Come read about all the mammals that live in Nova Scotia. Find out where they live and what they eat!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
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 beover 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 treedies 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 heaviestrodent 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.
We are heading out at 8:00 this morning to Cook's Lake. We will be checking our traps twice and doing deer dropping surveys. We will also reset our camera traps. The trap my group set had a faulty battery and did not take any pictures. When we leave we are headed to a lake that has a beaver lodge. I hope we get to see the beaver.
Leave it to Wally to find some unusual sign. What do you think the sign means?
Everyone have a great day and I will post more tonight!
We arrived at Cook's lake base camp to find that our gazebo was destroyed by the wind. We ended up taking it down and will do without it. Lots of leaves had blown off the trees since last Friday.
We divided into 3 teams to do 3 different jobs. One crew did trail maintenance and one did animal transects, looking for a variety of animal signs. I was on the crew that mapped out a trail using a GPS. We provided the latitude and longitude so that we could make a map of the trail. After lunch we headed out to a different location than last week. We all had to reset the traps with hay, seed and a apple piece. Each team set 20 traps. We had to set our traps in 10 meter rows. How many feet is 10 meters?Tomorrow we will see how many mammals we caught. Kim, my partner and I will hopefully catch a few!
Dr. Chris Newman explains about the different types of scat that we found on the trail.
Here are some pictures of the Atlantic. the green house is where we are staying.
The hurricane was pretty much blown out by the time it reached us. It definitely was not hurricane strength, probably some gusts between 30-40mph. Our lights flickered on and off a few times but that was all. We had a short shower about 3:30 that lasted for awhile and may have dropped a few inches of rain. The yellow house discovered that they had a leak. Other than that it was mostly a wind event. The house shook with the heavier gusts and we could here the wind howling outside for quite a while. Chantil and I got up at sunrise to take a look at the Atlantic. Supposedly they were saying that there would be 16 foot seas at high tide around 1 AM. They might have had some big waves but we did not see any signs that the high tide was any higher than normal. We are headed out this morning after breakfast to Cook's lake to set some more traps.
One of my posts asked the question about how you could tell if Fall or Autumn was coming. Here are some pretty pictures of fall leaves.
On Sunday we took a field trip to Kejimkujik National Park despite the forecast of rain. We did pretty good and only got rain at the very end of the trip. Took the hike to the Hemlock Forest which was very interesting.Some of the trees were over 400 years old. They were so tall that I could not get them to fit in my camera window.
According to the brochure there are a great many varieties of mammals in the park: white tail deer, moose, voles, mice and shrews, bobcat, squirrels, raccoons, porcupine, snowshoe hare, black bear, seals, coyote and american martens. We saw a white tail deer on the side of the road. We also saw a small squirrel but that was all the mammals that we saw.
Wally was hoping to see one of his relatives but the moose live way out in the park. The white tail deer are wiping out the moose population because they are spreading a brain worm called Parelaphostrongylus tenuis, also known as a parasitic nematode. The deer are immune to this infection but the moose are not. The moose population has dwindled down because of this problem. This morning we will head back out to Cooks Lake to reset our traps in different locations.
Hurricane Kyle is nothing more than a wind event here. We did not get much rain but the wind has been blowing and causing the lights to flicker. I guess at high tide at 1 AM the waves are expected to get up to 16 feet high.
Well, remember the picture at the beginning of the blog that showed some stone are work on the beach. I thought it was done randomly but found out today it was an advertisement for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The stone statue is called llanaaq and represents the Inuktitut word for friend.
Yesterday we went into a small town called Lunenberg. Based on these pictures what would you say was a main source of income for the town?
This picture was an earlier picture but I did not get any response. Why are families cutting and stacking wood?
What kind of mammal is this? How do you know it is a mammal? Where does it live and what does it eat? How is it important to the environment?
My favorite picture of the day... made me smile! YUM!
Mystery picture ?
Compare and contrastHow your town is alike and different from Lunenberg? Here are some pictures of Lunenberg.
This was one of my favorite pictures I took today. I thought the vine looked interesting on the house at Lunenberg.
Many thanks for all of the comments! I am sorry that I have not had time to reply to all of them. We can talk about your comments when I get back. Please keep the comments coming. We have had people from all over the world look at the blog which is so interesting. Friday night after dinner we headed into town to do our laundry. I think we scared everyone at the laundry because we came in with mounds of laundry and then took all the working machines. It was a big adventure! I forgot how much fun it was to watch the clothes spin in the dryer.
This morning was our free day and we took the ferry over to Lunenberg. The Ferry was a line ferry and that means that it did not need to be steered, just propelled by the engine. The cable (line) was attached to the ferry and guided it across. We did not get out of the van so I could only take a picture of the engine area. Lunenberg is a quaint coastal town that use to be a fishing village. There are still many boats there but most are recreational rather than for fishing. The weather was overcast but pretty warm.
Some of us in the group decided to go on a whale watching boat trip.
Wally of course wanted his own boat and crew.
The sea was not too rough but there was alot of chop. the whales might have been there but we did not see any. We did see some really cute seals and a variety of sea birds. I guess the storm might have scared them away.
After we arrived back from our trip most of us went over to the Museum to look at all the historical fishing exhibits. It was a wonderful day with a little shopping, touring, eating and boating all mixed together.
For those of you that guessed the mystery picture that looked like a pile of sticks in the water. If you guessed beaver dam or beaver lodge you were correct! Congratulations! The cereal challenge is a little more tricky. The titles were in french but the pictures were pretty helpful weren't they. How many of you got them correct?
I had a lot questions about the spiders and I don't know what kind they were. Spiders are very important to us for many different reasons. Can you name some?
This mystery picture stumped alot of you. Some of you thought it was a fort someone else thought it was made out of lincoln logs. No one guessed that it was a foundation for a house. The picture on the right shows the corner of the house with the foundation.
I have lots more to share but will save that for tomorrow. Not sure about Hurricane Kyle ? No one has been in a hurricane except me and they are all excited about it. The locals do not seem to concerned either. I guess we will know more tomorrow. We are scheduled to go to Keji state park tomorrow, I hope we don't get rained out. The park is about the only place you can see moose in Nova Scotia and Wally really wants to see his cousins!
Sorry about the missing videos from yesterday. I found out that they had blogger down for 15 minutes for maintenance. I think it must of been longer than that. We were all very frustrated not being able to get our videos and pictures uploaded. Hopefully they have fixed whatever they were working on.
We have had a busy day and a very beautiful day! The morning started off with breakfast at 8:00. We have our choices of several cereals to choose from. I am not sure which type is in each box? Can you figure it out?
We headed out to Cook's lake to check our traps. It takes about 40 minutes to drive out there and then we have about a half mile hike to the gazebo base camp. We were all excited about the prospect of finding more small mammals. It is about a 20 mile hike through a tall forest, a bog area and then finally a dry area. Kim and I are in charge of zone "c" area traps. We had 2 traps that had been sprung but only one had a rock voile in it. After we checked all the zones we moved to the forest site to check those traps. This time we had one that had been sprung but no mouse or voile.
It was about lunch time so we headed back to base camp. Lunch usually consists of meat, cheese, egg salad, tuna salad, crackers, chips and cookies. We are usually pretty hungry by the time we get back from checking traps. After lunch we divided into 2 groups.
One group did deer dropping counts and the other group did trail maintenance. I went with the trail maintenance group and we chopped, trimmed and sawed the trail to make it a little easier to follow. I am cutting down a little Christmas tree.
We checked our video trap to see if any pictures were taken and we think there was. We checked the counter number and it indicated that the camera took some pictures. The cameras are triggered by motion sensors. We will leave them up the entire time and check them on the last day. We left camp and headed to a pond. Can you tell what this is a picture of?
Here are some of the videos from yesterday that I was not able to post.
Here is Dr. Chris Newman telling us about the importance of trapping small mammals.
Dr. Christine Buesching talks about the procedure for capturing the small rodents such as voles, mice, lemmings and flying squirrels. still having trouble loading this video.
Here is the video of me getting my first capture out of the trap. It was an exciting experience for both of us!
Here is the answer to the math problem Yesterday we had a very busy day. On the way to Cook’s lake we stopped to fill up the van. Here is a multi part math problem for you to solve. Answer will come later. Petrol (gas)costs $1.25 in Canadian dollars for 1 liter. If you buy 25 gallons of gas how much will it cost in American dollars? First you need to go to the web and find a currency converter to determine what a dollar is worth in Canadian. Here is a link to a currency converter.http://www.xe.com/ucc/ 1.25 CAD = 1.20799 USD 1 liter of gas cost $1.20. Then you need to find out how many liters are in a gallon of gas. Go to a metric converter http://www.worldwidemetric.com/Measurements.html Find out how many liters are in a gallon, There are 3.7 liters in 1 gallon. To buy 25 gallons of gas you would have to get 92.5 litres
1 litre of gas cost $1.20 in American For 25 gallons of gas you would need to buy 92.5 litres 92.5 x 1.20 = $111.00 US dollars
Did you get the same answer? There are several ways to get to get this answer.
I hope to have some more videos tomorrow. The scat video being one of them. I also have some pictures to share.
We are having trouble uploading videos so hopefully we will get it fixed soon!
We had a wonderful day out at the field at Cook's lake. Yesterday we set 100 traps in hopes of catching some small mammals. The day started out by checking our traps that we set out yesterday. Dr. Christina gave us a short demonstration on how to get a small mammal out of the trap. Video of Christina going over the directions on how to get a small mammal out of the trap.
We all had high hopes that our traps would be full. Kim and I had one trap that had been sprung and the door was closed. Sadly, when we got back to the base camp there was nothing inside. It was just a false alarm. Out of the 50 traps we caught only 8 rodents. We had 5 redbackvoles and 3 rock voles.
Once we bring the sprung traps back to the base camp we have to get the animal out. We remove the pieces of the trap and the nesting grass. the animal is in the plastic bag and we gently grab them by the scruff of the neck and hold on carefully. We examine the animal to see what species, what sex and check the reproductive organs.We clip their fur on a certain side to indicate that they have been caught. Then we put them back in the bag to get weighed. Once the information has been recorded we return the trap and the rodent to the same location. It is very important that the rodent be returned to the same area where it was captured as it a territorial animal.
After we checked the traps we headed back to base camp for lunch. The next task for us was to set up some camera traps in various areas. My group set up the camera trap so that we could hopefully catch some deer drinking at the stream. The camera works on infra red and a motion sensor. when an animal walks by it will trigger the camera to take a picture.
When we returned we worked on deer dropping counts. We created a grid 10 meters by 10 meters. Then we lined up on one of the lines and walked the grid looking for deer droppings. We were not too successful and only found droppings on the last grid. Not very good statistics for 8 grids.
The next task was to check the traps one more time. Once again Kim and I were very excited as we thought we had caught a critter in our trap. The team caught a total of 10 rodents in the afternoon. Video of opening the trap.
We are about to head out to the field again for another long day of setting traps and looking for mammal sightings. The picture at the left is of cook's lake. I will be posting when I get back tonight. Sorry I will not be able to skype during today. Hope you enjoy some of the activities I left for you. xxoo Mrs. Smith
Yesterday we had a very busy day. On the way to Cook’s lake we stopped to fill up the van. Here is a multi part math problem for you to solve. Answer will come later.Petrol (gas)costs $1.25 in Canadian dollars for 1 liter. If you buy 25 gallons of gas how much will it cost in American dollars?
We saw a wooly bear caterpillar. The picture is not real clear because if youtouch them they tend to roll up in a ball. There is an old farmers saying that if you look at the length of the black center stripe and if it is long than you are going to have a long winter. If the center stripe of black is short than you are going to have a short winter.
Here is a vocabulary word for you to talk about. What does the word environment mean? What type of environment do you live in? How does your environment differ from the Nova Scotia environment?
While we were taking a walk along the coast we came across some unique art work. What do you think of it?Could you make something like this?Do you think it is really art or just something fun to do?
Here are some answers to the questions from this mornings and yesterdays post. How many of you guessed Cranberries for the mystery picture? Since we don't grow cranberries in Florida you probably did not realize what they look like on the plant. If you got the second part of the question which talked about eating them at Thanksgiving time then you were correct. One of the classes wanted to know if we would see any of Wally's relatives. Yes, when we go to Kejimkujik National Park we should see some them. Wally is really excited about seeing some friends. What signs do you think we would see since yesterday was the first day of Fall? In Florida we do not begin to see anything obvious mostly it is just a feeling of air that does not have as much humidity. In the northern states the trees begin to have the leaves change color and eventually fall off. Here is a web link that will help explain it more. Fall leaves web site Nova Scotia has not had real cool weather yet so many of the trees have not begun to turn colors. There is a flower that only blooms in the fall that is called Golden Rod. Here is a picture of it.
Today was our first full day at the Cook's lake site. We walked into the forest all the way to the lake. Dr. Christina Bueschingshared the local history of the area as well as the flora and fauna.
As we walked to the lake we found a cow skull. We learned the difference between the cow that has horns and the moose that has antlers. The cow has horns that are part of the hair. They grow straight and tend not to curl too much. They do not loose the horns. The moose has antlers that they drop at the end of the year. When the antlers are velvet they are growing and have blood flowing through them. After they are done growing they loose the velvet and have a hard antler remaining. Both the cow and moose use their teeth for eating plants and are considered ruminants.
We found some interesting animal prints in the mud. This is a bear print. There is a quarter next to it to show the difference in size.
By the time we had lunch at the base camp we were pretty tired. After eating we got our energy again and then started out to the area where we set out 100 small rodent traps. The traps need to be assembled with grass for bedding, seeds and a little piece of apple. Rodents do not drink water but get their liquid from eating their food. The little piece of apple provides them with the liquid that they need.
We set out 50 in an area that had been reforested. Watch the video to see what the area looks like.
Then we set another 50 in area that had heavy forestation. It was a lot harder to set the traps because it was so wooded.
Tomorrow we will see if we caught anything? We will also talk about various animal scat.
Here is short clip of a description of what we did yesterday.
If you look carefully you can see a picture of the cute mammal in the tree. He is a cute little porcupine hiding in a tree.
Yesterday was the first day of fall. What do you think we should be noticing here in Nova Scotia that we would not notice in Florida?
Mystery picture hint. This is a low bush that produces a berry. It does not grow in Florida. We buy the berries at the store at Thanksgiving time.
While on our walk along the coast yesterday, Wally came across something in the grass. Write how you think Wally felt and what he should do about it. Today we will be out in the field all day at Cooks Lake. We will learn how to set the longworth traps to catch small rodents. The traps do not hurt the animals at all. We will be setting 100 traps and then checking on them again in a few hours. When we catch the animals they will weighed and measured, then returned to the area where they were caught.
Many thanks to Mrs. Weller's class, Mrs. Bate's Class,Mrs. Laughlin's class for answering the questions.
The answer is yes, they do have reptiles in Nova Scotia. We saw 2 snakes and a frog yesterday.
We just got back from a 4 mile hike around the coast of Nova Scotia. It was very beautiful and great weather. It was probably in the high 60's with no wind, full sun. There was very little wave action. Wally had a good time, great spot to view everything.
The goal of the walk was to look for mammal signs such as footprints and scat. We were very successful in finding both. We found evidence of these animals: porcupine, otter, deer, raccoon, coyote, rabbit. We saw a snowshoe hare, green frog, several sea birds and a porcupine.
For the mystery picture I asked what it was. Well here is a closer picture. Can you tell what kind of fruit it is?
Some of you might be wondering why counting mammals is important. It is important for several reasons. Mammals are a good indicator species to show environmental changes, especially climate changes.
What does this picture tell you about Nova Scotia? Why is it important?
Nova Scotia is considered a frigid isotherm. That means the soil can be frozen or not. Since the conditions are cold do you think that Nova Scotia has reptiles? Snakes, frogs, lizards?
Can you tell me what this is a picture of? Is it important for the community?
Teachers Just click on the comment button and let me know what your class answer is? You can go in as anonymous and then just sign your name at the bottom. The answer will be later.
Today is going to be a busy one. We are meeting in the morning after breakfast to learn about Mammal Monitor Science. In the afternoon we are driving to Broad Cove for Field Sign Transect training .
Yesterday I asked you why it got dark so early, around 6 o’clock? Did you talk about the sun,the distance from the equator and the seasons? For more information click here .
Wally has learned a lot about Halifax. Here is a picture of Wally right after he got off the plane. Did you know that Halifax is part of Canada? Why are there maple leaves around the word "Canada" in the picture?
Did you know that Nova Scotia is twice the size of the state of Massachusetts? There is nowhere on the island that you are more than 35 miles from the sea. Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and is halfway between the equator and the north pole. Can you tell me what the words Nova Scotia mean?
I am getting ready to go for a sunrise walk. It feels pretty cool out, jacket weather. I am not sure what the exact temperature is but it is breezy. the thermometer says 45 degrees. What is the temperature difference between St. Petersburg and Halifax?
Hi Everyone, Wally is all set for his trip, He is in the chair for the ride to the shuttle. The plane flights were wonderful.
I flew from Tampa to Newark New Jersey and then to Halifax. We were even ahead of schedule. Wally had his own seat on the plane.
Wally is posing at the Newark airport to show the HSBC Bank logo.
We have quit a diverse group of volunteers . There are 2 folks from Australia, 2 from Great Britain, 1 from Japan, 1 from Switzerland, 1 from California, 1 from Indiana, 1 from Wisconsin, and 2 from Tennessee. Here is the group waiting at the airport for all the members. I was very surprised that it got dark so early, around 6:00. Why would that happen?
Wow 4:00 am is really early to get up! It looks like the plane is going to be full. First leg of the trip takes me to Newark. The battery in my little camera died so I am sitting near a plug as I wait for the plane to begin loading. No pictures of Wally at the airport yet.
I think I have everything ready to go. Hope it does not go over 50 pounds, feels kind of heavy. Wally the Moose is ready to go. It is going to be an early morning tomorrow to get to the airport to catch the 7:15 flight out.
This morning my husband and I took a walk on the beach. Hurricane Ike left thousands of yards of sand on the beach, so it was very different. The water was very clear and calm. It was a very beautiful morning and we actually felt like fall was coming. The humidity was very low and the clouds were very different. I wonder if Fall has started in Halifax?
How many of you found out where Halifax is? Did you find out if Halifax, Canada is further north than Anchorage Alaska? There are many different ways to find out? Here is a picture if you did not find out yet. There is a path from Halifax to Anchorage, Alaska.
I have been watching the weather to see what it is like in Halifax. Check out this web site Weather Underground.
The weather is very similar to what I experienced when I was in Alaska this summer. Better get out your map. Which is further north? Anchorage, Alaska or Halifax, Nova Scotia? How can you tell? How can you show that one if further north than the other? Hint? You might want to use Google Earth.
There is one more week to go before I head out to Nova Scotia. I am getting real excitied about going. Thanks to all of you that have taken the survey and helped me organize my packing. The weather looks pretty good highs in the 60's and lows in the 40-50's. That will be a nice change from the 90's here in Florida.
Don't forget to let me know that your class will be following along. I would like to be able to email the class before I go. Also, don't forget to take my survey to help me pack. Pay attention to the weather in Halifax.
This weekend I am going to think about what I need to take on my trip. Maybe you could help me? I need to plan what clothes and what equipment to take. Take this survey and help me decide what to take. Take my survey I hope you all were able to figure out the picture from the post yesterday. It was a grizzly bear and yes it is a mammal. Could you name all the characteristics of Mammals?
What kind of animal is this? Is this a mammal? Do you think I might see one of these animals in Nova Scotia? Can you name the characteristics of a mammal? What are they?
I am looking for some classrooms that are interested in learning about animals in their environment and the affects of climate change has on them. If your class is ready to interact live with scientists in the field than this project is for you.
We will have lots of communication and I will need lots of help from your class to help solve some problems. I will be using this blog, skype and email to communicate. The adventure begins September 21 thru October 4th. If you would like to email me direct my email is smithann@pcsb.org.
Please reply to this blog in the comment section with your classroom name , grade level, teacher's name, school name, school location and how many students are in your class.