Back Home in Sunny Florida

Wally and I made it home yesterday but it was a long day. We spend a lot of our time waiting in the airports. We did get to watch the sunset over the Empire State building which was pretty neat. I have been reflecting on my experiences in Nova Scotia and remembering all my new friends. We all became awesome badger dancers. ( an inside joke)

The Earthwatch Institute and HSBC Bank have allowed me to have this wonderful experience and share it with many students. I am so thankful to them for providing me with this once in a life time opportunity!
Dr. Christina Buesching and Dr. Chris Newman were wonderful hosts! Their work with mammals was so interesting and informative. I learned so much!
Since meeting them I have more respect for the environment and natures delicate balance.

Friday- Our Last Day

We had a very busy day for our last day of activities. It was nice talking to Megan Weller's classroom in New Jersey and also Mrs. Barron's class at Perkins Elementary in St. Petersburg. This morning we went over the data that we had accumulated over the 2 weeks. Then we got in our big van and headed out to Thomas Raddall Provincial Park. We had lunch when we got there. We divided into 3 teams to look for field signs. Field signs include scat, footprints, signs of eating such as bones, shellfish or seeds, and den sites. We found all kinds of signs, raccoon, otter, bobcat, deer and bear footprints. We found lots of scat as well but we did not see any animals except a seal and a porcupine in the tree on our way out of the park.



Wally had a great time sunning himself on the rocks. The birds were very interested in what Wally was doing. Dr. Newman lectured us on basic survival skills. We learned how to make a simple trap and also how to make a simple machine for starting a fire. We headed back to the house for a last meal together of fish and chips. Then everyone was off to pack our bags for our early morning ride to the airport. It has been a wonderful experience meeting everyone and learning so much new information. We started out as strangers and now we are all best friends. Please check back to the blog as I will be uploading some more pictures and information.



Thanks to all of you that followed along! Bye for now, Love, Mrs. Smith

Thursday Night

We headed out to Cook's lake for our final trap collection. Kim and I did not have much luck. I guess the rodents decided they did not like our traps. The overall capture rate was not too good for all the teams. It started to rain just as we were finishing up.

We cleaned up camp and headed back to the house for lunch. Dr. Newman did a lecture on about How the world was formed and how that impacted Nova Scotia. He also talked about all the mammals that are native to Nova Scotia. Can you find Wally? He was a very good student.

We had time for a quick walk to the beach before dinner. On the path to the beach we saw dozens of sea urchin exoskeletons. We think that some animal was eating them and just leaving the shell.





Here is some information about the small mammals we have been catching. Red back voles are the smallest mammals and beavers are the largest in Nova Scotia.

The Rock vole is bigger than the Red Back vole. Their average 20-35 gram average weight. They have the bigger eyes, purple feet and 8 teats. They are very active because they live in exposed habitats. When faced with a predator they run away. Their average life span is 6-12 weeks. They average litter is 4-6 pups.

The Red Back vole has bigger ears and has a reddish coat. Their average weight is 12-25 grams and they have 8 teats. They are not as active as the Rock vole because they live in the thick undergrowth and vegetation. They tend to freeze when faced with a predator. The average litter is 6 pups.

The Common Deer Mouse average weight is 22-40 grams. They have big ears, big eyes, long tail and a good sense of sight and smell. They are an omnivore which means they eat insects, eggs, berries, plants, and seeds. There average litter is 10-12 pups. They live in trees and can jump 3-4 feet off the ground. They use their tail for steering the direction of the jump. When faced with a predator they run away.

The short tail shrew has bad eyesight, short tail, long and mobile nose and tiny ears. Their nose can move in all directions and the have a good sense of smell. They have poor hearing but they can hear some ultrasounds. They are insectivores. The average weight is 25-40 grams. The shrew has hollow teeth which have poisonous bacteria. It causes them to taste bad when eaten by the predators. When a predators approaches the shrew will twitter to let them know that they taste bad. The poison in their saliva can be used to kill some insects.

That is all for tonight... see you all tomorrow with some new info.

Thursday Morning

GO RAYS AND GO BULLS!

The weather this morning is overcast, cool and breezy. Probably the coolest we have had so far. Today is the last time we are going to check the traps. It has been very interesting process to be involved with. We will analyze the data that we collected tomorrow.

Here is a picture for you to think about.
Is it art or is it functional?
What do you think it means?

Here is a story starter for you. Write a story in the mouse perspective. Here are some pictures to help you think like a mouse.

More neat pictures and info later tonight. Time for breakfast!

Wednesday Evening

Do you figure out the picture of the wood? It was a tree that had been cut down by a beaver. Can you see how they gnawed around the tree. Their front teeth are like chisels. They are large orange in color and they have iron in them. They grow constantly and they need to gnaw on wood to keep them from getting too long.

We have couple, Andrew and Karen from Australian on our team. Here are some words and phrases that are different.
Dodgy is suspicious
Scarper is to run away
Faffing is wasting time
Singlet is a tank top
Swimmers or cossie are bathing suits
Sunnys are sunglasses
Firey is fireman
Ambo is ambulance driver
Walkabout is wandered off
Torch is a flashlight
Servo is a pertrol station(gas station)
In new Zealand togs are bathing suits

Here are some new vocabulary words to think about? Do you know what they mean?
Nocturnal
Hibernation
Torpor
Herbivore
Omnivore
Insectivore

Today we did not have an as much luck trapping the rodents. We did catch 2 flying squirrels which was really interesting. Here is a short video of his capture. One of them was released back into the area where it was captured and it scampered up trees until it got back to where we were. We got to see it glide right in front of us and land on the other side of the road. We got to take some more pictures while it sat and ate nuts. It was so cute!

Here is some information about the flying squirrels. They are nocturnal. We were surprised that the flying squirrel came back to eat. They do not really fly they glide from one tree to another. One of the flying squirrels was not very active when we took it out of the trap. It had moved the nesting material and was sitting on the cold metal. We think it had started to go into torpor. Torpor occurs when they lower their body temperature to lower their metabolism. Torpor is different from hibernation in that they can go into torpor at any time. It does not require a certain amount of day length. It can also be brought on by getting wet and cold or by physically being in bad shape.
Some examples of animals that go into torpor are bats, flying squirrels, nightjar(bird), bears and hedgehogs.


Wally was helping us look for Beaver last night.The beaver lodge is the family home. The entrances are underwater so that the predators can’t find the entrance. The sleeping chambers are inside the lodge above the water level. A baby beaver is called a cub and they stay with the family for a year. Beavers are herbivores. What does that mean? They spend the fall eating plants to get fat for winter. They also start gathering sticks and taking them inside the lodge. They will use them to gnaw on over the winter. Beavers can hold their breath for 15 minutes. Beavers have 3 eyelids. One eyelid is transparent which means that they can have their eyes closed but still can see while they are swimming in the water. While we were watching the beaver one of the adults smacked her tail on the water. It was a very loud noise and that told the rest of the beavers that there were other animals around (people) and conveyed a message to us that they knew we were there.
If you want more information go to National Geographic Beavers

In the afternoon we did 12 - 25 square meter mammal droppings transects. We found deer, snowshoe hare, spruce grouse, and chipmunk scat. We also saw 2 different types of salamanders, a smooth green snake and a purple toadstool. the picture of the salamander is an Eastern Red Eft.

Tomorrow will be our last day to check our traps in the field. I should be able to give you some totals as to how many species were found and how many of each.

Wednesday Morning

We are getting ready to head out to Cook's Lake this morning. Breakfast is a 8:00 and then we leave right after that. Here are some answers to some of the previous questions. There pictures of fishing traps, and boats and the questions was to try to figure out what the main industry was. Some of you said fishing which is correct. Also ,they use their boats to take tourists out to go whale watching,


In Canada, they have coins that are $1 and $2 dollars. This is a picture of a $2 dollar coin (on the right) and it is called a "twoney" rhymes with looney. The other picture is of their $1 dollar coin (on the left) and it is called a looney. If you look closely their is a picture of a loon on it.



One of my questions asked about how you could see if the season was changing. Do you think that this picture is a good fall picture?


Mystery picture? What do you think this is?






Question to think about ? Why is it important to trap the small mammals? Keep in mind that these rodents are the bottom of the food chain What will we learn as a result of these findings?

Bye for now, time for breakfast and then off to Cook's lake! Have a great day!

Tuesday Evening

On Sunday we went to Kejimkujik National Park. One of the trails that we went on was the Hemlock Forest trail. The trail went through an old growth forest and some of the trees are estimated to be over 400 years old. Most of the undergrowth dies away because of lack of sun.

The forest floor is usually covered by moss, lichens, mushrooms, rotting and decaying branches and old fallen trees. The roots of the hemlock go as far out as the branches reach. Their root system is very delicate and any minor damage to them can affect the life of the tree. There are many plants and animals growing underneath the hemlocks. When a tree dies and falls to the forest floor, sunlight is filtered in and allows seedlings to grow. Insects and fungi help the logs decay. We saw lots of fungi, many different colors and shapes. More fungi pictures later on Why is it important that this decay cycle occur on the forest floor?




Mystery picture... what do you think caused this tree to fall down?






Wally behaving himself on the walk in the woods. He only got lost one time. Did you figure out what the sign that Wally found?

In our group we have several people from England. I have learned that they have some different phrases for words that we use. Here are some examples:
the phrase”jumper” means long sleeve shirt
the word “trainers” means sneakers
the word “lift” means elevator
the word “pavement” means sidewalk
the word "bonnet" means hood of the car

Our day started at 8:00 and we headed out to Cook's lake to check our traps. When we arrived we all needed to change into rubber boots. Lots of dew and standing water. We headed out to check our traps for the first time. We all found lots of traps that had been sprung overnight. You can see how many the teams found.



We caught 3 red back voles in the first set of traps. We all meet back in a group to weigh and measure the animals.
We clean out the traps and reset them with fresh hay, seed and apple. After they have been weighed, sexed, clip marked, age them and asses their reproductive status we return them to the correct spot.
Do you remember why this is important? Here is a video of a release. When we released the voles they were scared, but this one did not run off right away. Can you see the voile in this picture? What is the word that describes how an animal blends in with its surroundings?


My trapping partner Kim and I won the competition for catching the heaviest rodent today, a whooping 32 grams. In fact we caught her 2 times. She gained a gram from the time we weighed her in the morning to the afternoon weigh time. She is pregnant and we think she will have her babies soon. We also caught a total of 9 voles today which exceeded our total for last week which was 8 for the entire week. We are wearing our prizes for having the heaviest mammal!
On the way back from Cook's lake we stopped at the beaver pond. We had to sit very still for a long time. We waited for the beaver to come out at dusk. I think there were 2 adults and 1 juvenile. We had a beaver swim by us about 10 feet in front of us. The beaver smacked his tail 2 times in the water and scared me to death. Here is a picture of his lodge.
From Vancouver 2010 Website, 30 September 08.

Here is some information that was sent to me after they read my blog. The info came from some folks who live in Canada.
From Vancouver 2010 Website, 30 September 08.
For centuries, the Inuit people of Canada’s Arctic stacked rock in human form to create the inukshuk, a steadfast guidepost that provided direction across the vast horizons of the North. Over time, the inukshuk has become a symbol of hope and friendship, an eternal expression of the hospitality of a nation that warmly welcomes the people of the world with open arms every day.

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games emblem is a contemporary interpretation of the inukshuk. It is called Ilanaaq which is the Inuktitut word for friend. This is the symbol of Canada’s Games – our friend who will help us greet the world in 2010.
The emblem was chosen by an international judging panel from more than 1,600 entries from every region of Canada submitted through the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Emblem Design Competition. Rivera Group of Vancouver submitted the design, created by a team that included company principal and creative director, Elena Rivera MacGregor and designer, Gonzalo Alatorre.