More trapping
Today we checked our traps twice. We had all the same voles as yesterday - so we named them, Bert, Brit, Gimpy (who has health issues, and Babe. Brit is the female and she is actually pregnant. We also had a chipmunk in one of the traps. This doesn't happen too often, as chipmunks often go in and get the food, or will break apart the trap to get the food. They also weigh about 4 times as much as the voles. We named this guy Flash, as he ran away as fast as possible after he was out of the trap.
We continued with the porcupine damage surveys in the afternoon and then after lunch we did hare scat quadrats. We had to count the number of hare droppings in a 100 square meter area and this will then be used to determine how many hares there are in that area. This can be used to tell how healthy the ecosystem is by knowing how many animals of a species there are.
Challenge: To come up with a question you can ask me about my expedition that relates to mammals or climate change.
posted by sue cullumber @ 5:44 PM
10 Comments:
WOW Sue, thank you for sharing your inspiring adventure with so many including the Howard S. Gray School students and Banner Behavioral Health Hospital. You are helping us all stay aware of our home, Mother Earth!
Do you think it is possible for any of the animals you see to have diseases.
-O.C.
Sue, What kinds of behaviors are you seeing amonst the animals in one ecosystem? Do they interact with one another or keep to themselves? J.F.
Here's my question:
Do you enjoy working on your expedition that relates to mammals and/or climate change?
~Julian
What are some major differences between wolves and coyotes? RL
Hello Sue, how much of Nova Scotia is not inhabited by humans, and how does ecosystem look is there a lot room for animals to live in? How fragile are the animals in the area towards climate change?
R.M.C
What's wrong with Gimpy? Will he live?
-XX
Wow you guys some great questions! Since I'm skyping today with you all, I will try to answer some of them then. Yes, I have really enjoyed most of the work I have been doing here (maybe not the hare scat counts).
Less than 1 million people live in Nova Scotia with most in the capital of Halifax, so there are a lot of areas that are uninhabited.
Gimpy is an older Vole and he has a Hernia.
Coyotes are smaller than Wolves a different species and not as husky.
Many of the animals are affected by climate change and the short term changes that are happening in the area -
JT - your question on the flying squirrel was great! Southern FS are endangered due to Habitat loss so therefore there are more of the northern ones.
Do voles hibernate? And if so what time of year as in months do they hibernate?
DTR
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