Overdue Update

Wow, time flies when you're busy! My stint with the Smithsonian is almost up, and it has been a busy three months, and even busier last three weeks.  The most important thing to note is that intern research presentations are complete! Every intern who comes through SCBI must present to staff scientists and students their findings as well as their experience during the internship. Since I've talked a lot about the project, but not actually a lot on what I've been doing, here it is:

I've been working on a project seeking to optimize oocyte quality for in vitro embryo production in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). This project is under the direction of Drs JoGayle Howard and Rebecca Hobbs. Clouded leopards range throughout Southeast Asia, with an approximate wild population of 10,000 individuals. The IUCN lists the species as vulnerable, but because of their elusive nature, cloudeds are difficult to study and have been rarely observed in the wild. In addition to habitat loss, very heaving poaching threatens their survival in the wild. In captivity, male aggression towards females during breeding is often fatal for females, and many of the cats in captivity have never been bred. As a result, the North American clouded leopard population is not sustainable or genetically healthy, and the project I've been working on is trying to mitigate captive reproductive issues by increasing the efficiency of assisted reproductive technologies. Unfortunately, artificial insemination is not successful in the clouded leopard, unlike other cats such as tigers and cheetahs, and this is possibly due to a variety of factors: oocyte quality, embryo quality, uterine abnormalities, sperm morphology or motility, etc. This project wants to develop an in vitro fertilization (IVF) protocol for the clouded leopard. The objective of this project, then, is to assess oocyte quality during periods of activity and inactivity in the cat. Artificial light cycles were used to mimic breeding and non-breeding seasons in the cats, and fecal samples are being used to confirm that the light cycles are suppressing/enhancing ovarian activity.  My project revolves around those fecal samples... I've been extracting steroid hormones in over 1000 samples since I've been here. This is the project in a nutshell, though there is a lot more to the gamete side that I was not involved with, and the fact that I only saw a three-month slideshow of the endeavor.

Cool photo I used from The Clouded Leopard Consortium to outline the IVF  process:

Pictures of what I've been doing:

Weighing out fecal samples for boiling extractions.... woo!

 

Radioactivity!

The internship has been great. The intern group has become a tight knit group and the scientists and SCBI staff are wonderful. I'll need to spend some more time highlighting other events, such as the clouded leopard lecture and auction, ZooLights and NatGeo museum exhibits, finding bird-friendly coffee, and visiting Colonial Williamsburg, but I was in the lab for ten hours today and I need a glass of wine!

Career Opportunities

Good online resources for jobs/graduate programs in biology, ecology, natural resources, conservation, botany...

http://www.wfsc.tamu.edu/jobboard/

http://www.conbio.org/jobs/

http://www.nku.edu/~boycer/gradopps.html

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/UndergradInternships/

Link for Carolina Tiger Rescue "Bring Them Home" Campaign

Carolina Tiger plans to rescue 3 lions: Tarzan, Sheba, and Sebastian, and 3 tigers: Titan, Bali, and Java from the Wild Animal Orphanage in San Antonio, TX. The facility began moving towards closing at the end of August. Some of the new animals should be arriving at Karen's Keep (quarantine) by the end of the week.

Carolina Tiger needs to raise $7,500 to cover the cost of the animals' transport and initial medical care. Donate to our rescue campaign and help us "Bring Them Home"! funds raised in addition to $7500 will be put towards future rescues.

Please visit the website and consider a charitable donation for these animals.

http://carolinatigerrescue.org/news/2010/2010-11-06_WAORescue.asp

Visit the facebook page to get a look at these six cats!
http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=441fd662b1e57dec8cde6d775d66cf2f&#!/CarolinaTigerRescue

Carolina Tiger Rescue Holiday Update

For those of you who don't know, Carolina Tiger Rescue is my 'home territory,' the place that first introduced me to and helped me learn about so many exotic cat species. The people and the animals at this sanctuary are so amazing! I love each and every creature- two legged and four. The sanctuary is home to tigers, ocelots, caracals, servals, one bobcat, kinkajous, and binturongs. For those close by, now is a great time to consider becoming a member, volunteer, or adoptive parent at Carolina Tiger! The sanctuary will be receiving six new cats in the next few weeks: three lions and three tigers from a closing facility in Texas. With these new additions, help is always needed to continue ensuring the high quality of life maintained at Carolina Tiger Rescue. Also, with the holidays approaching, the priority item on their wish list are Motorola radios for animal care and safety coordination. Having dropped one of these radios into a five gallon bucket of water (oops), I know how heavily they are used and how essential they are to getting things done on the 55 acre facility. The sanctuary always welcomes new volunteers, so please visit their website to learn about new volunteer orientations. Adoptive parents donate a fixed rate in honor of the of the resident animals, thereby becoming the animal's "adoptive parent." Adoptive parents enjoy visits, enrichment creation, and playing active roles in the care of those animals. And finally, if you are looking for a way to give during the holidays, consider a charitable donation for the animals at Carolina Tiger Rescue. This might be cliche, but they really are some cool cats!

And if you aren't nearby or cannot afford the time to visit Carolina Tiger Rescue, visit the website to learn about how shopping Pampered Chef with give a portion of the proceeds to Carolina Tiger Rescue (good through December 6).

http://carolinatigerrescue.org/


Be sure to become a fan on facebook!
http://www.facebook.com/index.php?lh=441fd662b1e57dec8cde6d775d66cf2f&#!/CarolinaTigerRescue

 

Julio, one of my favorite ocelots, with his holiday pumpkin (October 2009)

Rat, But Not the Rodent

The project I'm working on has been a long time coming; clouded leopards have very unique reproductive problems, unfortunately which cannot be fixed with the snap of a finger (were this the case, I'm pretty sure I'd be famous right now). I'm working on the female side of things, but there is also a male aggression study going on that a new intern just arrived for. I'm working for a pretty cool lady named JoGayle Howard. JoGayle is quite literally the clouded leopard queen: she's headed up most of the studies and the advances in clouded reproduction. She's a theriogenologist, or a veterinarian who focuses on reproduction, and a PhD at the Smithsonian. She's done everything, from developing successful cryopreservation of sperm, laparoscopic artificial insemination in carnivores, and genome banking. In short, she's pretty awesome. Which by default, the project I'm working under, under the supervision of postdoc Rebecca Hobbs, is also awesome. For more insight into the project, check out this website:

http://cloudedleopard.org/default.aspx?link=research_inzoos

Having been here in Front Royal for a month, I've finally gotten into the swing of things with the project. I've cataloged, dried, and sorted more fecal samples than I care to know, and developed a system for which to extract each sample set. I'm using a boiling extraction process, which is pretty simple: fecal sample are collected from each animal over a pre-determined time period (one sample, or one week's worth, is not enough to quantify hormone changes in reaction to the study protocol); freeze-dried of all water (called lyophilization); and crushed and weighed out into test tubes. Once in the tubes, I add radioactivity that will later determine the extraction efficiency of each sample; that is, the radioactivity provides a way to show how much hormone was pulled from the fecal sample during the extraction process. This is essential because later steps will be measuring hormone levels, such as estrogen and progestogen. The extraction of this whole process takes place with the addition of ethanol and boiling the mixture for twenty minutes (smells great), then centrifuging (think worst merry-go-round ride ever), then centrifuging some more with some more ethanol, and drying down the supernatant two different times. There are more in-between steps, with some methanol and dilution buffer and a sonicator, the machine that cleans jewelry, but these are the basics. After I have my final dilution, called a cocktail (no joke!), I throw all the samples into a beta counter, a machine which measures the radiation emitted by beta-emitting nucleotides via light pulses (the scintillation fluid I add to the cocktail throws a nice prism ). In short, I find out if I did the whole process right and have proper extraction efficiencies for my samples. Usually, I do. I've got to re-run about twenty samples, and so far I've run almost 600. Once I'm done extracting all these samples, I'll hopefully have time left during the internship to run enzyme immunoassay plates (EIA) for the hormones. I'm looking forward to more procedures under the guidance of the lab manager and the dugong project being run by a visiting scientist from Australia. Consequently, I see a lot of this:

I guess this makes me a lab rat!

I've also looked into volunteering with the clouded leopards on site. I've had a good peek at two eight-month old leopards that are visiting, and I'm not sure there is anything more beautiful, or adorable, than these rascals. Although the clouded animal keeper, Jessica, might think otherwise of the very-demanding squawking these two cats can emit. I can hear it all the way down the hall!

Finally, a few of us went hiking in the Shenandoah last weekend. We had so much fun! Martin is a GIS intern who just arrived from Germany, so we took him out to see the last of the changing leaves. Two hikes and 7.5 miles later, we had seen a gorgeous peak and a lovely waterfall. I wondered why I was so exhausted during the first hike (it's not like I hiked every day this past summer), but then I realized that we were on the hike that, in less than a mile, you climb 900 ft in elevation. That's a lot of climbing and hating, in case you were wondering how to measure that. Once we got to the vista, however, all huffing and puffing was lost in the view of the Shenandoah valley in the fall. Scaling huge rocks, we sat atop the valley for almost an hour, taking in the view and having a Lion King moment or two (think Pride Rock).

 

Hike two was longer, but easier, and took us along a beautiful creek down to a waterfall. Instead of hiking to the cliff overlooking the lengthy fall, we opted to hike down into the midst of it. The slope wasn't very steep, but the view and the sounds were beautiful:

All in all, so far so good. I must get to bed- I've got to get into the lab early tomorrow!

Autumn Conservation Festival

I've been living at and working at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) for four weeks now, and it has been pretty busy! I've really enjoyed getting to know each of the other interns, their interests, and their stories. We come from all over the country and all over the world, from Australia to Canada to Germany, and each individual is passionate for either a particular species, or a particular science. One of the girls is a visiting PhD student from Australia studying dugong endocrinology at a coastal research institute I actually visited while in Australia (dugongs are the Aussie version of manatees)! The intern lab trainer is doing her master's on lion endocrinology (the lionesses at the National Zoo had their cubs this fall!), and another two interns completed their master's in primate and elephant conservation, respectively. The current cheetah intern worked at the Iditarod this summer, and another is working towards vet school. The people here are so interesting! Be it education, endocrinology, veterinary medicine, or conservation ecology, this facility is full to the brim with bright minds and heavy ambitions.

There is perhaps no better way to illuminate the strides taken in conservation today than the SCBI's annual Autumn Conservation Festival. It's the only time each year that the facility is open to the public. Participants visit many booths throughout the facility to learn about current captive as well as wild conservation efforts for many species, from cranes to clouded leopards. Although not the entire facility is available to tour, many of the species residing on the facility are accessible to the public to watch and learn about. Being that I am doing steroid hormone research for clouded leopards, I naturally worked at the clouded leopard booth all weekend. We had sweet temporary tattoos, a fun game for adults and children alike testing their knowledge of wild cat species across the world, and featured MS and PhD projects currently working for clouded leopard conservation.

One of the tables at the clouded leopard booth featured this real leopard pelt. This individual cat was a zoo animal who died of natural causes and now serves as an educational tool. Visitors could touch the fur and see up close the curious, cloud-like pattern that gave the animal it's name. In addition, we discussed how clouded leopards are replacing tigers in the black markets for both fur sales and traditional medicines. Because tiger populations are in decline, hunters and poachers are turning to this smaller cat for their fur, to sell, and body parts (teeth, bones, fluids, meat) for traditional medicine (which, I'm going to say, probably won't cure your headache or impotency problem). Although laws against this exist, they are not strictly enforced in the clouded leopards home range, which extends through Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and farther south. These cats are arboreal, meaning they live in trees, though researchers do not know how often they spend their time between treetops and the ground. With poachers having better luck at finding these cats than conservationists, clouded leopard populations are unknown as well as unstable. Clouded leopards prey on monkeys, birds, small mammals, and deer. Of all the cats in the world, the clouded leopard has the largest canines relative to the size of it's skull... making it the living relative of the extinct saber-toothed cat. A master's student is currently studying these leopards through the use of non-invasive infrared camera trapping. These cameras, which are soundless as well as flashless, catch photos of wildlife in order to better assess what these cats are doing in their free time. Apparently one species of forest chicken is particularly fond of these cameras, as the student has collected more than one thousand shots of these birds sitting in front of the cameras (which are secured to trees at eye-level for the cats) and turning their heads in the idiotic fashion typical of your average farm chicken (I'm sure the clouded leopards eat them, too).

Meagan talks about clouded leopard physiology

With two booths, we were pretty busy! Heather (pictured right) is a PhD candidate studying male clouded leopard testosterone and cortisol to reduce male aggression towards females in captivity.

Listening intently to one of many very good questions! One of the infrared cameras I mentioned is sitting on top of the pelt. One interesting question I had to answer a lot from the small scientists: "How did you kill the clouded leopard?" WITH A LIGHT SABER! Just kidding.

I managed to score some pretty cool temporary tattoos when I walked around to the different booths! A video of the two female lions at the national zoo meeting the new male for the first time echoed throughout the facility (and my personal interpretation of this interaction consists of things I'm not willing to type out. But, that's just a guess.), drawing people in to learn about current projects to help with their survival. Other fun things included being able to see the maned wolves, checking out how tall some of the crane species are, and seeing some of both the clouded leopards and red pandas up close. I really enjoyed walking around the booths and learning about different conservation efforts, and I also learned a lot! Some highlights included visiting the Global Tiger Initiative booth (congratulations Ryan on the new job!), being able to basically lay down inside the girth of an elephant radio collar (not like the bobcat collars at all!), and consuming a vast amount of homemade potato chips. It was a joy to see the interest the community has in learning about the many species needing our help, and everyone enjoyed discussing what they are most passionate about. All in all, a great weekend!

Red pandas. Are. So. Cute.

 Sa Ming is one of the clouded leopards born at the national zoo. Here, he is seen wreaking general havoc.

 

A good still shot 

Yea!

One of the girls- I have not learned her name- having a good sniff.

Front Royal, Virginia

I have just arrived in Front Royal, VA to begin an internship with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. I am so excited! I start tomorrow on a project investigating fecal hormones for the purpose of in vitro fertilization (IVF) in the clouded leopard (Neofelis nebulosa). Using domestic cats as a model species, the project aims to optimize oocyte quality for IVF in the clouded leoard, as clouded leopards have difficulty breeding in captivity. Male aggression towards females in natural mating can often be fatal for the females, with the chance of losing limbs also high. With other projects studying ways to mitigate male aggression, artificial insemination of clouded leopards has also been examined. Clouded leopards are spontaneous ovulators, and combined with lack of response to hormone stimulation, artificial insemination has proved ineffective for these cats. I will be working for postdoc Dr. Rebecca Hobbs assessing how domestic cats respond to hormones such as estrogen and progestin for the purpose of developing a successful program of IVF for the extremely endangered clouded leopard.

I am staying just a few steps from the laboratory I will be working in. The dorm houses many interns during different semesters, and there are currently seven or eight women this fall. I've met three of my housemates in addition to a visiting cheetah scientist, and the backgrounds and scientific interests I've come across are amazing! My neighbors other than the interns include bison, cranes (cannot remember what species... will find out), and maned wolves. The cranes make a bit of noise at night and they sound like the combination between a loon and large woodpecker hacking away at a tree. Come breeding season in November, I have been promised sleepless nights. The bison are... big. I can see their field from my bedroom window, and the maned wolves are located throughout the compound and call to each other in the night (I am waiting to hear this). Since I've only seen the back end of one of these very red, very tall wolves, I cannot yet remark on their tall legs and glorious manes. I can, however, say that they are very sneaky. Other animals here include Przewalski's horses; onagers (a Persian donkey); Eld's deer; red pandas; cheetahs; and clouded leopards.

I arrived yesterday after driving from Whitefish, MT, to Houston, TX. The job offer came three weeks ago, so the whole process has been rather fast. I miss Montana and Bobbie already! As of when I left, we had yet to catch either of the two bobcats with the failed collars. This week, however, Bobbie has managed to catch a few more bears in her traps, so the excitement in Flathead National Forest never ends.

Training starts tomorrow- wish me luck!

Interesting Video

I dreamt last night I was at a wildlife sanctuary that housed rescued lions. In the dream, a small group of people entered the enclosure containing one lion and two lionesses. I was one of the people in the group. The entire dream consisted of this small group trying to not get bitten by these lions. Unfortunately, the male lion kept coming up to me and rubbing his heavy mane along my midsection, repeatedly mouthing my arms and legs in the way that small puppies do when they are teething. I spent the entire dream terrified that this lion was going to do what he was made to do: eat meat. Photographers were nearby trying to capture these moments in "conservation." While I often wake up wondering what the heck is going on in my subconscious, this dream was such a healthy reminder that although I love cats, I would be scared out of my mind to force shared space with one. That's just not smart! When I came across the following over coffee this morning, I couldn't have found a better example of why captive animals need respect, too!

I first saw this video courtesy of Big Cat Rescue, a wildlife sanctuary in Tampa, Florida. While I recognize that the benefit was for tigers and some sort of conservation, the message sent through this video does not positively support tiger conservation or accurate tiger behavior. I want to share it because there are so many things going wrong!  Foremost, it is not a tiger attack. This tiger, who was already clearly overstimulated and showing signs of stress, is very excited about the cologne the man is wearing and is trying to bask in the scent. Second, why did said man see fit to wrap his arms around a tiger's neck? Thirdly (that is actually a word!), the tiger should not have had the opportunity to get close to anyone. And finally, what the hell was a tiger doing at a fundraiser? Even if you don't know tiger behavior, it is easy to imagine how very quickly the situation could have gone awry and that man would have been killed. Such irresponsible tiger promotion! Both parties are very lucky, as the animal probably would have been destroyed for mauling a human, and well, the guy's luck is pretty self-explanatory.


Tiger Attacks At Fundraiser!

Trapping Bobcats

In light of the new and exciting information that two of our bobcats were not dead, we have instead had to deal with two collars failing instead of bobcats... meaning that we have to trap two bobcats in 250,000 acres of national forest in order to remove and replace said collars. Where is an easy button when you need it?! Luckily (relatively speaking, that is), we've been able to follow the bobcats via telemetry to get an idea of their whereabouts. After following M6 around for three days on foot, the obvious decision from that point onward was to only set a trap when we determined what area the cat was hanging out in. The collars send a retrieval signal (which sounds dangerously like a mortality signal... thanks fine print manual) 24/7 once the collar battery fails, so really we only have a small window of time to collect the collar. If the battery dies completely, no more signal and our cat is as unknown as it was before being collared.

For the past few weeks we've been setting and checking traps. Three of the six traps set were collapsible, similar to the have-a-heart design and non-fatal. The other three were much larger, weighing almost forty pounds and hand-built by Bobbie. The traps are double-wired, and this past winter one of her bobcats chewed through the wire. These traps take quite a beating, as the cats basically ping-pong about inside the trap once the gate slams shut. In winter, when the bears were hibernating, Bobbie used meat as a lure. One bobcat, and the largest of the collared cats, was caught twelve times this past winter because he learned that Bobbie wasn't going to hurt him and that he could get a free meal each time he went into the trap. In one case, this cat ate almost fifteen pounds of deer meat in a night! The cat weighs thirty five pounds (which is rather large for a bobcat)! That would be like me eating fifty pounds of meat... okay, I'm totally lying about my weight, but that's a lot of food. Now that it's summer, the bears are out and about, and meat in a trap is no longer an option. Bears are more opportunistically carnivorous, but they do enjoy a bit (or a lot) of meat now and then. Since we don't have any bear-proof traps, using meat would mean certain death for the traps, a danger to us, and no bobcat in our traps. We decided to trap M5 first, and instead of meat used the always delightful scent lures. These little glass bottles contain all that is disgusting to the human nose, and all of it is au naturale. Be it skunk musk, bobcat scent glands, salmon oil, or the mysterious lure No. 2 (very popular amongst cats), a drop rubbed on the base of a tree- bobcat height- will attract all sorts of wildlife just dying to get a better whiff. Once we set traps, I traipsed about animal trails making a scent trail for our nearby bobcat to follow. Curiosity always killed the cat, so the scent lures are intended to lead the animal within site of the trap. We also hung blank CD's from tree branches to attract the curious cats ("oooooh, shinyyyy"), and we used salmon oil only inside the trap to provide incentive to enter the trap. Should the animal apply pressure with his paw, the door slams and the cat is secure until we arrive. The traps were covered with branches to shield the animal from weather or human eye, and we began to check the traps every day.

Checking for traps is tedious and always a waiting game. The animal may move from the area, be too wary of the trap, or wait several days before considering approaching the foreign object. Or, if he's been trapped before, like ours, he could be trap shy. Since it's summer, we've had to be extremely careful of bears being in or around the traps when we approach them. I was nervous on the first day checking traps! I felt a little like Chuck Norris with my hand on the trigger of my bear spray as we climbed into the trees toward traps. All of my bear experiences thus far have been from either the truck or with lots of trees between us with me yelling "bad bear!" Day after day, however, the traps have been empty. We were extra careful in setting the traps: we wired them to trees so nothing could carry them off; we hid them from roads but in areas open enough that we might see anything dangerous as we approached; and most importantly, we did not get any of the scent lures on our hands! Still, wildlife is wild and nothing is predictable.

The day we set our fourth trap, there was either a moose or a bear nearby in the woods interested in our work, though lots of yelling rendered the stranger silent. Walking down animal trails can be quite unnerving since everything uses them. I have substantially freaked myself out while setting traps because I've walked quite a bit away from Bobbie to mark trails, where strangers lurk. Thinking like a bobcat requires a lower sense of balance, and being low to the ground and having the hairs on the back of your neck stand up is truly a wild feeling! Twice I very seriously felt like something was watching me, and not a hare or a squirrel. Could have been a mountain lion, a baby moose, or a bear. This day, and one other, I'm comfortable not knowing. After returning from the trail and humming quite loudly to myself, I suddenly came face to face with a grouse. The silly little bird had somehow gotten between Bobbie and I undetected and was stupidly walking about like the chickens I grew up laughing at. To make a very long story short, we ended up chasing that grouse (what bear wants to eat a grouse?), and I am so happy that no one was there to film it, because the grouse won 2:1. We did, however, use some donated feathers for our trap, and confirmed with the squirrels that we are insane with our hysterical laughter and tripping over trees. This very trap was to hold some excitement in the coming days.

I am so angry that I was not actually here for this. This past Saturday was the first and only day all season I have missed. I woke with a terrible migraine and it rendered me totally useless. Traps have to be checked, so Bobbie ventured out this past weekend to check traps. When she got to the trap with the grouse feathers, she noticed the trap door was closed. Checking for M5's signal and not finding it, she assumed there was another bobcat in the trap, as all was silent. The trap was well covered so she could see nothing as she approached the trap. Bobbie was ten feet from the trap when it exploded into the air, leaping from the ground as if alive and being thrown over the saplings. Inside the larger trap burst a very frantic black bear, blasting at lightning speed past Bobbie and off into the trees, hollering the whole time like a cub though it was a young adult. Bobbie says she basically levitated back to the truck, only emerging to check out the trap after she had relearned how to breath from inside the vehicle. When we both returned the next day to collect the trap, I could see where the bear had broken through both sets of wire as well as snapping the heavy pvc like a twig. Good thing he was the more frightened of the two! We are fairly certain it was the yearling cub we saw at the beginning of July (the one standing up in the picture in a previous posting). Either way, it most certainly was not a bobcat, and I most certainly am still disgruntled that I missed the excitement!

To date, we have still not trapped either of the sneaksy, tricksy little cats. However, the Montana field season has been nothing short of exhilarating!

Bobcat Collars: FAIL

After finishing a study site just moments before the sky began to spit out teardrops, Bobbie and I happily climbed into the truck to head down the mountain. Just as we crossed onto the paved part of the road (which means home is close because one can drive fast!), we changed one of the channels on the receiver to see if one of the bobcats was in the area. Hearing only static, we were about to turn off the receiver (the signal comes via GPS through the collars on each cat. An antenna on the collar allows us to know if we are within two miles of an animal. We have a hand held transmitter, and also one glorious magnetic antenna that sits on top of the truck and allows us to cover ground more quickly), we heard the double clicking signal. The signal emits a heartbeat-like beeping on a live animal, but a rapid clicking serves as a mortality signal. My heart sank as I heard my first mortality signal, and we began a triangulation to determine the relative location of the cat. A triangulation is putting three compass bearings and their respective UTM's into the GIS for a fairly accurate location for an animal. We take the hand-held antenna and point it in the direction that the signal is loudest, narrowing it down to a directional line. That line is used for a compass bearing, and we then travel ninety degrees in a circle (hopefully!) to determine yet another bearing. It can take six or seven times to get enough points at varying angles so the GIS will determine a location (via computer). That being said, Bobbie and I didn't have a computer, so we tried to determine a relative location for our cat. We then grabbed our gear and headed out to find the body. Unsure of what we would find, we had our bear spray in case our cat had been killed by a bear or mountain lion. The telemetry led us into a mature forest with lots of fallen logs... sadly a place that a bobcat would live, and also choose to die. We commenced our search, but we very quickly ran into a problem: the signal was everywhere. Telemetry is very simple: the closer you get to your target, the louder the signal. Ideally, an unmoving object presents a fairly easy target. However, our deceased animal's signal was not only getting louder, but it was louder a hundred yards across the trees. We searched in fallen branches, in stumps (I did work for almost ten minutes hacking into a cedar log. You actually cannot hack into a cedar log.), and up in trees for any sign of a carcass or collar. The pieces might not have been together, so we searched for anything. As it started to rain, I heard my first elk... and it is a strange sound. Way up on a hill, we could hear a startled and irate bull elk snorting at us repeatedly. After adjusting to the sound, we continued to curse and scratch our heads over the strange signal. We found traces of what we thought was bobcat and deer hair, but nothing else. After an hour, we went home soaking wet, empty handed, and disappointed.

The rest of the week revolved around finding this dead bobcat. We determined that the signal must be bouncing off of the many ridges of the mountains in this one area as well as the river running through the valley. Bobbie and I spent the next two days hiking for the cat with three paws. This bobcat was caught in a furbearer trap this past December (a conibear trap), but escaped only because he chewed his own paw off. I digress to marvel at the fierce instinct of survival this cat had to chew off his own paw. Our search for this amazing cat, whose fate was still indeterminate, led us to a cliff over the river:

The signal was leading us down into the valley. The river running through the valley was swift, with picturesque rapids and contrasting clear, still moments on the rocks. From the cliff we leaned over we could see how deep the river was in some parts, and there was one rock in the center of the riverbed that was easily four times the size of my car, and much taller, that was covered completely by the crystal clear water. The path down, however, was very down, and the slope was covered by rocks that had fallen off the cliff in an avalanche. Making our way down, we determined that not only was the signal inconsistent, but it was leading us across the river.

Crawling down to the bank, we looked at the water, then at each other, and Bobbie said, "I'm game if you are." Pumping myself up to cross this river was completely crazy! We debated leaving on our boots, but we found a more shallow area to cross (only thigh high) and decided to take off our boots. I know I definitely did not notice how cold the water was, as I was intent on not losing my balance over the sharp and slippery rocks that were urging the water to rip me off my feet. Don't get me wrong- we weren't going to die, probably- but I don't know anyone who is relaxed about getting swept down a fifty degree river with expensive equipment in their pack.

Bobbie snapped this picture on the way through the river the second time. She snapped the pic as I was lifting my right leg to take another shuffle, but I almost lost my balance. The other, and more dignified photo, shows me with both arms going into the water and trying to straddle the rocks with four limbs and keep my footing.

The journey in between these photos gave us new insight to the term "going in circles," because that is exactly what we did! The signal got loud, then faint, then took us left, then up, then right and down. We found wild strawberries, moose bones, and I heard my first osprey. We had just decided to give up, and I had long ago determined that I had no idea where we were in relation to the river, when we rounded some trees and came upon the giant rock we ate lunch on. We had come full circle! This is not good, because the whole goal of the day was to find our deceased bobcat.

Getting back to the truck, we discussed our options, concerned we would have to fly a helicopter to find this cat (no joke). The next day, however, the signal was in a different location entirely. From the road, the signal was coming and going. That usually only happens when a bobcat is active. Active = Alive. Hmmmmm. This cat, M6, was one of two cats wearing a different brand of radio collar. The next day we decided to search for the other collared bobcats to see what their signals sounded like. Driving the roads, we found each cat, and each signal was a live signal, except for M5. He, too, had the same mortality signal, and he is the other cat with the other brand of radio collar. The collars have a live signal, a mortality signal, and a recovery signal when the battery is dying. Nature is unpredictable, yet the coincidence of having two cats dead within 48 hours, combined with the inconsistency of the signal strength, pointed to one very enlightening fact: our cats were alive! Poor M6 had been moving in the woods for two days trying to get away from the crazy beeping ladies, and we had been tailing him the entire time! After our excursions, we managed to discover that the mortality signal and the recovery signal on the transmitter is only slightly different (why this was highlighted in a very tiny footnote instead of a bold headline in the manual is beyond me).

Long story short, no cat was harmed in the making of this adventure. The company who makes the collars that failed after only four months is still intact, and we are currently wrapping up the field season by trying to catch these bobcats so we can retrieve the information on the collars!

Bears and Birds

Our mornings begin in much the same way: finding our study site via GPS, putting on our rain gear, and taking our first steps into the woods to start the study site. Although the routine is the same each morning, the day itself is as varied as the leaves on the trees. Some study sites are better than others, with less hills or having more visibility (or, huckleberries!). Some days are pretty ridiculous, and can include crossing thigh-high swift rivers or climbing multiple cliffs (it's never just one). The wildlife is always busy, and we are constantly being yelled at by the squirrels or sung to by the birds. This particular day, Bobbie and I began our morning at 7am by navigating down a steep hill full of young saplings. Upon starting our first point and counting snowshoe hare pellets, we heard a loud CRACK on the hill above us. Bobbie and I both have a very specific look we give each other when we think there is a critter in the woods that is taller than us. In this case, the noise indicated that it was a lot bigger than us! Some yelling on our parts rendered the forest silent once more.

Moving on to our next point, which was still downhill, we were minding our own business when we heard another CRACK! This time, however, the noise was below us. Moose are the lumberjacks of the mountains, and we most likely had not one, but two moose in the area. Moose aren't very smart, and this danger is compounded when you have a mama moose who thinks you want to eat her baby moose (or whatever they think when they see us). Moose have been known to charge trains, and although this doesn't end well for the moose, it wouldn't end well for us either if a moose charged! According to Bobbie, tree-climbing is your only option, and since we were in a sapling stand, yelling again was the next best one!

After the squirrels had determined that there were two crazy women in the forest, we continued working until I head a strange sound. It was a sort of vocalization that I'd never heard before- a keening I couldn't place as a bird or a machine. Bobbie said that it was most likely a bear cub crying for it's mom. So, not only were there one, maybe two moose in the area, but also a bear (black or grizzly, we didn't know) with a whiny cub.

Great!

Armed with bear spray and good company, Bobbie and I continued the day as usual, duly noticing the fresh pile of bear scat and the shadows moving around in the trees. It was a pretty rough morning, with the slope of the hill being very steep and the fallen trees providing ample opportunity to faceplant. We were definitely working in a bear's home range, as there were multiple stumps and fallen trees ripped open by bears to lick up the ants (some of those fallen trees were big, too!).

The day continued without event until we got to the last few points of the day. We get to each point using a compass bearing and counting distance by footsteps. This has been cause for me to look like Captain Jack Sparrow wandering around in the woods, holding my compass and trying to stay on the right bearing, while counting steps, without falling down. I must admit that I was a little more tired than Bobbie, whose nickname is Crazy Hiker Woman, mainly because I have an old knee injury that was wanting to act up on the hills. As Bobbie and I walked into an opening (looking for huckleberries as we went), all of a sudden we were completely and totally surrounded by a large group of nuthatches and chickadees! The fledgling group immediately took interest in us and fluttered around overhead, coming within five feet above us and leaning in to get a good look at us. They flitted and sang and talked amongst one another as we stood there in awe, listening, grinning, and managing to snap a few good photos. One nuthatch flew into a tree above me and landed on a branch right next to me. I could almost touch him. Nuthatches and chickadees are social birds and obviously get along quite well. There were easily two dozen or more birds chattering in the trees above us, most likely wondering what the colorful two-legged creatures were. Insatiable curiosity in both parties lasted for almost five minutes until the little birds decided it was time to move on to the next adventure of the day. We, too, had to continue on our adventure in order to get back to the truck. All the fatigue of the day left my bones after the visit with the birds, and I am so appreciative to have had such a surreal experience- nothing rivals the life that exists in nature. We left the birds to their boisterous chirping, counting our steps and looking for bears, smiling the whole way home.

DC Cheetahs!

Last fall I attended a fundraising event for the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) hosted by the DC chapter of CCF. The event included a wide array of art, photography, and package items that were auctioned, with benefits going to the many educational programs CCF uses to educate African farmers and families on coexisting with the cheetah. CCF is based in Namibia, Africa, with a growing program in Kenya. CCF raises funds and awareness to study as well as implement strategies to conserve this magnificent cat, and since I am very fond of cheetahs, I worked very hard last year to drive to DC for the event. I met Ro, an educational cheetah from the Cincinnati Zoo: 

I enjoyed meeting conservation enthusiasts as well as CCF Founder and Executive Director Dr. Laurie Marker and geneticist Dr. Stephen O'Brien (author of Tears of the Cheetah: And Other Tales From the Genetic Frontier). That being said, I received a wonderful email today from friend Liz Karch, who heads up the DC, MD and VA chapter, reminding me that this year's DC CCF event is right around the corner! I want everyone to take a moment and visit CCF's website and consider visiting the Georgetown area in DC for an amazing event for an amazing animal!

http://www.cheetah.org/ (Click on Events to learn about the DC event!)

Work with the bobcats is going well... this past week we had a particularly rough day fighting a tentacle-like plant called alder. We also nearly suffered cardiac arrest from a particularly clumsy hawk making excessive noise in the woods, but more on that later. These upcoming weeks include more searching for some elusive bobcats. Thank you for reading and for taking interest in conservation!

Necropsies

Quite a bit has gone on between now and the lull from my last post. There were two weeks that instead of hiking, I worked on compiling national data concerning bobcats and bobcat harvests for the fur trade. I must admit that I am quite surprised there is still a need for the fur market in this country (and in many others) with so many other options for fashion statements. Whenever I see someone sporting a fur coat or stole, I don't remark on their obvious wealth... I just notice how inconceivably heartless they must be to be willing to wear someone's skin.  It seems obvious that the bobcat needs the skin more than humans do, so I take pride in saying that nothing has to die for me to look good.  Not to mention that it takes at least thirty small cat hides to make one coat (I learned this while working at Carolina Tiger Rescue. People sell serval skins and claim it is cheetah fur. They look nothing alike!). I digress. The data will help my boss in determining population trends for her project, so the lives are not lost in vain. I also managed to use Excel without throwing my laptop, so it was a win-win for all involved.

Two weeks ago Bobbie and I traveled to Bozeman, Montana to do bobcat necropsies. A necropsy is the animal version of a human autopsy (autopsy is reserved for humans only. We are a special animal.). My plan for years was to become a veterinarian, so I really enjoy using a scalpel. My boss recently noticed a bumper sticker stating "I like to poke dead things with sticks." This reminds me of the insatiable curiosity I possessed as a child, and although I would never put something like that on my car because it's creepy, I really do love learning about the 'gross stuff.' Dark humor aside, animal anatomy and physiology is not only fascinating, but tells the detailed story of an animal's life. Bobbie and I drove to Bozeman to work in a lab where fur trappers had turned over the carcasses of bobcats from the previous season's harvest.  Our job was to collect DNA and stomach content to determine what these guys were up to prior to trapping. We learned some exciting stuff! We marveled at the size of some of these cats (we're talking thirty five pounds!) and discussed at length how beautiful they must have been. We also honed our scalpel skills in the process, and I was able to practice things I learned when I worked at the Museum of Natural Science in Raleigh, NC doing rodent DNA collection and specimen preparation. Bobbie and I continue to work well together and enjoy each other's company, regardless of location.

The trapping process is very sad, as the cats are not trapped in your Have-A-Heart traps, but with conibear traps. Conibear traps trap an animal by holding the foot/feet in a stronghold that usually breaks the bone (so if you catch the wrong animal, the animal might not survive if released). Here is a picture I found online of a lynx trapped using a conibear trap:

While this is not the kind of picture I enjoy posting, it is something people may otherwise not know happens every year, all over the country. Bobbie and I worked diligently throughout the day on thirty bobcat necropsies, and although the information we gathered was both exciting and relevant, it was constantly on our minds that these animals died for their fur. What does this mean for resident bobcat populations? What kind of impact will this have on their survival in fifty, or two hundred years? How long did each animal suffer? Why do people want to wear fur when that animal probably suffered immense pain for several hours, or possibly froze to death in snowy states, prior to being shot for it's skin? While these questions and the opinions in this website reflect only that of my own conscious, it is a strong point I hope anyone can understand. The beautiful thing about science is that good can come from almost any situation, and that action can be taken from the results.

MOOSE

How in the world did I forget to highlight one of THE most exciting moments of this past week?

I FINALLY SAW MY FIRST MOOSE!

Having somewhat of a diverse agricultural background, I have worked with both cows and horses, some oh which can get quite large. When I went to Ireland in the summer of 2008 to study horse racing (I have no idea why I did this, looking back: I can't ride horses for nilch), I worked with some of the largest horses I have ever laid eyes on. Having a degree from NC State University, I have also worked with lots of cows. However, nothing can really mentally prepare you for the image of  hoof stock large enough to walk over fallen trees! In my three weeks of work I have heard one moose tear off into the trees and another walking over fallen trees that were four feet off the ground. Bobbie and I were driving up the mountain this week when, on the side of the road, was my moose! I had begun to think these creatures were imaginary, although I've seen enough tracks and stepped over enough moose piles to support a healthy population. My moose was a yearling bull and probably the most adorable thing I've ever seen. He ran off the road and into the saplings a short bit, but turned and stared at us for a good thirty seconds. He had little buds, so no huge rack of antlers. Standing at just taller than a large cow, he was extremely dark brown, almost black. he was in the awkward teenager stage and not as magnificent as he will be when he grows to his full 1500 lb potential. Bobbie's daughters call them "swamp donkeys" because of their oversized ears... and it's true! His ears and long muzzle reminded me of a donkey, but much, much bigger. His legs alone were close to my total height, so the legs contributed to at least five feet of his height! He was much rounder than any horse I'd ever seen. When I think of horses, I think of open pastures. When I think of moose, I think of strange cow/horse hybrids that walk over trees and run as fast as deer and will stomp your head in like a watermelon. True, these guys can be pretty dangerous. I'm pleased to have seen my first one in the truck instead of around the next corner. Typical defense strategies include luck and climbing the nearest tree, or the use of bear spray if needed. I can't wait to see my first adult male moose (with antlers), or a mama and baby (from a safe distance)! We didn't get any pictures of this moose, but I came up with a pretty darn good idea for a children's book with a moose as the main star (no, not a cop-out of the one you're thinking about!). Here is a photo I found online that resembles what we saw (the one we saw was a little bigger, fuller, and much darker):

I can't wait to see more! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I get to see a mountain lion soon... but not too close.

Self Torture

Check out this link to see how well I respond to 40 degree F water. Bear in mind, this is a bog: the water has made the surrounding area marshy and I am at least ankle deep in the water for the entire clip. Luckily, Bobbie managed to capture my second attempt, which doesn't include the very colorful language from the first.

 Imogene Vs. Good Creek

Note: This has nothing to do with research, but provides a peak into the kinds of things biologists get into.

Some Job!

Getting into the swing of this new job has been an experience! Bobbie and I spend our days laughing and talking about all sorts of fun things, from conservation to research to interesting (and often hilarious) life experiences. Although these conversations are between huffing up hills and counting pellets and measuring trees, we manage to pass the days in the field without a dull moment. The past two weeks of work have been insane! Each day is an eight to ten hour lesson on wildlife, plant life, and life as a researcher. Bobbie is teaching me so much that I've begun to feel like the lesser life form of a sponge because I am constantly soaking it all in! My hiking legs are starting to develop and I'm needing less and less time to rest during the day. We've developed an efficient system of working together and keeping a constant eye out for fun critters and potentially dangerous wildlife. I've lost count of the number of snowshoe hares we see each morning on the drives up the mountain (and we count their pellets- now that is a number close to infinity- good for the bobcats!). We see ground squirrels, which are darker and smaller versions of the bigger pine squirrels in the trees above us. The ground squirrels do a great job of letting everything in the forest know that we are around with their angry chattering or occasional surprised squeaks when they see us (it's pretty adorable and we monologue for them daily). We count the squirrel middens as well- piles of pine comb pieces that squirrels leave when eating the center of the combs. We often come upon numerous holes in the ground with several middens around them: this indicates a healthy and well-fed population of prey for the bobcats should the cats choose to pass through the area.

This week we worked in both burned areas as well as cut areas- parts of forest either cut for timber or have had wildfires come through the area. The common misconception is that all wildfires are terrible- this is just not true! Wildfires are a natural and absolutely necessary component for the survival of healthy ecosystems. A variety of flora and fauna benefit from wildfires, and although the area looks a little barren and blackened, flowers such as fireweed grace the ground with vivid fuchsia blooms once the heat has gone. few if any animals die in these fires: larger animals and birds take flight, while smaller ground dwelling species burrow underneath the ground and wait out the flames without harm (even with little oxygen). While no one wants to start a fire, natural fires allow forests to regenerate and repopulate the land and species who live there. I will have to get a good photo to post at a later time.

Cut areas are not as fun. Bobbie and I use a CB radio to make sure we know where the logging trucks are so we don't drive off the mountain as we round narrow corners. The loggers bid and cut areas of the national forest (legally), but unfortunately the fragmentation of the land renders it useless for a variety of wildlife. Deer, mountain lions, bobcats, and many other species will not pass through these areas because there is not enough cover from potential predators. Wolves and coyotes will use these areas to pass through, but a lot of animals are not comfortable with the fragmented habitat to use it. Small mammals, or "smammals" as we call them, seem to do alright, but the cut areas are dotting the landscape bare and are causing animals with larger home ranges to move away because these areas are not suitable for hunting or living safely.

Here are a few photos from the last two weeks:

                 

A cold July morning beginning with data entry.

My boss, Roberta Newbury (Bobbie) having a "top of the world" moment in a cut forest. The wind was particularly bad this day and we were very concerned about trees snapping and falling down on us. This photo was taken just after seeing a coyote run across the road up the hill and after we were away from worst of the wobbly trees.

A moose skull from a winter kill, most likely by wolves. Wolves gang up on a moose and run them until they are exhausted through the snow, injuring them badly on the legs by biting them. Once the moose falls, they make the kill. We could see teeth marks on the skull. Notice my foot provides comparison for how HUGE these guys are!

Juncos are little brown birds that nest in the bear grass on the ground. We have to be careful not to step on a nest! Aren't these eggs perfect?

Lupine

Measuring the Diameter Breast Height (DBH) of trees in a vegetation survey. We want to know how dense the forests are that bobcats prefer to inhabit.

Thor is Bobbie's husky and our guard dog some days. He is an enormous and spirited dog that does an excellent job protecting us. He has fought off bears, mauled skunks, and killed shrews (the last two were not the best scenarios, but we are happy to have him throughout the day because he knows if something is around before we do).

Boreal toad we found snacking on bear scat (note: he wasn't in the scat)

Great blue heron in Big Foot Bog... these guys can be like three feet tall! Imagine how big that tree is.

Bobbie's photo (most of the above are hers) of Big Foot Bog. That water, in addition to being 40 degrees F, is almost chest deep! It looks shallow, doesn't it? I tried to get in... FAIL.

  Being mature and acting out the worst possible scenario for this summer.

All in all, the past two weeks have been awesome! In addition to site surveys, we have also spent some time doing bobcat telemetry. Yesterday was one heck of an adventure, as we discovered that one bobcat was extremely close to us (the louder the beep, the closer the cat, the harder your heart pounds...). This prompted a mini excursion that led us through one very cold and fast-moving creek (remember, 40 degrees. However, you don't really notice it when you are hoping to see a bobcat!). As the beeps from the antenna we were carrying got louder, we followed the sound through the woods. We kept going and going. Wait, isn't he supposed to be thirty feet from us? Where is he?! These cats are so fabulous: this predator knew we were on his "scent" and managed to keep ahead of us without a single sound or the twitch of a leaf. No bolting, no dashing, nothing. He quite easily outwitted us and proved why they are amazing animals! Although the grass was a little high and there were some fallen saplings and crunchy leaves, he managed to get through all of it without a sound. How cool is that? Why didn't we get the cool senses and crazy leaping abilities? I would settle for just being able to see better at night (and so would the other drivers...).

On the way back to the truck, I managed to notice how cold the creek was, and that it was at thigh level - something I hadn't registered before.

Great start!

Whitefish

Today is a fairly cool and overcast day in big sky country. I've had the majority of this week off after working the first straight week; next week I settle into the regular routine of 4d/wk. Although I'm not out hiking today, I am doing data entry of the information found at each site this past week. Although I manually enter info in the field, I have to translate it to an evil Excel application that is currently testing my sanity. At the end of the season this data will be compiled for Bobbie's project.

I'm sitting in a local coffee shop and I have to say that this town is great! The people are nice, the food is great, and the scenery couldn't be better. Last night I walked through town for their monthly art gallery exhibits, where local artists feature and sell their work. I need to get to work on my own paintings because I would really love to exhibit something for August!

This is one of my paintings, chalk pastel and acrylic on canvas, of my cat Chopsticks. I love to paint the cats!

Today and tomorrow there is an arts festival in town that I plan on going to, in addition to the local farmer's market. This Sunday I'll be celebrating our country's independence at a lakeside BBQ with Bobbie and family (there are around 4 lakes in 5 miles, so I have no idea which one).  So far I'm really loving this little town, and my job (minus the dreaded Microsoft application).

Lynx rufus, Week 1

Bobcats (Lynx rufus) are North American cats that have a wide range from Canada throughout the United States. These small cats are about 20-40 lbs and have short, stumpy tails for which they are named. Powerful hunters, bobcats in Montana prefer snowshoe hares and red squirrels but are opportunistic hunters like most cats and will eat small rodents, birds, and fawns. Bobcats are often confused with Canadian lynx, but these are not the same cats, as bobcats are smaller than lynx and have different features. These cats range from shades of brown to gray and have various light solid spots throughout the coat, though not as prevalent as the spots on a serval or snow leopard. Bobcats have been legally hunted during the trapping season in Montana for their pelts, which are still considered an agricultural commodity (I do not support the fur industry no matter the species. We can talk fashion later). These cats have plenty of "cattitude," and although they can fall prey to wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions, these cats do well in the Montana forests.

This photo belongs to Roberta Newbury, the PhD candidate I am working for through the University of British Columbia. Most photo credits will go to Roberta (aka Bobbie) because her camera is way cooler than mine. This is one of the collared cats we are monitoring. Photo was taken when animal was trapped for collaring and prior to release. Collars do not hurt the animal.

The work I am doing this summer involves lots and lots of hiking. Bobbie and I are working in Flathead National Forest studying bobcat habitat selection as well as energy expenditures of these cats. We are also evaluating the presence of snowshoe hares and red squirrels (the main prey of bobcats) to determine where bobcats might travel through. Finally, we are taking vegetation surveys of sites to determine the density of areas for both rabbit and bobcat presence.

The reason I am developing hiking legs is because we use GPS to select sites in bobcat habitat. Although there is a lot more that goes into the process, each day involves traveling from one "site" to another using a compass and distance measurements. The good thing to note here is that if you ever get lost with me, I now know how to use a compass and navigate the wilderness using utm coordinates. I assist Bobbie with counting the steps from one site to another and count bunny pellets and squirrel middens (pellets are waste and middens are the remnants of pine cones. Squirrels are brutal to a pine cone, and the bunnies are eating well). I have learned a variety of scat identification as well as developed the sixth sense required of hikers in Montana if one hopes to survive. The forests are thick, busy, and full of black bears; grizzly bears; mountain lions deer and mule deer; moose; and a variety of small critters and hundreds of beautiful birds. The moose and bears are the most dangerous, followed by the elusive mountain lion and my general clumsiness on cliffs. Bobbie, however, has proven extremely knowledgeable and patient as I learn to climb over fallen trees and not fall down a lot. The hiking doesn't sound difficult in theory; however, long hours in mature forests with varying slopes and tough terrain are difficult to travel through without experience.

I've just finished week one of this new job. It has been a blast! The first day was very rough because we hiked through very mature forest with lots of fallen trees. It was a 13 hour day! Bobbie and I have become fast friends and we've enjoyed our combined squeals over the many wildlife sightings we've had in such a short time:

Day 1 included some very adorable mule deer fawn twins.

Day 2 involved having to climb a very steep little cliff. There were moose tracks up the dirt. I wasn't happy.

Day 6 involved FOUR bear sightings! We saw a bear that we thought was deaf, but it turns out she was focused on her yearling cubs just up the road, both of which we saw not five minutes later!

Mama bear is the first bear. Her yearling cubs (only one pictured, below) were quite curious about our truck. This guy stood up to get a better look. How cool!

The BEST part of this week, however, was when we rounded a corner on Day 3 and saw one of our bobcats sitting on the side of the road! Most wildlife sightings are by chance, as these guys do not like people. We know that this cat was one of ours because of the radio collar around his neck (they don't sport fashion on their own, these cats). The collars help us know where the cats are in the some 250,00 acres of forest, relatively. Bobbie has been teaching me about telemetry use:

Looking for bobcats can take all day, but it has been a nice break for our legs. I'm learning a variety of Montana plants as well as what to do to protect myself out in the wilderness. Montana is a beautiful state, and I'm having a beautiful time stretching my new hiking legs and chasing around my favorite species: cats!

Bobcats! In Montana!

Hello everyone!

I am excited (and a little exhausted) to type from my new apartment in Whitefish, Montana. I have been accepted to work the summer field season as assistant to PhD candidate Roberta Newbury studying bobcats in Flathead National Forest. Roberta's research focuses on bobcat movements within home ranges as well as investigating the prey species in northwest Montana. The summer field season consists of surveys in Flathead National Forest to estimate the presence of bobcat prey as well as the factors that contribute to habitat selection. I made the cross-country trip twice to move from North Carolina to Texas (my parents live in Houston), and then from Texas to Whitefish. Yes, those are a lot of miles and a lot of the USA! I have to thank my parents and my close friends for helping make this possible; without you I would probably still be lost on some back road in Idaho without half of my things and none of my hair.

I arrived in Whitefish five days ago and started my new job. I am adjusting to new and difficult work, so unfortunately I don't yet have time to recount what I've experience or learned in this short time. Please stay tuned in the next week, as I have time off from work and will devote a few posts with pictures! I can report that I have not yet seen my first moose, or grizzly bear. Montana wildlife is nothing I've ever experienced, and trekking this beautiful forest is the next step in my developing a niche in exotic cat conservation.