love for soccer. We were stationed near an area known as "The Needles." The name comes from the intensity of the granite peaks that cap the landscape. Additionally, the lines on the topographic map are so close together that it looks like needles drew it!
The Needles
Sequoia is lower elevation that Sierra, and as a result it was HOT. Our first day of sampling was in an area similar to rolling plains in that it was entirely open and the majority of the vegetation was a wheat-like grass (sorry, I don't know the species!). However, it isn't prairie land, so the hills were steep and there were actually a few trees. Because the hike was so long, however, we only got two of the three stations set. On the hike out, Katy saw her first rattlesnake! I tried so hard to get a decent photo, but he was almost five feet long and as thick around as my forearm, so my trekking poles weren't actually long enough for me to be very safe. I did get a decent audio piece, so I will post it later (I have a difficult time with video on this blog domain).
Katy on the hike out from our open site
You can hardly see him, but this picture is a great example of why those rattlers are a good warning. He was HUGE!
I also found a little scorpion
We stayed at a remote little campsite at the center of our PSU's. Unfortunately, every week we returned, someone had left a bunch of garbage in the non-bear-safe containers and some critters had strewn the trash throughout the site. The first two nights of this week, Katy and I shared the site with two other crew members, Brad and Ben. We had an interesting time starting a fire with random kindling (I brought marshmallows) and chasing some curious cows away from our campsite. When Brad and Ben left, however, Katy and I were happy to have the cows as company, because the trash issue meant there was one very curious black bear who circled our campsite every night. We never saw him/her, but the animal made enough noise to convince us that it wasn't a raccoon.
The rest of our week involved my introduction to some pretty intense hikes (because of the way SCA's rotate, Katy was only with me for the install week). While I've always enjoyed a challenge, I don't think I've ever really had a hiking experience that I disliked in any way... until now. Katy and I had one hike that was 1500 m in to the first station, and it took us four hours to get down (yes, very, very down) because the landscape was literally a slide pf pine needles and rock drop-offs. Using the topo map wasn't very helpful because every time we thought we'd hiked up to a ridgeline, it dropped off again. Katy and I get along famously so the days were full of laughs and exploring and enjoying our surroundings as we completed our tasks, but this site was brutal. It could be the yellow jacket nest I stepped on first thing in the morning, or it could be that the hike out- scratch that- up, was one of the most intense I've ever done while working. Before you assume that it's either A) the worst thing in the entire world and that we are just that badass, or B) that is wasn't actually that hard and I'm just whining, remember that we were carrying fifty pounds on our backs! Despite the site being old growth forest and therefore shady, we both went through four liters of water each and were still dehydrated. However, the site was really beautiful... I just never got any pictures of it the entire run because it was so intense.
The third day involved road drops... meaning that the hikes weren't very
far from roads and we didn't have to suit up for all three at once. The
drive out to our first site was easily one of the most beautiful I've
ever seen! We were really in the heart of the Needles on this day. On the early morning drive, we saw several critters, including squirrels, tons of adorable cottontails, and one grey fox.
One cottontail was brave enough to let me lean out of the truck window and snap a few.
Katy and I thought our second hike would be as easy as the first one and that we would probably complete the day an hour earlier than usual. The hike in question was only 317 m from the truck! It was pretty much straight up, but the directions from the crew who did this hike five years ago said to stick to the ridgeline and avoid the brush.
Well.... it wasn't exactly that easy. The brush was everywhere! It was impenetrable. Manzanita is a real pain in the ass- it's similar to the northwest plant called Alder in it's rigidity, satanic nature, and desire to suck you into the earth (I'm only slightly kidding). The "manz" was uphill, sidehill, downhill. It was indeed a slippery slope. Looking at the topo map and comparing it with the written directions and drawings, we decided it would be best to scale some rocks and approach our site from behind. We climbed for about half an hour and dropped into a pretty little stream full of wildflowers:
It took us THREE HOURS to hike 300m! THREE! We were not impressed with ourselves, and even less impressed with how overgrown the site was and how difficult it was to swim through the vegetation. But, it is wonderful wildlife habitat, and it if were easy everyone would be doing it!
Day four, by comparison, wasn't that hard at all. We had some longer hikes and a little confusion with abandoned service roads, but since it was a drive out day (that alone takes four hours), the sites had to be a little easier. Because the vegetation changed in the five years since it had last been serviced, however, we were unable to get to one of the locations in time because an old road was so overgrown.
I think this is a juvenile male western tanager. I tried so hard to photograph an adult tanager, but alas!
We had an awesome install week. It was really hard physically, but Sequoia National Forest is SO beautiful. We even saw a few Sequoias (we camped right by the famous Trail of a Hundred Giants). Here are a few landscape photos:
View of the Little Kern River
Nature is so large and we are so small. It's beautiful.
Searching for lizards!
We get paid to work here!
I'm definitely having a "top of the world" moment.
Saturday, July 28, 2012
Mountain Lions!
We just ended our third week in Sequoia National Forest. With many highlights to write about, I must share the most epic of them all:
Yesterday, while hiking back to the truck (the glorious truck that would take us home, since it was the end of the week and we were exhausted), admittedly tuckered out and shuffling, I looked down and stopped short. There in the sand, atop OUR thirty minute old boot tracks, were mountain lion tracks! I asked my partner, Ben, if it was what I thought it was. As we were bent down looking at the track, we noticed several more along the old, reclaimed service road, and heading in the same direction we were heading. Since it had taken us no more than thirty minutes to hike out to our station and start the hike back, the tracks were at the oldest twenty five minutes old. Which meant that we had likely walked right by the cat! We very quickly righted ourselves and looked up and around instead of down at the track. Listening intently around us, we cautiously continued towards the truck, which was about 500 meters away. While we walked, we took note that the great cat was still using the road ahead of us, perhaps very closely ahead of us, and the angry birds and squirrels up ahead confirmed that we were indeed close to the cat. As we walked together, Ben pointed at another set of much larger tracks. There were TWO mountain lions walking the road.
Well shit.
I am a stickler about carrying my bear spray. Anyone who knows me knows that I always carry it (I was taught well by my good friend Bobbie). Bear spray shoots fifteen feet and promises to deter any charging animal from eviscerating you (that is, of course, if you draw faster than they can run. Which isn't always likely.). Stronger than military-grade mace, it will put the largest grizzly bear on his behind and send mountain lions screaming like babies. As my luck would have it, I noticed yesterday morning that the safety trigger on my bear spray had been lost in the field, and I decided to take the spray off my pack for this short, last hike lest I accidentally spray myself . What could possibly go wrong in thirty short minutes on an abandoned service road?
Completely ridiculous.
Armed now with only a rock (which would probably just piss something off even more and make them decorate the nearest fir with my entrails like a holiday tree in retaliation), Ben and I were anxious as we slowly advanced to the truck. In most cases, a black bear will only charge you if defending a cub or a food source. A grizzly bear has a considerably more sour temperament and will do the same thing, but with more unpredictability and often without being provoked. Moose are stupid and angry and not to be trusted. The mountain lion is none of these things, yet all of these things, and probably the most dangerous, as they are silent and will usually only engage with another animal if they are going to kill it. In short, a bear will mock charge you, size you up as a competitor or a threat, but a mountain lion almost always has one thought: can I kill this? With many friends having been stalked by the mountain lion, it is not an encounter I craved on foot. Even as I type, my friends and I are discussing how bear spray is not a competitive weapon against the speed of power of a mountain lion.
And now, almost comically, Ben and I were walking alongside these tracks. We realize we are upwind of the track direction (meaning they couldn't smell us). As I'm about to shout out, make a lot of noise, we suddenly hear a crash around the corner. The crash is very big and very fast and to our right, and very seriously close. Milliseconds later, a second crash echoes to our left. The birds and squirrels are angry. Ben and I freeze like prey, waiting for more sound. Nothing.
The wind had suddenly shifted us downwind of the cats (which in this case was in our favor, but that is not always so...). With this wind change, we startled the two cats and they bolted before our noise could do the same thing. We were only 100 meters from a mother mountain lion and her half-grown cub! With the hair on my neck rising and my senses on overload, we also bolted through the space we last heard sound, making noise and trying to sound big. In doing so, we noticed more tracks, but these ones were pointing in our direction.
The cats were walking right towards us!
When we got to the truck, we reasoned by the tracks that the two cats had walked along the road to our truck (likely drawn to the smell of rotting chicken in the cooler) and had balked at the sight of the vehicle. Turning back, they backtracked their own tracks up the road the way they had come, which was right towards us. We were closing the distance to one another in a very short amount of time. Thankfully, I noticed that first track and we were as ready as we could have been as opposed to what would could have easily been a bad situation as we hiked in exhausted silence. And this all took place in a very short period of time.
One hell of a thrill! I consider myself competent and able in the field, but the laws of nature are simple: let your guard down and you die. Always a chatterbox in the field, I don't think many days pass where wildlife doesn't know exactly where we are, and being ever vigilant in observing our surroundings helps keep us safe. By noticing the faint tracks in the sand, we knew what was there, but being tired probably assisted us in getting close to the cats because of the wind direction and our lack of noise.
Yesterday, while hiking back to the truck (the glorious truck that would take us home, since it was the end of the week and we were exhausted), admittedly tuckered out and shuffling, I looked down and stopped short. There in the sand, atop OUR thirty minute old boot tracks, were mountain lion tracks! I asked my partner, Ben, if it was what I thought it was. As we were bent down looking at the track, we noticed several more along the old, reclaimed service road, and heading in the same direction we were heading. Since it had taken us no more than thirty minutes to hike out to our station and start the hike back, the tracks were at the oldest twenty five minutes old. Which meant that we had likely walked right by the cat! We very quickly righted ourselves and looked up and around instead of down at the track. Listening intently around us, we cautiously continued towards the truck, which was about 500 meters away. While we walked, we took note that the great cat was still using the road ahead of us, perhaps very closely ahead of us, and the angry birds and squirrels up ahead confirmed that we were indeed close to the cat. As we walked together, Ben pointed at another set of much larger tracks. There were TWO mountain lions walking the road.
Well shit.
I am a stickler about carrying my bear spray. Anyone who knows me knows that I always carry it (I was taught well by my good friend Bobbie). Bear spray shoots fifteen feet and promises to deter any charging animal from eviscerating you (that is, of course, if you draw faster than they can run. Which isn't always likely.). Stronger than military-grade mace, it will put the largest grizzly bear on his behind and send mountain lions screaming like babies. As my luck would have it, I noticed yesterday morning that the safety trigger on my bear spray had been lost in the field, and I decided to take the spray off my pack for this short, last hike lest I accidentally spray myself . What could possibly go wrong in thirty short minutes on an abandoned service road?
Completely ridiculous.
Armed now with only a rock (which would probably just piss something off even more and make them decorate the nearest fir with my entrails like a holiday tree in retaliation), Ben and I were anxious as we slowly advanced to the truck. In most cases, a black bear will only charge you if defending a cub or a food source. A grizzly bear has a considerably more sour temperament and will do the same thing, but with more unpredictability and often without being provoked. Moose are stupid and angry and not to be trusted. The mountain lion is none of these things, yet all of these things, and probably the most dangerous, as they are silent and will usually only engage with another animal if they are going to kill it. In short, a bear will mock charge you, size you up as a competitor or a threat, but a mountain lion almost always has one thought: can I kill this? With many friends having been stalked by the mountain lion, it is not an encounter I craved on foot. Even as I type, my friends and I are discussing how bear spray is not a competitive weapon against the speed of power of a mountain lion.
And now, almost comically, Ben and I were walking alongside these tracks. We realize we are upwind of the track direction (meaning they couldn't smell us). As I'm about to shout out, make a lot of noise, we suddenly hear a crash around the corner. The crash is very big and very fast and to our right, and very seriously close. Milliseconds later, a second crash echoes to our left. The birds and squirrels are angry. Ben and I freeze like prey, waiting for more sound. Nothing.
The wind had suddenly shifted us downwind of the cats (which in this case was in our favor, but that is not always so...). With this wind change, we startled the two cats and they bolted before our noise could do the same thing. We were only 100 meters from a mother mountain lion and her half-grown cub! With the hair on my neck rising and my senses on overload, we also bolted through the space we last heard sound, making noise and trying to sound big. In doing so, we noticed more tracks, but these ones were pointing in our direction.
The cats were walking right towards us!
When we got to the truck, we reasoned by the tracks that the two cats had walked along the road to our truck (likely drawn to the smell of rotting chicken in the cooler) and had balked at the sight of the vehicle. Turning back, they backtracked their own tracks up the road the way they had come, which was right towards us. We were closing the distance to one another in a very short amount of time. Thankfully, I noticed that first track and we were as ready as we could have been as opposed to what would could have easily been a bad situation as we hiked in exhausted silence. And this all took place in a very short period of time.
One hell of a thrill! I consider myself competent and able in the field, but the laws of nature are simple: let your guard down and you die. Always a chatterbox in the field, I don't think many days pass where wildlife doesn't know exactly where we are, and being ever vigilant in observing our surroundings helps keep us safe. By noticing the faint tracks in the sand, we knew what was there, but being tired probably assisted us in getting close to the cats because of the wind direction and our lack of noise.
The smaller of the two mountain lion tracks.
A great run in Sequoia! Lots of fishers, hills, bears, and beautiful scenery. And, as we've found, there are a few cougars in the area! More on that later...
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Thought For The Day
“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid
in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out,
and loudly proclaiming 'Wow! What a Ride!'"
― Hunter S. Thompson
― Hunter S. Thompson
Monday, July 9, 2012
Run 1, Or, I'm Tired of Katy Perry
I'm currently taking a break from cooking and packing to spend the month of July camping in Sequoia National Forest for this next run, where things are sure to be a tad more unbridled than the last run. However, the last three weeks involved plenty of adventure as my partner Rachel and I began station checks for mustelids. With half of our stations at higher elevation (7,000 and 9,000 ft) and the other half at 4,500 ft, we had a nice mix of easier vs. more difficult hikes. I finally saw fisher tracks! This is my first experience with fishers ( Martes pennanti), and while I've previously only seen a few marten (Martes americana) tracks, it's been a blast viewing photos of different species at our camera stations. Rachel and I had one set of stations where, every single week, bears would come and steal our bait, and one week a bear grabbed the cord holding our camera to the tree and chewed it off. Another bear was camera shy and slapped the camera to face another direction so he could snack in private. As I mentioned in the last post, I can't share project photos, but I can share the stories... for example, seeing my first wild flying squirrel on camera, or a black bear sow with a very curious cub.
We had one marten who was very angry at the track plate box and flipped it in the process of tearing out the back wire to get at the bait, two weeks in a row. I was surprised that the little weasels have the strength to do so, but I've been assured that they have really bad attitudes (reminds me of bobcats!). Rachel and I were unsure if it was a marten (we found scat at the box) or a bear ripping up the box, as most often the bears are guilty of "womping" the track plate boxes to get the meat inside. To determine the culprit, Rachel and I laid a large log over the box so that a bear could still lift it, but not a 1kg (two pound) marten. Sure enough, when we came back last week, the marten had conceded and entered the track plate box to get his prize rather than tear the box to pieces.
Rachel and I found lots to talk about this last month. Her and I are similar in our ability to talk, quite literally, about anything. We discussed everything from grad school to baking to research projects we'd worked on to why that particular hill totally sucked to... Katy Perry. Actually, we didn't really talk about Katy Perry. Rather, we talked about how we didn't want to talk about Katy Perry. You see, when I was on the bear project last year, I lived with five men in the woods all summer. I learned a lot about what men want in a woman, and I learned a lot about this particular performer. The discussion about how I got tired of hearing about female celebrities stuck, and from then out became a metaphor for which everything we didn't want to do, or hear on the radio, or disliked. While I'm sure this is not the household legacy the singer envisioned for herself, the metaphor became an expletive when faced with a particularly rotten piece of chicken not stolen by a carnivore: "This chicken stinks! Katy Perry!"
Two weeks ago we saw a ringtail run right in front of us on the road! Ringtails (Bassariscus astutus) are mammals in the raccoon family and are sometimes referred to as ringtail cats. Neither raccoon or cat, these little mammals are generalist omnivores, eating whatever is available, from fruits to insects to small mammals. They are adorable!
To my mother's terror, I also saw my first wild rattlesnake! Rachel worked in the Sonoran desert for a year and has a lot of experience with rattlesnakes, so she helped me get as close as possible in attempts to take a photo. Sadly, the little guy was pretty scared, so we opted to leave him alone as opposed to agitate him with the camera. Next time!
While embarking on one extremely miserable route to a station (it took us one hour to hike 200 meters downhill), through brush, burrs, poison oak, and a lot of Katy Perry's, we were rewarded at our wits' end by a very rare encounter. As Rachel barreled through some very nasty vines, I paused a few feet behind to contemplate my next step and catch my breath. Suddenly and silently, I caught movement about six feet in front of me. A screech owl alighted on the branch right in front of me and stared at me very intently. In that moment, I was very happy to be wearing my sunglasses, because she did not look happy with me. I started slightly when heard a rapid clicking and thrashing to my left, and when I turned I was met with two more pairs of yellow moon eyes. Juvenile screech owls! The adult in front of me suddenly took off, likely trying to lure me away from her young, who were obviously learning to fly. One of the fluffy juveniles was comically hanging sideways onto a vine and clicking at me rather angrily. The little bird had apparently tried to fly away and landed in a rather compromising position instead. His wings outstretched, I watched him silently from two feet away, both of us pondering our next move. He decided first and took off, narrowly missing my face and crashing to the ground right at my feet. I wish I had picked him up immediately, but I wasn't sure if it would be too stressful; I wasn't really concerned about the horrible bite I would have received (one of our crew members has worked with owls before and said it wouldn't have been horrible for the bird if I'd helped him out of the vines). Fortunately for the owl, another take-off was all he needed to escape the vines that were limiting his training session, and he flew to the tree above me and perched. The second juvenile regarded me coolly, seemingly unafraid like his sibling and every bit the wise characters of movies, so I moved in with my camera to get photos. By this time Rachel had crept back to take some photos, and I was able to get two feet from the owl for a good snapshot.
Disclosure: I often blast Katy Perry songs on the radio when driving in the field truck with the windows down.
We had one marten who was very angry at the track plate box and flipped it in the process of tearing out the back wire to get at the bait, two weeks in a row. I was surprised that the little weasels have the strength to do so, but I've been assured that they have really bad attitudes (reminds me of bobcats!). Rachel and I were unsure if it was a marten (we found scat at the box) or a bear ripping up the box, as most often the bears are guilty of "womping" the track plate boxes to get the meat inside. To determine the culprit, Rachel and I laid a large log over the box so that a bear could still lift it, but not a 1kg (two pound) marten. Sure enough, when we came back last week, the marten had conceded and entered the track plate box to get his prize rather than tear the box to pieces.
Rachel and I found lots to talk about this last month. Her and I are similar in our ability to talk, quite literally, about anything. We discussed everything from grad school to baking to research projects we'd worked on to why that particular hill totally sucked to... Katy Perry. Actually, we didn't really talk about Katy Perry. Rather, we talked about how we didn't want to talk about Katy Perry. You see, when I was on the bear project last year, I lived with five men in the woods all summer. I learned a lot about what men want in a woman, and I learned a lot about this particular performer. The discussion about how I got tired of hearing about female celebrities stuck, and from then out became a metaphor for which everything we didn't want to do, or hear on the radio, or disliked. While I'm sure this is not the household legacy the singer envisioned for herself, the metaphor became an expletive when faced with a particularly rotten piece of chicken not stolen by a carnivore: "This chicken stinks! Katy Perry!"
Rachel recording data
A ringtail, post-release, from another project last fall here in the Sierras. Photo by M Cancellare
Lower elevation, in rattlesnake territory
While embarking on one extremely miserable route to a station (it took us one hour to hike 200 meters downhill), through brush, burrs, poison oak, and a lot of Katy Perry's, we were rewarded at our wits' end by a very rare encounter. As Rachel barreled through some very nasty vines, I paused a few feet behind to contemplate my next step and catch my breath. Suddenly and silently, I caught movement about six feet in front of me. A screech owl alighted on the branch right in front of me and stared at me very intently. In that moment, I was very happy to be wearing my sunglasses, because she did not look happy with me. I started slightly when heard a rapid clicking and thrashing to my left, and when I turned I was met with two more pairs of yellow moon eyes. Juvenile screech owls! The adult in front of me suddenly took off, likely trying to lure me away from her young, who were obviously learning to fly. One of the fluffy juveniles was comically hanging sideways onto a vine and clicking at me rather angrily. The little bird had apparently tried to fly away and landed in a rather compromising position instead. His wings outstretched, I watched him silently from two feet away, both of us pondering our next move. He decided first and took off, narrowly missing my face and crashing to the ground right at my feet. I wish I had picked him up immediately, but I wasn't sure if it would be too stressful; I wasn't really concerned about the horrible bite I would have received (one of our crew members has worked with owls before and said it wouldn't have been horrible for the bird if I'd helped him out of the vines). Fortunately for the owl, another take-off was all he needed to escape the vines that were limiting his training session, and he flew to the tree above me and perched. The second juvenile regarded me coolly, seemingly unafraid like his sibling and every bit the wise characters of movies, so I moved in with my camera to get photos. By this time Rachel had crept back to take some photos, and I was able to get two feet from the owl for a good snapshot.
Isn't he adorable?!
Well, it's 8:45pm and I'm supposed to be in bed in an hour and I still have tons to pack for camping this week in Sequoia, so I've got to cut this posting short. Katy Perry!
Disclosure: I often blast Katy Perry songs on the radio when driving in the field truck with the windows down.
Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Week 1 Recap
The time lapse between posts can only be explained with a combination of no internet access and an extremely busy month! My previous post left off with crew training, and since then we have been unleashed into the wilds of the Sierra Nevada to chase mustelids and acquire battle wounds (also known as knowledge).
As Forest Service employees, our schedules are 4-10's, or four days out of the work week. As a result, these days usually range between nine and thirteen hours. The first week of real work saw me paired with one of the Student Conservation Organization volunteers, Clark, who is a fellow North Carolinian!
The Sierras are absolutely and breathtakingly beautiful. The waterfalls, the trees, the wildflowers, and the wildlife are surreal individually, but when all together in one place, the senses are overwhelmed. There was even snow at the beginning of the month! One of my sites for Run 1 was at about 9300 ft in elevation, and our first day of work was an unexpected 40 degrees Fahrenheit. I love winter, and I miss snow, so despite being a tad brisk, Clark and I worked well together setting up our stations on day one and throughout the week. Per station, the chicken is placed in a wire "burrito" and nailed to a tree with gun brushes surrounding the bait to collect hair samples from whatever visits the station, with photos capturing the activity. Nearby, a small piece of meat invites animals into the trackplate box, where the sooted track plate catches their footprints (and thus species identification) on contact paper, and where barbed wire at the entrance might snag a hair sample. Oh, and the scent lure. Who can forget the scent lure? During training we combined a magical mixture of skunk scent glands, animal urine (I forget the species), and some other ground up wildlife secretions with lanolin to create a glorious spread that smells like rotten garlic, horseradish, and a lot of dead stuff. We spread that on the bait tree to hopefully entice the mustelids to visit our stations (but everything else loves it too). And yes, I somehow managed to get it in my hair that first week.
As Forest Service employees, our schedules are 4-10's, or four days out of the work week. As a result, these days usually range between nine and thirteen hours. The first week of real work saw me paired with one of the Student Conservation Organization volunteers, Clark, who is a fellow North Carolinian!
Day One, Go! Photo by C. O'Bannon.
The first week of the run (or the time period for which sampling units are, uh, sampled) involves the put-in of survey materials: camera stations and track plate stations. Each station consists of one camera and one track plate, and our job consists of navigating to these pre-set points (which have been sampled repeatedly over the last ten years for both fisher and marten presence) via GPS data and creating the station. For each person within a team, that means a backpack full of nails, tools, chicken wire, raw chicken, cameras and bear-proof camera boxes (those puppies are heavy!), and the materials to build a track plate. Oh, and barbed wire. I learned to hate barbed wire last summer on the bear project, so I'm happy to only have to use small strips of it (the wire catches hair samples from visiting animals). Combined with food, water, and whatever else one can fit into a pack, we're carrying between thirty and forty pounds on the put-in week.
Translation: Running and strength training was a joke.
I was flattered to find that Clark considers me a field veteran, which, despite making me sound old, means I actually know difficult field work. Hell, I tore my hip flexor doing field work. The second day of my field research career had me climbing cliffs not covered in my rock climbing class, and I lived. I am very fortunate to have done and seen some amazing things, but I must say that hiking up to ten miles a day, uphill, with that kind of weight is not something you train for other than by hiking ten miles a day, uphill, with forty pounds on your back. The first week was a little bit of a challenge, I admit! But, a few cool things happened and it ended up being a challenge met with zest (ok, and a few expletives).
On day one, as Clark and I turned onto a FS road that I commented was exactly the kind of road you see bears or bobcats or coyotes on at 7 in the morning, lo and behold, a bear ran right in front of our truck! First one of the season, and if you know me, you know I am always excited for a wildlife sighting. A real wildlife sighting- not the interactions in parks where wildlife are conditioned to human presence, or even holding a wild animal under anesthesia (though that is a priceless experience)- rivals all experiences because, for a fleeting moment, we get to see an animal being just that. It's unbridled, sometimes dangerous, and awesome, because while we still startle one another, for two or five seconds we get to witness a creature unharmed and untainted by anything unnatural.
Clark holds his breath while mixing our scent lure, called Gusto. No gusto was involved in the mixing of this Gusto.
One of our sites from the put-in week was unrealistically gorgeous: any one of the LOTR movies, or the show Game of Thrones, or another Jurassic Park, could be filmed in this location. We navigated through drones of honey bees as they buzzed like one great machine in a field of bear clover, which is a thigh-high brush with daisy-like buds and a sappy residue that covers your boots and pants. All week, but particularly at this site, we were visited by hummingbirds, presumably attracted to our bright yellow helmets as they darted past our ear and over our heads or perched on a nearby branch and chirped at us. Another part of the site was also covered with poison oak, but since this project might as well have stock in Tecnu (a lotion that removes poison oak and ivy oils), we were okay. Shortly after the photo below was taken, Clark and I encountered a herd of domestic cows (farmers and ranchers can lease public land for grazing) and were chased downhill.
Note: cows run fast, especially when angry and on loose substrate.
Do I look hot? It was 95F and six miles uphill!
Vista from atop one of our sites.
Photo taken at about 5500 ft elevation, facing East, from a vista at one of our sites.
Glorious view of Huntington Lake, just before our bear sighting.
Once the put-ins are complete for each run, we then sample each site once a week for three weeks. This involves collecting hair samples, track plate prints, and photographs of our visitors. I'm not able to share the wildlife camera photos with you on this site, but I do have a lot of cool stories to share for this run! Unfortunately, Clark was only my partner for the first week, because we have a position called the "Lone Wolf" where someone is responsible for working with crew leaders to accomplish things both in the field and in the office, and with a weekly rotation for this position, I traded off to a new partner for week two onwards when Clark became the Lone Wolf. We're in the office all week, which means I have time to access internet, which means I will be posting my adventures (and tons more photos) with Rachel very soon!
AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! I'm so thankful to live in a country where I can pursue my vividly wild and ambitious dreams.
AND HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY! I'm so thankful to live in a country where I can pursue my vividly wild and ambitious dreams.
YEAH!
Saturday, May 26, 2012
The Crunchies
We've just completed our first week of training on the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project. Based in Shaver Lake, CA, our crew of thirteen is learning the ropes for surveys across the Sierra and Sequoia National Forests. I'm having a blast! First of all, the entire crew is great. We've had a lot of fun kicking the soccer ball around during breaks (I'm learning) and we even had an epic dance party last night, topped off with a snowball fight. Yes. You read that correctly. I said snow! We got two inches as part of a short cold front passing through. One crew member had never seen snow fall, so we did our best to lug as many snowballs as possible at him.
Since this project has been ongoing for ten years, and because other fisher projects exist within close proximity, the locals often refer to these field crews as "The Crunchies." The nickname apparently originated from a shared love of granola and conservation, so our reputation as respectable field crews also includes our love of Clif Bars, dehydrating our own fruit, playing guitar, owning several nalgenes, and avid climbing and hiking. I'm currently learning to play the guitar and mandolin, so combined with a love for carnivores, I am officially a crunchy! A few of us have already heard "oh, you're one of the crunchies," and it's only been a week!
This long-term project is looking at the abundance of fishers and martens, two predators in the mustelid (weasel) family and monitoring population decline and genetics. Fishers are of particular conservation concern, as the species requires old growth forests and cannot thrive in younger stands or areas that are logged. As a result, controversy surrounds the California populations of fishers, as they are warranted for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but doing so raises several issues for forest management, among others. So, our job is to look at where fishers live, how abundant they are, and to examine gene flow to monitor connectivity and population soundness. The status of martens is not as dire, but we will examine this cousin as well as note other carnivores in this region.
This week has been spent learning project protocol, learning how to build track plates, and identifying the tracks of several mammals, from fishers to bears to small rodents (squirrel species tracks are hard!). Track plates are awesome tools to noninvasively determine what species live in certain areas as well as collect hair samples for DNA analysis. A box covers a metal plate where one half of the plate is sooted and the other is lined with a slightly sticky contact paper, and when an animal enters the box on the open side (usually drawn in with a tasty piece of chicken), their footprints are left on the paper from the soot. We have barbed wire over the entrance of the track plate box, so if we are lucky we also get a hair sample. I'm really looking forward to seeing what critters visit our track plates, except for the bears because they usually "whomp" or dissemble the boxes in their curiosity or hunger. We also set one of our sampling unit stations as practice:
Next week involves driving training for the Forest Service, and hopefully more exploring during our evenings. A group of us climbed this enormous rock overlooking the river feeding out of Shaver Lake, where we shared a few beers while watching the sunset and a pair of nesting ospreys. With the snow mostly melted, we might camp on that rock tomorrow night!
Since this project has been ongoing for ten years, and because other fisher projects exist within close proximity, the locals often refer to these field crews as "The Crunchies." The nickname apparently originated from a shared love of granola and conservation, so our reputation as respectable field crews also includes our love of Clif Bars, dehydrating our own fruit, playing guitar, owning several nalgenes, and avid climbing and hiking. I'm currently learning to play the guitar and mandolin, so combined with a love for carnivores, I am officially a crunchy! A few of us have already heard "oh, you're one of the crunchies," and it's only been a week!
This long-term project is looking at the abundance of fishers and martens, two predators in the mustelid (weasel) family and monitoring population decline and genetics. Fishers are of particular conservation concern, as the species requires old growth forests and cannot thrive in younger stands or areas that are logged. As a result, controversy surrounds the California populations of fishers, as they are warranted for listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but doing so raises several issues for forest management, among others. So, our job is to look at where fishers live, how abundant they are, and to examine gene flow to monitor connectivity and population soundness. The status of martens is not as dire, but we will examine this cousin as well as note other carnivores in this region.
This week has been spent learning project protocol, learning how to build track plates, and identifying the tracks of several mammals, from fishers to bears to small rodents (squirrel species tracks are hard!). Track plates are awesome tools to noninvasively determine what species live in certain areas as well as collect hair samples for DNA analysis. A box covers a metal plate where one half of the plate is sooted and the other is lined with a slightly sticky contact paper, and when an animal enters the box on the open side (usually drawn in with a tasty piece of chicken), their footprints are left on the paper from the soot. We have barbed wire over the entrance of the track plate box, so if we are lucky we also get a hair sample. I'm really looking forward to seeing what critters visit our track plates, except for the bears because they usually "whomp" or dissemble the boxes in their curiosity or hunger. We also set one of our sampling unit stations as practice:
Mark placing flagging at one of our sites. Like the gear? Safety is cool at the Forest Service!
Next week involves driving training for the Forest Service, and hopefully more exploring during our evenings. A group of us climbed this enormous rock overlooking the river feeding out of Shaver Lake, where we shared a few beers while watching the sunset and a pair of nesting ospreys. With the snow mostly melted, we might camp on that rock tomorrow night!
Sunday, May 13, 2012
California and a Bobcat
Happy Mother's Day! I don't know about you, but my mom has been there for every tear, giggle, and adventure in my life, particularly in the last few years when I realized I wanted to become a wildlife biologist (unfortunately for her, this still includes me chasing her with the lizards and frogs I catch, just like when I was five years old). Thanks, mom!
Greetings from California! This girl is perching on the west coast (for the first time, I might add)! I am super stoked to start the summer field season on the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project. I'm really looking forward to brushing up on old skills and learning new ones, such as working with track plates and learning more about fishers and martens. I'm currently in a little town called Barstow, which is about 300 miles from our destination in Shaver Lake. Mark and I broke up the drive from TX to CA with a stop in the Texas Panhandle. We have had one hell of a trip. It's our third cross-country trip together and my seventh overall, and by far the best. We had the treat of watching a wild bobcat, with time to ruminate over the experience.
On our way through the beautiful Texas Panhandle, we spotted the bobcat in the middle of a horse pasture. With private pasture land for miles, I was surprised to see a bobcat in such open terrain (more due to my experience of bobcats preferring montane forests rather than the abnormality of the behavior, though with such little cover, I was still impressed). At first we thought it was a grey fox, and then a coyote. As we pulled a u-turn, I was bursting with excitement when Mark realized it was a bobcat (actually, I believe I let out a few expletives to illustrate said excitement). The cat had something in it's mouth, and when we came to a stop about one hundred feet away we saw it was a prairie dog. We've all seen episodes of National Geographic and witnessed the raw audacity of predation second-hand, and while we didn't witness the chase, I don't think I have words for the short moment that this bobcat calmly forced the last breath from his prey. Once he caught his breath and realized we weren't threatening or particularly interesting, he began to enjoy his hard-earned meal. For almost thirty minutes we watched what we estimated to be an older male (based on size and location) eat, alternating between the sound of crunching bones and an occasional cool glance in our direction. We started the truck and pulled forward once when a curious and hungry horse galloped in our direction- we didn't want our cat to lose his meal. Once the horse angrily galloped off in the opposite direction, we returned to our post, where I quietly belly-crawled a few yards closer for some more photos. Here are my favorites:
Greetings from California! This girl is perching on the west coast (for the first time, I might add)! I am super stoked to start the summer field season on the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project. I'm really looking forward to brushing up on old skills and learning new ones, such as working with track plates and learning more about fishers and martens. I'm currently in a little town called Barstow, which is about 300 miles from our destination in Shaver Lake. Mark and I broke up the drive from TX to CA with a stop in the Texas Panhandle. We have had one hell of a trip. It's our third cross-country trip together and my seventh overall, and by far the best. We had the treat of watching a wild bobcat, with time to ruminate over the experience.
On our way through the beautiful Texas Panhandle, we spotted the bobcat in the middle of a horse pasture. With private pasture land for miles, I was surprised to see a bobcat in such open terrain (more due to my experience of bobcats preferring montane forests rather than the abnormality of the behavior, though with such little cover, I was still impressed). At first we thought it was a grey fox, and then a coyote. As we pulled a u-turn, I was bursting with excitement when Mark realized it was a bobcat (actually, I believe I let out a few expletives to illustrate said excitement). The cat had something in it's mouth, and when we came to a stop about one hundred feet away we saw it was a prairie dog. We've all seen episodes of National Geographic and witnessed the raw audacity of predation second-hand, and while we didn't witness the chase, I don't think I have words for the short moment that this bobcat calmly forced the last breath from his prey. Once he caught his breath and realized we weren't threatening or particularly interesting, he began to enjoy his hard-earned meal. For almost thirty minutes we watched what we estimated to be an older male (based on size and location) eat, alternating between the sound of crunching bones and an occasional cool glance in our direction. We started the truck and pulled forward once when a curious and hungry horse galloped in our direction- we didn't want our cat to lose his meal. Once the horse angrily galloped off in the opposite direction, we returned to our post, where I quietly belly-crawled a few yards closer for some more photos. Here are my favorites:
When the cat decided it was time to go, we were shocked to discover that his front left leg was broken at the 'elbow.' Likely the result of a car strike, missed gun shot, or possibly a trap (farmers don't like bobcats, but they control prairie dog numbers, which destroy pastures), his chances of survival are slim. He looked on the thin side, yet it is one hell of a predator that can successfully hunt a prairie dog in an open pasture. While a car strike is often uncontrollable, we discussed the human threat to carnivores. Sadly, the issue is all too common with predators: farmers, hunters, and anti-carnivore enthusiasts try to control carnivore populations, legally as well as illegally, and often harm incidental captures or escaped targets with their methods. While hunting and trapping is part of the North American model of conservation, our country is currently in the middle of an ant-carnivore craze, and with the bobcat having no hunting or trapping restrictions in Texas, along with (for some) a lack of understanding of the benefit of carnivores (in this case, helping to prevent the destruction of pasture), this cat is going to have a hard time. The experience was bittersweet, and all we can do as biologists and conservationists is work with the community to ensure prosperity for four legged and two legged creatures alike.
Like the new look? I'm hoping to eventually move to a different domain, so thank you for following and reading. Please note the site name alteration!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Kerr High School
Last week I attended Kerr High School's annual Career Day here in Houston to discuss what it means to be a wildlife biologist. I decided to make a poster board to better highlight the things I do, or want to do, and the many amazing things my friends and colleagues have participated in as well. Lucky for me, Kerr High School is a magnet school, meaning that students have to apply for admission and are as a result quite bright and eager to carve successful paths into the future. As I expected, the science world was underrepresented when I arrived, with only myself and a veterinarian to vouch for research-based and animal-related careers (discounting the human medical profession). I was shocked, then, when a handful of students sought me out directly because of their interests in wildlife biology, field work, marine sciences, laboratory work, and other areas of research. To know that wildlife biology has a future in this young generation is very comforting! It was a lot of fun to help students dissect their interest in animals and explain the differences between veterinary medicine and wildlife biology, as a lot of students don't know that being a biologist is really an option. The simple poster board I brought along was most helpful, not only in drawing students to my booth, but in helping them articulate what they want to focus on in college. Because I was unaware of a lot of opportunities until the end of college, I had plenty of information available for varying stages of aspiration: from high school ages to major choices to internships and job opportunities. I brought along The Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, which is considered to be a landmark in the conservation movement and inspires a responsible relationship between people and the environment. Students pored over my lab books, got excited about wildlife rehabilitation volunteerism, and asked so many questions I could hardly keep up.
At one point, I was surrounded by almost fifteen students at once! It was pretty awesome to learn what these students are interested in: marine biology, forest ecology, ornithology, cell biology, working with animals... the list went on. I'm so happy I made little handouts with website information and internship opportunities; I don't think chocolate chip cookies could have disappeared more quickly! We even connected over twitter- social applications and website are growing tools in science and conservation, and no media should be excluded. These young people- curious, intelligent, passionate, shy, and kind- are the future of all fields of conservation. It empowers me to know that not only are we are changing attitudes towards nature, we are changing actions towards nature. After my experience with the awesome Kerr High students, I lost my voice for a day, but I regained some fire in the belly.What an awesome day. You guys rock!
At one point, I was surrounded by almost fifteen students at once! It was pretty awesome to learn what these students are interested in: marine biology, forest ecology, ornithology, cell biology, working with animals... the list went on. I'm so happy I made little handouts with website information and internship opportunities; I don't think chocolate chip cookies could have disappeared more quickly! We even connected over twitter- social applications and website are growing tools in science and conservation, and no media should be excluded. These young people- curious, intelligent, passionate, shy, and kind- are the future of all fields of conservation. It empowers me to know that not only are we are changing attitudes towards nature, we are changing actions towards nature. After my experience with the awesome Kerr High students, I lost my voice for a day, but I regained some fire in the belly.What an awesome day. You guys rock!
Wildlife Biology: where a picture is worth a thousand words
For more information on internships, job opportunities, and graduate information in wildlife biology, visit:
For local wildlife experience (Houston), visit:
Thanks to all my rad friends and colleagues who submitted, or let me steal, photos:
Tor Bertin
Megan Brown
Mark Cancellare
Katie Needham
Roberta Newbury
Kimberly Oldehoeft
Michael Wickens
Clay Wilton
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring
I am excited to announce that I will be joining the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project this summer in central California! I will be working for the US Forest Service on the long term program assessing the status and trend of the Pacific fisher (Martes pennanti) and the American marten (Martes americana). The study takes place in the beautiful Sierra and Sequoia National Forests and involves conducting systematic surveys throughout the region to estimate habitat use by the fisher and the marten, and to detect declines in each species over a ten year monitoring period. A combination of noninvasive techniques- hair snares, camera traps, and track plates- are used for this study to detect animal presence and monitor wildlife genetics. The project monitors population trend and expansion via presence/absence surveys and using microsatellite allele frequencies for genetic monitoring.
Jody Tucker of the University of Montana is currently running this project for her PhD, and I am excited to continue with Montana connections as I work towards graduate school. Most people unfamiliar with the field of wildlife research are surprised to find out that graduate school is not as simple as undergraduate school- one does not generally apply to a university, get accepted, and then join a lab with an available project. It is entirely the opposite, with everything being contingent upon funding, research interests of both professor and student, availability, and competition.
In the meantime, I am stoked to go to California and study the marten and the fisher, both of the weasel family. The fisher is a large terrestrial mustelid (related to the wolverine and the second largest in the family). It is not, contrary to it's name, a hunter of fish, nor does it live on the ocean. Shortly put, fishers live in dense canopy forests, are viscous and adept hunters, and have historically been heavily trapped for their fur. Fishers are of particular conservation interest in California because the remaining Sierra Nevada population is small and geographically isolated, and as a result this carnivore, slightly larger than a domestic cat, is warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the West.
The marten is the third smallest member of the weasel family and is a ferret-sized carnivore considered a sensitive species by the Forest Service. Like the fisher, martens prefer old-growth forests, and logging is largely responsible for their habitat loss and population decline, as new-growth forests do not provide the canopy cover and habitat requirements for populations to thrive. My experience with martens is that they are capable of stealing bait no matter how securely you affix the meat to the tree, but they are also fantastic hunters and very curious animals.
Here is a link to view my marten encounter from Washington:
Curious, Thieving Marten
For more information on the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project, visit:
http://www.rmrs.nau.edu/people/jtucker/
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/snfpa/am/monitoringreport2005/fishermarten.html
Jody Tucker of the University of Montana is currently running this project for her PhD, and I am excited to continue with Montana connections as I work towards graduate school. Most people unfamiliar with the field of wildlife research are surprised to find out that graduate school is not as simple as undergraduate school- one does not generally apply to a university, get accepted, and then join a lab with an available project. It is entirely the opposite, with everything being contingent upon funding, research interests of both professor and student, availability, and competition.
In the meantime, I am stoked to go to California and study the marten and the fisher, both of the weasel family. The fisher is a large terrestrial mustelid (related to the wolverine and the second largest in the family). It is not, contrary to it's name, a hunter of fish, nor does it live on the ocean. Shortly put, fishers live in dense canopy forests, are viscous and adept hunters, and have historically been heavily trapped for their fur. Fishers are of particular conservation interest in California because the remaining Sierra Nevada population is small and geographically isolated, and as a result this carnivore, slightly larger than a domestic cat, is warranted for listing under the Endangered Species Act in the West.
The marten is the third smallest member of the weasel family and is a ferret-sized carnivore considered a sensitive species by the Forest Service. Like the fisher, martens prefer old-growth forests, and logging is largely responsible for their habitat loss and population decline, as new-growth forests do not provide the canopy cover and habitat requirements for populations to thrive. My experience with martens is that they are capable of stealing bait no matter how securely you affix the meat to the tree, but they are also fantastic hunters and very curious animals.
Here is a link to view my marten encounter from Washington:
Curious, Thieving Marten
I can't wait to get out there and meet the crew! I'm also awaiting the results of a few other applications, so more updates to follow. Additionally, my hip recovery is almost entirely complete- woo hoo! Thanks for following- be sure to share with friends and family and spread the message about wildlife research and conservation.
For more information on the Sierra Nevada Carnivore Monitoring Project, visit:
http://www.rmrs.nau.edu/people/jtucker/
http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/snfpa/am/monitoringreport2005/fishermarten.html
California Dreamin'
Photo by M. Maly
Shenandoah National Park
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Injury
I'm sad to report that I am no longer working on the Cascades Carnivore Project, as I tore my hip flexor on the job and have had to resign my position. What a bummer!
I sustained the injury while tracking on a particularly long day, and I mistakenly thought that it was an overworked muscle. Long story short, I did in fact really hurt myself, and the recovery period is six weeks (it's not a complete tear, whew! A severe strain with small tears is a lot easier to mend.). Foxes and wolverines don't wait around for people, so I'm back home in Houston for physical therapy and healing so I can continue working this spring.
I pre-condition for any research position I accept, as the physical demands are often many and being able to keep up obviously means having high cardiovascular endurance, strong joints, and muscle strength. In this field, you have to stay in shape, and jobs will weasel any last shreds of weakness from your body. Since this project involved a lot of snowshoeing, I worked hard in the weeks prior to arriving in Washington to ensure a strong pelvis and high endurance so I wouldn't huff and puff and fall down all the time. Having snowshoed last winter in Montana on the bobcat project, I was not at all concerned that I would hurt anything. Unfortunately, not all things are preventable.
The injury makes for a decent pub story, however, in that I got hurt while tracking a wolverine. Doug Chadwick (author of The Wolverine Way), calls the wolverine an "unmitigated badass" and I couldn't agree more. We followed this guy up and around and he ran and he walked and he loped and he followed fox trails and scaled creeks... but he mostly went up. It took us four hours to follow him three miles, whereas he most certainly covered that distance in less than an hour. In the days following that I worked on the injury, the southern Cascades were covered with almost five feet of snow, making it difficult to check cameras and track animals (there were no tracks!). Undoubtedly, it made my hip worse, but I'm very fortunate that I didn't post-hole (crashing through the snow on one snowshoe) and tear it completely.
I'm really happy to have had this opportunity... I would have preferred to still be up there, as the season runs through the end of March. I really enjoyed my time in the Cascades learning red fox ecology, tracking the elusive wolverine, and refining my tracking skills. I also loved the snowmobiling! All in all, despite what is a very inconvenient injury, I'd still chalk it up to a good experience.
Currently, I am rehabbing, completing a grant application for graduate school, applying for and interviewing for my next research position, and discussing graduate school opportunities with various professors.
For more information on the Cascades Carnivore Project, visit: http://cascadescarnivoreproject.blogspot.com/
I sustained the injury while tracking on a particularly long day, and I mistakenly thought that it was an overworked muscle. Long story short, I did in fact really hurt myself, and the recovery period is six weeks (it's not a complete tear, whew! A severe strain with small tears is a lot easier to mend.). Foxes and wolverines don't wait around for people, so I'm back home in Houston for physical therapy and healing so I can continue working this spring.
I pre-condition for any research position I accept, as the physical demands are often many and being able to keep up obviously means having high cardiovascular endurance, strong joints, and muscle strength. In this field, you have to stay in shape, and jobs will weasel any last shreds of weakness from your body. Since this project involved a lot of snowshoeing, I worked hard in the weeks prior to arriving in Washington to ensure a strong pelvis and high endurance so I wouldn't huff and puff and fall down all the time. Having snowshoed last winter in Montana on the bobcat project, I was not at all concerned that I would hurt anything. Unfortunately, not all things are preventable.
The injury makes for a decent pub story, however, in that I got hurt while tracking a wolverine. Doug Chadwick (author of The Wolverine Way), calls the wolverine an "unmitigated badass" and I couldn't agree more. We followed this guy up and around and he ran and he walked and he loped and he followed fox trails and scaled creeks... but he mostly went up. It took us four hours to follow him three miles, whereas he most certainly covered that distance in less than an hour. In the days following that I worked on the injury, the southern Cascades were covered with almost five feet of snow, making it difficult to check cameras and track animals (there were no tracks!). Undoubtedly, it made my hip worse, but I'm very fortunate that I didn't post-hole (crashing through the snow on one snowshoe) and tear it completely.
I'm really happy to have had this opportunity... I would have preferred to still be up there, as the season runs through the end of March. I really enjoyed my time in the Cascades learning red fox ecology, tracking the elusive wolverine, and refining my tracking skills. I also loved the snowmobiling! All in all, despite what is a very inconvenient injury, I'd still chalk it up to a good experience.
Currently, I am rehabbing, completing a grant application for graduate school, applying for and interviewing for my next research position, and discussing graduate school opportunities with various professors.
For more information on the Cascades Carnivore Project, visit: http://cascadescarnivoreproject.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 5, 2012
One Quarter Century
It's midnight, so it's officially February 6, which means it's MY BIRTHDAY!
25. Twenty five. One quarter century.
Wow. It's crazy! I can't even believe I've lived this long! It's like I'm an adult! As children, we think about an age like "25" as a dream-like concept. We imagined our whole lives as The Far Away Future: we planned our education, fairy tale weddings, and interior decorating plans through Barbie and her friends (ok, some of us did. Don't judge). Well, there wasn't a Barbie biologist around when I was a kid, so I came into my passion towards the end of college, when the Future became Now.
And Now is the time to make a difference.
I devote my time on this webpage to advocating wildlife conservation. We are fighting an uphill battle to save thousands of species from extinction, and I'm lucky enough to assist in projects that study some of these animals and promote their preservation in the wild. I have numerous goals I want to accomplish within this field of research, and although I've crossed some off in the two years since graduating, here are a few of the goals I hope to accomplish in the next 25 years:
- Get a graduate assistantship for my master's degree in carnivore ecology
- Achieve a PhD in the same field
- Work with National Geographic and Animal Planet television for public education... yes, I want you to enjoy wildlife projects with me via tv!
- Write, speak, and present issues and ideas in wildlife conservation to varied audiences: children, presidents, scientists, family, friends, and international collaborators
- Own a pair of Christian Louboutin heels (not for field research, obviously... for wildlife benefit events!)
- Study as many of the felid species as I am able, starting with bobcats, lynx, ocelots, snow leopards, clouded leopards...
- See the wolverine placed on the endangered species list, and then removed from it (among many others)
- Meet celebrities with influence and get them out in the field with me to help spread the message (hello Ellen DeGeneras, Leo DiCaprio, Jason Mraz, Simon Cowell, and President Obama)!
- Foster the realization for the ever-pressing need to care about the earth- right Now, not later
These goals are the tools I plan to wield in the fight to save the world. Seriously. I'm only 25- I can be lofty like that. I want to illuminate the importance of natural resources, to illustrate the dire need for saving, not spending, the fruits of our earth. Most importantly, I want to ignite passion and compassion for wildlife conservation. I want you to share nature with the birds, carnivores, insects, and omnivores that walk the wilds, and I want you to work to conserve and protect what's left of it so the future will have more, and not less. I want to laugh with you, learn from you, and share with you my passion, my unyielding determination, and my insatiable curiosity in the pursuit of protecting all that is wild. But, I need your help. I'm only 25.
Thanks for all your support, reading, tweeting, laughing, and working to spread the message and achieve goals in wildlife conservation. I love you all!
25. Twenty five. One quarter century.
Wow. It's crazy! I can't even believe I've lived this long! It's like I'm an adult! As children, we think about an age like "25" as a dream-like concept. We imagined our whole lives as The Far Away Future: we planned our education, fairy tale weddings, and interior decorating plans through Barbie and her friends (ok, some of us did. Don't judge). Well, there wasn't a Barbie biologist around when I was a kid, so I came into my passion towards the end of college, when the Future became Now.
And Now is the time to make a difference.
I devote my time on this webpage to advocating wildlife conservation. We are fighting an uphill battle to save thousands of species from extinction, and I'm lucky enough to assist in projects that study some of these animals and promote their preservation in the wild. I have numerous goals I want to accomplish within this field of research, and although I've crossed some off in the two years since graduating, here are a few of the goals I hope to accomplish in the next 25 years:
- Get a graduate assistantship for my master's degree in carnivore ecology
- Achieve a PhD in the same field
- Work with National Geographic and Animal Planet television for public education... yes, I want you to enjoy wildlife projects with me via tv!
- Write, speak, and present issues and ideas in wildlife conservation to varied audiences: children, presidents, scientists, family, friends, and international collaborators
- Own a pair of Christian Louboutin heels (not for field research, obviously... for wildlife benefit events!)
- Study as many of the felid species as I am able, starting with bobcats, lynx, ocelots, snow leopards, clouded leopards...
- See the wolverine placed on the endangered species list, and then removed from it (among many others)
- Meet celebrities with influence and get them out in the field with me to help spread the message (hello Ellen DeGeneras, Leo DiCaprio, Jason Mraz, Simon Cowell, and President Obama)!
- Foster the realization for the ever-pressing need to care about the earth- right Now, not later
These goals are the tools I plan to wield in the fight to save the world. Seriously. I'm only 25- I can be lofty like that. I want to illuminate the importance of natural resources, to illustrate the dire need for saving, not spending, the fruits of our earth. Most importantly, I want to ignite passion and compassion for wildlife conservation. I want you to share nature with the birds, carnivores, insects, and omnivores that walk the wilds, and I want you to work to conserve and protect what's left of it so the future will have more, and not less. I want to laugh with you, learn from you, and share with you my passion, my unyielding determination, and my insatiable curiosity in the pursuit of protecting all that is wild. But, I need your help. I'm only 25.
Thanks for all your support, reading, tweeting, laughing, and working to spread the message and achieve goals in wildlife conservation. I love you all!
Stillwater Lake, Montana
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Mt. Adams
I have been in Washington for ten days, and in those ten days we've received almost as many feet in snow!
We are currently staying in Trout Lake, a quaint little town at the base of Mt. Adams, the focus of our surveys the month of January. The first two days, we hiked over nine miles on snowshoe! I don't think anything can condition a person for that much snowshoeing because of the specific muscles used for the activity. Needless to say, all of my preparation and work getting physically ready for this was thrown out the window on the first mile. I am sure I will echo thousands of snowshoers with the simple phrase: omg.
Those first two days involved a trek to set one of the remote infrared cameras for the project. I am working for Jocelyn Akins, a PhD student at the University California Davis on the Cascades Carnivore Project. Her objectives include the conservation genetics of the montane red fox (Vulpes vulpes), their habitat selection, and monitoring species of interest from a management and conservation standpoint. Additionally, we are also searching for wolverines (Gulo gulo) if we can find them. Wolverines are rare in the lower 48, as they require extreme snow conditions through breeding season to flourish (with loss of habitat and hunting contributing to population decline). The cameras are motion-censoring devices that take photos when any animal approaches the bait we secure to a tree. Hair snares collect any hair from the animal in it's attempt to steal the bait, and the hair is collected by us for genetic analysis in the lab. The majority of the time, our meat is stolen by methodical American martens (Martes americana). On our second day, we happened to encounter one very curious little marten from a distance of about five feet, who watched us with hesitant but insatiable curiosity for almost five minutes- I wonder if we were the first humans he had ever seen?
I am working with Teri Lysak, a tracker through the non-profit Cascadia Wild, and she is teaching me everything there is to know about tracking animals! This involves everything from species identification to gait style, taking measurements of various gaits, and identifying ideal conditions to track an individual. For more information on Cascadia Wild, look for the link at the end of this posting.
The first day involved a short snowmobile ride to our trail head, and a 2 mile hike up into the woods to set our camera. This involves placing a camera at the right height across from the bait, which is nailed to the tree in chicken wire. Copper pipe-cleaners are set up below the bait so hairs might be snagged from any visitors. On this first hike, after I had huffed and puffed quite a bit, I came across some tracks I had never seen before:
I quite literally (and perhaps unprofessionally) thought, "What the hell is that??" when my snowshoe tips intersected this strange, and yet slightly older, set of tracks. Track conditions change daily, meaning that snow level, snow compaction, and temperature are just a few things that affect how reliable a set of pawprints may look in the snow. To me, these old (old by the fact that they were slightly melted out and full of debris blown into the recess of the foot pad) tracks resembled bear paws by the length of the track... but bears are currently in hibernation. Only a crazy bear would come out in the beginning of January for a stroll, despite low snow levels and higher than normal temperatures (it's still freezing!). As this was my first day, I waited for Teri to come down the huge hill we'd just trekked to solicit her opinion.
Silence.
Then, she muttered something along the lines of "There's no way." and "Are you kidding me?" It's true, folks... on day one, we had found WOLVERINE TRACKS!
Here I must note the audacity of the wolverine. Wolverines, though not well known by the public and difficult to study because of the terrain they choose, hold down home ranges of more than 200 miles and travel at a near-constant speed to tour and maintain the rule of their domain. Wolverines have been known to win fights against 800 pound grizzly bears over food, and at a mere 50 pounds, these animals traverse the most difficult and dangerous terrain known to man and animal without batting a furry eyelash. Unfortunately, they face extinction in our lifetime due to fragmentation between suitable habitats- meaning that the few individuals who live in Point A are unable to travel to Point B to spread their genetics because of humans and climate change. Shortly put, however, research like Jocelyn's is working to mitigate the threats to carnivores like the wolverine, and when evidence suggests the presence of a wolverine in a new area, it is most certainly our job to encourage the expansion and protection of both animal and area to encourage future success for the species. My friend Doug Chadwick is a biologist turned journalist and the author of the wonderful book "The Wolverine Way" and describes the wolverine:
"I still don’t really understand what makes wolverines tick. But I learned that they tick at a higher metabolic rate than other animals their size. If you were to picture them as organic cruising machines with a souped-up carburetor, you wouldn’t be far off the mark."
So go the Gulo tracks. Since we were supposed to be looking for red fox tracks, however, we returned the next day to backtrack some fox tracks we saw this day.
Backtracking (or forwardtracking) for this project involves looking for genetic material: scat, urine, or hair samples. As biologist criminologists, we are collecting samples to store and send to a laboratory at the University of Montana to be analyzed for genetic relationships, identification, etc. So, we returned the next day intending to backtrack some red foxes... but we found fresh wolverine tracks!
Fortunately, the wolverine tracks crossed the red fox tracks regularly, so we were able to hit two birds with one stone, so to speak. We tracked this wolverine for more than two miles (which is not as easy as air miles, or as the crow flies, or whatever you consider when thinking of two flat miles!): up, down, around, but mostly up. I'm pretty sure he/she covered this distance in less than thirty minutes judging by the inconsistent gait: lope, walk, trot thing. It took us three hours! I was reminded of the male wolverine from The Wolverine Way who ascended 9,000 ft in elevation in 90 minutes without stopping... just because he could. This would be why the wolverine is so bad ass, folks.
We watched him intersect with the fox tracks periodically, wondering why the trails were so well traveled. We lost the tracks occasionally because the snow was too hard for him to sink into in some places, and I managed to walk by a huge scat pile! I'm not sure how anyone can miss a giant pile of bone and hair... but then again, that's why many eyes are good. Wolverines scavenge bones and can digest the tough stuff many other species can't, so we are hoping that there is some Gulo genetic material in the samples!
After day two, we completed an Avalanche Safety Training course. I feel a little smarter, and perhaps slightly more reckless in my activities as a biologist in the wilderness. My poor mother can rest assured that I am prepared and capable (as much as a 130 pound human can be against the elements, anyway).
The rest of the week involved a lot of waiting it out, unfortunately. We received four feet of snow below 2000 ft elevation! That's a lot of fresh powder. Teri and I went out on the sleds two days to try and check cameras, but between getting the truck stuck and turning the sleds or getting bogged down, we only managed to set one camera and check another the remaining part of the week. However, we do have foxes on camera! Cascade red foxes are unlike anything I've ever seen- they have so much coat variation amongst individuals within a species. They are rather similar to black bears in this sense. Similar to coyotes, these red foxes can vary in shades of red, bronze, amber, brown, black, and grey. Smaller than coyotes and thought to use higher elevations, these silent canids often go unnoticed and manage to flourish in a deeper snow environment.
I write this from a little table in the Big Horse Brew Pub in Hood River, OR. Jocelyn lives in Hood River, and yesterday we checked a camera in Mt. Hood so we could accomplish something in spite of all the snow! The one thing I love about wildlife research is the opportunity to learn the stories of the people who share my passions. I enjoy exploring the little tourist towns, having a great microbrew, and resting until my next trek into the wilderness. Until next time!
Teri's car is buried in snow.
We are currently staying in Trout Lake, a quaint little town at the base of Mt. Adams, the focus of our surveys the month of January. The first two days, we hiked over nine miles on snowshoe! I don't think anything can condition a person for that much snowshoeing because of the specific muscles used for the activity. Needless to say, all of my preparation and work getting physically ready for this was thrown out the window on the first mile. I am sure I will echo thousands of snowshoers with the simple phrase: omg.
Those first two days involved a trek to set one of the remote infrared cameras for the project. I am working for Jocelyn Akins, a PhD student at the University California Davis on the Cascades Carnivore Project. Her objectives include the conservation genetics of the montane red fox (Vulpes vulpes), their habitat selection, and monitoring species of interest from a management and conservation standpoint. Additionally, we are also searching for wolverines (Gulo gulo) if we can find them. Wolverines are rare in the lower 48, as they require extreme snow conditions through breeding season to flourish (with loss of habitat and hunting contributing to population decline). The cameras are motion-censoring devices that take photos when any animal approaches the bait we secure to a tree. Hair snares collect any hair from the animal in it's attempt to steal the bait, and the hair is collected by us for genetic analysis in the lab. The majority of the time, our meat is stolen by methodical American martens (Martes americana). On our second day, we happened to encounter one very curious little marten from a distance of about five feet, who watched us with hesitant but insatiable curiosity for almost five minutes- I wonder if we were the first humans he had ever seen?
A rather curious marten
Marten or red fox hair samples?
The first day involved a short snowmobile ride to our trail head, and a 2 mile hike up into the woods to set our camera. This involves placing a camera at the right height across from the bait, which is nailed to the tree in chicken wire. Copper pipe-cleaners are set up below the bait so hairs might be snagged from any visitors. On this first hike, after I had huffed and puffed quite a bit, I came across some tracks I had never seen before:
Old wolverine tracks. A bear track straddle (or girth from one foot to another) is wider than the wolverine's (because of weight).
Silence.
Then, she muttered something along the lines of "There's no way." and "Are you kidding me?" It's true, folks... on day one, we had found WOLVERINE TRACKS!
Teri the tracker
Here I must note the audacity of the wolverine. Wolverines, though not well known by the public and difficult to study because of the terrain they choose, hold down home ranges of more than 200 miles and travel at a near-constant speed to tour and maintain the rule of their domain. Wolverines have been known to win fights against 800 pound grizzly bears over food, and at a mere 50 pounds, these animals traverse the most difficult and dangerous terrain known to man and animal without batting a furry eyelash. Unfortunately, they face extinction in our lifetime due to fragmentation between suitable habitats- meaning that the few individuals who live in Point A are unable to travel to Point B to spread their genetics because of humans and climate change. Shortly put, however, research like Jocelyn's is working to mitigate the threats to carnivores like the wolverine, and when evidence suggests the presence of a wolverine in a new area, it is most certainly our job to encourage the expansion and protection of both animal and area to encourage future success for the species. My friend Doug Chadwick is a biologist turned journalist and the author of the wonderful book "The Wolverine Way" and describes the wolverine:
"I still don’t really understand what makes wolverines tick. But I learned that they tick at a higher metabolic rate than other animals their size. If you were to picture them as organic cruising machines with a souped-up carburetor, you wouldn’t be far off the mark."
So go the Gulo tracks. Since we were supposed to be looking for red fox tracks, however, we returned the next day to backtrack some fox tracks we saw this day.
Backtracking (or forwardtracking) for this project involves looking for genetic material: scat, urine, or hair samples. As biologist criminologists, we are collecting samples to store and send to a laboratory at the University of Montana to be analyzed for genetic relationships, identification, etc. So, we returned the next day intending to backtrack some red foxes... but we found fresh wolverine tracks!
Fortunately, the wolverine tracks crossed the red fox tracks regularly, so we were able to hit two birds with one stone, so to speak. We tracked this wolverine for more than two miles (which is not as easy as air miles, or as the crow flies, or whatever you consider when thinking of two flat miles!): up, down, around, but mostly up. I'm pretty sure he/she covered this distance in less than thirty minutes judging by the inconsistent gait: lope, walk, trot thing. It took us three hours! I was reminded of the male wolverine from The Wolverine Way who ascended 9,000 ft in elevation in 90 minutes without stopping... just because he could. This would be why the wolverine is so bad ass, folks.
We watched him intersect with the fox tracks periodically, wondering why the trails were so well traveled. We lost the tracks occasionally because the snow was too hard for him to sink into in some places, and I managed to walk by a huge scat pile! I'm not sure how anyone can miss a giant pile of bone and hair... but then again, that's why many eyes are good. Wolverines scavenge bones and can digest the tough stuff many other species can't, so we are hoping that there is some Gulo genetic material in the samples!
After day two, we completed an Avalanche Safety Training course. I feel a little smarter, and perhaps slightly more reckless in my activities as a biologist in the wilderness. My poor mother can rest assured that I am prepared and capable (as much as a 130 pound human can be against the elements, anyway).
The rest of the week involved a lot of waiting it out, unfortunately. We received four feet of snow below 2000 ft elevation! That's a lot of fresh powder. Teri and I went out on the sleds two days to try and check cameras, but between getting the truck stuck and turning the sleds or getting bogged down, we only managed to set one camera and check another the remaining part of the week. However, we do have foxes on camera! Cascade red foxes are unlike anything I've ever seen- they have so much coat variation amongst individuals within a species. They are rather similar to black bears in this sense. Similar to coyotes, these red foxes can vary in shades of red, bronze, amber, brown, black, and grey. Smaller than coyotes and thought to use higher elevations, these silent canids often go unnoticed and manage to flourish in a deeper snow environment.
I write this from a little table in the Big Horse Brew Pub in Hood River, OR. Jocelyn lives in Hood River, and yesterday we checked a camera in Mt. Hood so we could accomplish something in spite of all the snow! The one thing I love about wildlife research is the opportunity to learn the stories of the people who share my passions. I enjoy exploring the little tourist towns, having a great microbrew, and resting until my next trek into the wilderness. Until next time!
Just another view from the office- I have a hard job, but one of the most amazing in the world!
I really wanted to take a "winter photo" to put on this site... just a simple photo of me smiling in the snow. Instead, I lost my balance on those darned snowshoes and this is what we got. Perhaps its more indicative of my personality. I'll post the better version at a later date! Never lose your childlike wonder, I always say. Or humility.
For more information on Cascadia Wild, visit: http://www.cascadiawild.org/
For more information on the Cascades Carnivore Project, visit: http://cascadescarnivoreproject.blogspot.com/
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