Setting the Traps! Watch Out!

MY FIRST TRAP! WATCH OUT MICKEY!


What We Did Today:
SET SMALL MAMMAL TRAPS!
Today we set out to East Port Medway Research Site which is a wooded area about 20 miles south of Cherry Hill. It is a wooded site about 20 - 30 acres. Our goal today is to set out small mammal traps - specifically looking for mice. Being a smaller mammal, the fluctuation of their population numbers between year to year and also spring through fall is of interest to climate/environmental changes.

So.... step one: Set up the Trap!
1. This aluminum trap has a tube (smaller tube) and a nesting box (bigger square). The nesting box needs to be filled first with some hay/straw. Mice need have very little body fat and need to eat about every 4-6 hours to keep warm and to fulfill their fast metabolism. The hay is there so they don't get hypothermic in the cold April weather (since they're not zipping around the forest floor when they're trapped, they need an alternate way to keep warm)














2. Fill with Pine Needles- dry ones. This hopefully helps get rid of/camoflauge any not-forest-like smells that are in the hay and the metal traps. It's like Glade Air Freshner, Outdoor Flavor.



3. Fill with feed. We add about 2TBSP full of food - a good handful. It's chopped up corn and grain/seeds. This should be enough for it to eat for about a day or two, although we'll check the traps twice a day (morning & night).

4. And don't forget, just like my expectations for YOU to have manners in class, I expect the mice to have them as well......








5. Set them up! Environmental class: Think of our random sampling lab... orange paper with the morrel mushrooms in grids..... Using 20 yard/meter quadrants, we set the traps up. Each group has 20 traps. We were Group C. Notice the labels on this box of traps. Example: C3b on a trap is: Group C, the third trap site (there's 10 total) and it's trap b at the third site (each site has two traps set at it- A & B)
We have to mark where we set the traps, otherwise we'll never find them again! We use flag tape to mark each spot....
All 5 groups( A, B, C, D, & E) walked in lines like a deer drive through the woods about 20 yards apart. As a group, we'd stop together for trap site 1 and place down a & b there. Then move to trap site two, and so on....

6. Think like a mouse! Put the trap in a spot where one would run by and get caught! Mice don't usually run in open areas. (have to know something about animal behavior before you study it's population... heard that before?) So, we have to place traps along rock and tree lines. Borders that the mice will travel along..


Hopefully we'll have something in our traps tomorrow morning!!







What We'll Do Tomorrow:
1. Check our Traps!!
2. Hare & Deer dropping Counts
3. Camera Traps
4. Porcupine Damage Survey

For You......
1. Why do you guess we set up the traps with the tunnel slightly pointed downward and the nesting box up higher?
2. What is this hole for in the nesting box?





Monday's Picks:
1. How many miles is a 10km walk? 6 miles

2. What animal made the droppings? Upper left: Fox (can you see the claw from a small mouse/vole in the poop?)
Upper right: Porcupine (many times Porcupine poop is called a "pearl necklace" - not a good idea for prom....)
Lower left: Rabbit (Notice how circular they are compared to deer poop.)

Can't wait for tomorrow.
Hey.... click on "comment" and ask me a question. I'd love to hear from you!
See you soon!
KVWH