Chipmunks of the 'hood

Checking the traps
We have to check the traps morning and evening every day, rain or shine, to make sure that no animals are trapped for very long. We also take pains to cover the traps with grass so they don't get too hot and to include food for each type of animal that might find their way into the trap. So the traps contain hay for warmth and comfort (store-bought Timothy hay in fact), bird-seed for the mice, a slice of apple for water (since most small mammals get all their fluid from their food), and a little bit of raw hamburger for the insect eaters that might come in - like the short tail shrew which is too chubby to fit out of the "shrew escape hole" (shown above). The researchers used to use maggots, a favorite food of shrews, but apparently they were not the favorite of volunteers, so thankfully they switched to a more human-friendly food.

Today, when checking our traps, we all had quite a shock - ALL the traps that we had set near the edge of the woods had been busted open! I have this theory that the same chipmunk that we caught yesterday spent the night roaming the edge of the woods and raiding all the traps for food. I can only imagine the little critter, with his pack of other 'rebel chipmunks', strutting about the edge of the forest, intimidating the mice and voles, cracking their knuckles and laughing maniacally as they tore apart all the traps. One of them showing off his trimmed rump fur (which Chris has clipped so we could identify animals that had already been caught) with pride. Of course, I might be anthropomophizing here, but hey, it was quite the event!

And lo and behold, two traps were still intact, with the door flaps shut. When Christina and Alice opened them, we found not just one, but BOTH of them had chipmunks in them! The same little guy from yesterday, which I have now nick-named Kegi (after the National park that the team visits on Sunday), and a new one (obviously recruited from the 'hood). We should call him Hegi.



Kegi was much calmer than yesterday, and pretty much just took the weighing in stride. When we caught him (again) that evening, he seemed almost relaxed, just waiting to take off and tell his little chipmunk buddies about his adventures. And don't worry, he won't suffocate in that plastic bag, it's open at the top.

Searching for animal signs in quadrats

We also spent time doing 10 meter by 10 meter quadrats in the woods, to look for deer droppings. As you might remember from our earlier experience in the meadows, where we didn't find any deer droppings, we were beginning to wonder whether there really were deer in the area. But our first quadrat yielded 10 droppings, which was very exciting. After that, however, we found fewer (perhaps because certain members of the team seemed predisposed to setting their 'random' quadrats in the middle of the most dense brush-covered swamps. I know I would not be hanging out in such an unfriendly place as that if I were a deer!). You can see from our headnets that the black flies were out on this day. They are only a problem in the early Spring - usually May - the rest of the teams this year will have many fewer bugs to contend with. But, then again, we revel in our toughness (and ability to look stylish in bug-nets)!

Transect clearing
Alice and I especially enjoyed today's afternoon task of clearing an abandoned 4-wheel drive track. With hand saws and clippers in hand we attacked the downed trees and young saplings that had overgrown the trail. Chris and Christina hoped to make a trail that they can use to reach deeper into the forest to do transects and quadrats. In addition, having a relatively wide trail would allow observers to see animals over a longer distance than if one had to peek through the forest. It was hard work, but very rewarding as we could see the broad trail being formed behind us.

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.

The Traps Are Set!

Today is the third day of our project and involved a scenic drive to Cook’s Lake. The morning was spent walking through the forests identifying trees and, as ever, looking out for poo. We had a detailed discussion on the various smells of different species’ poo which ranged from a musty, unwashed armpit smell to a fresh scent of jasmine. A few other interesting facts about poo are that the mustelid (weasel) family and the canid family tend to have tightly curled poo where as porcupines and raccoons tend to have a distinct pellet formation, especially when they have been eating roughage like bark.

We identified some plants and flowers along the way too which was interesting. Among these were the blueberry plant which is a ground covering bush which black bears eat during Autumn. To continue this theme black bears eat blackberries during Summer and grubs in Spring. They hunt ground squirrels and mice and also eat carrion so ‘never play dead with a black bear’ says Chris!

Cooks Lake contains fish, turtles, beavers, loons and coyotes but we didn’t see any bears today – oh well perhaps tomorrow!!

Another note to add along the theme of poo is about blocked anal glands. This is quite gross but I was interested as our dog at home always seems to suffer from this particular complaint – I must remember to tell mum when I get back! Apparently domestic dogs sometimes don’t get enough roughage in their diet and so their poo is too soft to squeeze out the anal secretions which are used to mark the animals’ territory. To remedy this dry biscuits and bones must be fed regularly to provide adequate roughage.

The afternoon was spent setting small mammal traps. This included filling the nesting box half full with hay to provide the animals with adequate warmth and comfort. Then grain was put in for food, apple for moisture and a small piece of burger for the meat-eating mammals. The trap was then set in a banana shape to aid drainage. This prevents the animals from being flooded and getting wet and cold. An interesting aspect of the design of the trap includes a shrew escape hole. This is a small hole at the back of the nesting box through which shrews can escape but the larger mice and voles can’t. The reason behind this is that shrews are very small and have a fast metabolism which means they would probably starve before the biologists could get back to check the trap.

Hay had to be carefully packed in order to prevent younger mice from spying the hole at the back and trying to force their way out. This is very bad as they tend to get stuck halfway in and halfway out leaving them in a nasty situation if a predator comes along. When the traps are checked by the biologists they must occasionally get out the margarine tub which is to be avoided at all costs!

All in all a very enjoyable day and I look forward to checking the traps tomorrow and, hopefully, finding some small mammals!

Quadrats, surveys, and one chipmunk...

We got up a smidge earlier today to go check the small mammal traps we put out yesterday. We were full of excitement, confident that our traps would catch more traps that Chris anticipated. Of course, we were wrong and either our poor placement or icky human smell kept away all the critters this morning - as all 100 traps were empty. Not even a single "tossed about by a racoon" one. It was a sad realization for us as we walked back to the truck.

"No worries folks!" said Chris and Christina, "we'll do quadrats!" before lunch. So off we set, with four 2 meter tall red and white poles that looked surprizingly like javelins. We set them in a 10 meter by 10 meter square and eagerly crawled on our hands and knees through the field looking for deer poop. So convinced were we that we might miss something, we pushed back grass and peered at the dirt below. Paul shouted excitedly, "I found some poop!" "that's earthworm poop" replied Christina. Turns out we were being a bit more thorough than we needed to be. No deer poop was found, and we pressed on across the field to set another quadrat. Again no poop. And another. No poop. Two more. No poop. Although we had seen deer the day before, we were beginning to doubt that deer existed at all in Nova Scotia. Finally, dejected after our sixth unsuccessful quadrat we walked despondantly towards the other side of the field. "Deer poop!" someone yelled. So in a decidedly non-random way we set up a quadrat with it on the inside corner. But there was no more poop in the 100 square meter area. Were we to have a totally unsuccessful day?

The Guy Who Picks Up Poop

This morning we learned that “the guy who picks up poop,” our illustrious leader Chris Newman, is
actually a population ecologist, who works (along with Co-PI Christine Buesching) for the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Together they have been using scat (the official scientist’s name for poop) as an indirect method to look at the abundance of animals in an area.

Here in Nova Scotia we will be looking at populations of deer, snowshoe hare, raccoons, porcupines, coyotes, skunk, otter, and any other animal whose scat we can find. Tomorrow we’ll be establishing grids in which we’ll place traps to catch small mammals (read mice and voles) to look at their abundance (their scat is harder to find). As RD says, “scat really tells you everything you need to know: who they are, where they are, what they eat, when they were there.” RD also knows a lot about cars (he ran training programs for major automakers) but is quickly becoming a super-pooper-snooper.

The day was a bit grey, but after lunch we set out to do our first Field Sign Transect along the coast at Broad Cove. The fog added a mystical quality to the rocky shore and lichen covered trees. On the way to the cove, we all piled into the project van, even Lycos, the dog. I think he really thought he was a lapdog when he climbed onto Chris’s lap!

Our walk was peaceful and quietly beautiful, as the mist slowly curved through the trees to our left and the waves crashed softly against the rocks to our right. We had only two animal sightings – two muskrats swimming in pools of water. They look like small beavers with vertical, swooshing tails that propel them through the water like a wind-up bath toy.

We also saw our first animals signs. Yep, you guessed it – scat! The porcupine scat was the most interesting to me – I had never seen it before, it looks like any other pelleted herbivore scat, but longer and skinnier.

Here is a picture:

We also saw snowshoe hare scat, which is almost perfectly round, like peas. Coyote and raccoon scat were also prevalent – they were distinguishable by the high hair content and small bones.

Here is the team examining some:

At the end of the 5 mile walk, we headed home and soon tucked into a full dinner of Sheppard’s pie, salad and cabbage. Ice Cream won over watermelon as the dessert of choice.

It's all about Poop!

Three of us arrived in Halifax at the bright and early on Sunday morning from Boston. David and I recognized each other from Earthwatch, and we had some time, so we decided to hop the bus ($16 one-way) to Halifax. The day was sunny, breezy and warm, quite a lovely day to be walking along the water front. David even commented, "it feels like vacation!" as we ate lunch at a waterfront cafe. A stop at the map store yielded plenty of old maps to look at, and a peak in the Rum Cake Factory found David sampling different types of Rum delicacies (the chocolate rum cake was the best, he claimed). I found out that the sales clerk was also gluten-intolerant and immediately decided it was much worse for her than me - at least at my work there are only goodies some of the time!

We left the waterfront and hiked uphill to the city gardens, which were in full bloom: tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, all manner of bulbs were radiating color on all sides. Sadly we didn't have enough time to fully explore and we hoofed it back to the hotel to catch the shuttle back. Unfortunately although we arrived in time, it took us 10 minutes to realize that we were at the wrong hotel! Ooops, the shuttle only stops at the Harborview hotel when requested, and it stops at the Oceanfront hotel at 2:25. Little did we know. All we knew was that the hotel we had been dropped off at was called the Marriot. Where the harbourview/harbourfront bit on the schedule came in was a bit of a mystery to us. So we had to suck up the $55 cab ride back to the airport. However, it did give us a chuckle when the cab driver complained about how crazy the traffic was at the airport as we waited for two cars to move in front of us. I hope he never decides to become a cabbie in Boston!

We met half of the team in the airport and drove through the relatively flat land towards Cherry Hill. Michael sat in front with our intrepid PI, Chris, who only later told us about his propensity for setting vehicles on fire. This is Michael's 14th Earthwatch Expedition. Behind me in the 15-passenger van was Alice, from Scotland, who we are hoping will protect us from bears with her newly acquired TaeKwonDo skills. And in the back seat were Matthew and David, sharing stories and discussing life.

Passing beautiful scenery along the coast we cruised into the small town of Cherry Hill, where we were shown to our "cottages" which in reality are full-blown houses that could hold 12 volunteers, both PIs and a very large husky/shepard mix. Paul and his dad, RD (for Real Deal), who had driven up from New Jersey were already there. Tea and cookies were served in true British style by our PIs fresh off of their 6 years of leading teams in Wytham Woods in Oxford, England. Conversation spilled from climate change to automobiles. We were soon joined by Bruce, a writer for Backpacker Magazine, who joined us with notepad and pen in hand.

Dinner of pizza, salad and Super-8 cola was finished off my ice cream and frozen yogurt, the merits of each carefully considered.

A slideshow explaining all the possible risks (with photos of the most incredible poison ivy rash I've ever seen), which really didn't differ from what most of us encounter in everyday life - including: "please don't bump your head on the stairs" and "don't trip on uneven ground". Then we went over the carefully crafted schedule and learned that, really, everything has to do with poop. We'll be counting poop, looking for microbes in poop, watching poop decompose and even building a shelter to house a field pooper! Luckily, poop does not scare this group, especially innocuous herbivore poop, which is really nothing more than repackaged grasses.

They decided that it would be an early night, which worried me as it was already 10 PM, and, well, on a normal night, my roommate is already in bed and I'm feeling like I should be!

Matthew’s highlights of the day: conversation before dinner, talking with people who have similar interests, being in a group of 8-10 people who don’t know each other and having an involved conversation about global warming and seeing how our ideas are kinda aligned.