Checking the Traps

Team B (Paul and myself)

Last night after dinner we each predicted how many traps would have a little mammal in them today. We were cocky and confident (or “optimistic and naïve” as David and Matthew would say), despite predictions by Chris that we would probably only get 10% on the first night. Pretty much everyone guessed that their line of 20 traps would catch around 40% of the total catch… yeah. Way off the mark… simply amateurish.

After our disappointing luck trapping, we moved onto the deer quadrats, searching for “signs of deer” (read: poop). By the end we were standing up and walking quickly through the plots. No more earthworm poop for us! After about 10 quadrats, we finally had a little luck as we moved closer to the woods.

After lunch (this time we remembered the utensils…) we set off to put up camera traps to take pictures of animals that we couldn’t capture in traps and for whom we might not find scat. The pictures taken by the cameras would help determine what types of animals are in the area.



After this we divided into three groups to survey the research site using GPS. By walking along prominent features of the landscape and taking GPS positions every 100 meters or so, Chris and Christina would be able to create a map of the area more detailed than a regular ol’ road map.

By 5 O’Clock we were pooped (!) and ready to check the traps for one last time before heading home. This time we cruised through the traps like pros – we knew exactly where they were (no more looking around for the little white bits of tape we had stuck on blades of grass or tiny branches), knew how to check them without touching them too much (and getting more of our heavy “human scent” on them), and generally felt like true small mammal biologists. Of course the traps Paul and I had set were empty. However, as we exited the woods, we heard Christina calling us over – she and Chris had caught something!

She said the trap felt heavy, and the neighboring trap had been torn asunder (i.e. the two halves had come apart), so she assumed they had captured a chipmunk. The traps aren’t designed for chipmunks, who are a bit large to fit in them. However chipmunks, as most national park visitors know, are very persistent critters when food is involved, and often will squeeze themselves into the trap to get at the goodies inside. Chris had told us a story about one particular chipmunk that would go into a trap and eat all the food, then, when released, would sit nearby, wait for the trap to be filled again, and go straight back in!

Christina carefully took apart the trap with her hand in a large plastic bag, so the chipmunk could not escape but would still be safe. He did not like to be trapped, as you can well imagine. He was a male “in reproductive condition” and very energetic. Because chipmunks have a tendency to bite, Christina did not try to pick him up as they do with the mice and voles. Instead she tipped him into a smaller bag and weighed him with a small hanging scale, then Chris clipped a little patch of his “guard hair” (the longer part of his hair, leaving his warm undercoat intact) and we released him. You can just see the blur of his tail on the bottom right of this picture as he sped off into the woods.



Tonight’s predictions for tomorrow’s catch range from 2 total (that’s my guess) to 11 (RD’s) guess).

Oh! And I’m supposed to tell you that the find of the day was Bobcat scat which Paul found while doing the GPS survey. Unfortunately we weren’t all there so I can’t describe their elation as they came across this rare find. On our GPS survey we found raccoon scat, red fox scat and a largish scat which we could not agree on – David and I thought it was from a coyote, while Alice was convinced it was fox scat, so we gathered it up in a discarded Budweiser bottle and carried it back to Chris, who promptly told us it was raccoon scat. I guess we all need a little more practice identifying poo.