Mammals of Nova Scotia with Mr Wolfe

Last Day!

2009-04-24T22:04:00.003-04:00

Wow, these two weeks flew by! I hope you all enjoyed the pictures and videos that I posted and hopefully you learned a little bit too :) I miss you guys and am looking forward to seeing you on Monday! There are a lot of thank yous that I owe, including Wells Fargo for funding my trip, Dr. Newman and Dr. Bueshing for teaching me so much about Nova Scotia and their research. Special thanks to Ms. Little for thinking of me for this opportunity. I had a great time with all the teachers here. I hope you were able to check their blogs. You'll see that a lot of them have a good sense of humor :) Most importantly, thank you students for making this workout! Ideally I would want you all to be with me for this experience. Hopefully you got an idea of what I'm doing. I've heard you've been doing well in class and can't wait to talk to you about my time here. Until then, enjoy your weekend and these pics I took from our trip to the Coast of Kejimkujik

- Mr. Wolfe

Here is what I learned in class today...

2009-04-23T21:52:00.002-04:00

This is Dr. Newman explaining the different aspects of our data. More info below!

Small Mammal Findings

Here is our data for the last two weeks.

The two sites we trapped for small mammals were East Port and Cook’s Lake.

Findings for East Port:

We found that there was an average of 10.5 small mammals (Mainly Red Backed Voles with some chipmunks and mice)

Findings for Cook’s Lake

We found that there was an average of 3.35 small mammals. The weather was raining for most of the days we set our traps, which probably lowered the number we caught.

So how did we calculate this?

We used Mark and Recapture method. This means we marked the ones that we caught so if we caught them again, we would know they are not different. We designated a 100 meter by 100 meter area of land to lay the traps to give an estimate for the total area of each location. We then used the following equation to get a good estimate of our small mammal population.

(N+ R)

____ X Total # Marked Where N = the # that are newly captured

R Where R = the # that are recaptured

Journal Question # 11: Do the Math: How many is our population estimate?

Mice: #New = 4

# Recapture = 2

Total # Marked= 4

Vole: #New = 5

# Recapture =1

Total # Marked= 5

Deer findings:

Deer are allusive animals (they are hard to see and obviously catch) so the next best thing is to look for their droppings. This is what we did at Kejimkujik Park. We took 10 different sections of the park that were 10 meters by 10 meters to look for deer droppings. Here is the number of droppings we found in each quadrant: 0, 4, 7, 7, 5, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0. That is a total of 24 in 10 quadrants (10 quadrants equal 100 by 100 meter area or 1 hectare).

Use the following information to answer the question below:

1 quadrant is 100^th of a hectare
1 deer = 20 sets of droppings per day per hectare
Droppings last 40 days before they decompose. That means at any given time, there are 800 sets of droppings per deer per hectare.
Kejimkujik National Park has 38,200 hectares
We found 24 sets of droppings for 10 quadrants

Journal Question #12

(Show your work and you’ll get full credit no matter what the answer you come up with!)

Part A. What is the estimated deer population in Kejimkujik National Park?

Part B. Find the following:

The estimated deer population using just the FIRST 5 quadrants (0, 4, 7, 7, 5).

AND

Do the same thing using only the LAST 5 quadrants (0, 1, 0, 0, 0)

Part C. Compare your numbers of Part A and Part B. Connect this to the importance of the number of trials in a science experiment.

Searching for....poop!

2009-04-23T21:12:00.003-04:00

Here is a video on our deer dropping search!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpNqZ-89kYw

Our scientists (Dr. Newman and Dr. Bueshing) also showed us the different kinds of poop in the area, including animals such as porcupine, deer, hare and coyote. Can you tell which is which?

Rough weather in Nova Scotia!

2009-04-23T18:06:00.003-04:00

Here is the weather we had to face when finding signs of small mammals around Cook's Lake. Pretty gnarly!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRZMP3drXLE

It's....Earth Day!

2009-04-22T17:35:00.004-04:00

It's been a rainy day today, making it really hard to catch any small mammals. We caught only 2 red backed voles and a chipmunk today. I'll show you the data on Friday when we cover it all. Today, I would like to go over something that ties really well with what I am doing here in Nova Scotia. Earth Day! It's April 22nd, which is Earth Day. To me, it's a healthy reminder that we need to make good choices in our lives that keep the environment in mind. This can be anything from recycling to turning off your electronics at night. You guys probably know me enough to see that I do not like to talk as much as actually doing it! This is why your actions speak much louder than your words in regards to being more environmentally friendly. When your friends and family see you making smart choices that help the environment, you will be surprised with what a difference you can make. Ok, I'm done preaching! Here is a link to an article I read here in Nova Scotia. It's about a writer's opinion on the true meaning of earth day. It's by Chris Benjamin and called "Earth Day Attack."

http://www.thecoast.ca/halifax/earth-day-attack/Content?oid=1104736

Journal Question #10: After reading the article, write down your reaction to what you read. Do you agree with what he said? Why or why not? What would you change if you were to write an article on Earth Day? There is no right or wrong answer!!!

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

The coast of Nova Scotia

2009-04-21T20:05:00.002-04:00

Since we did not get a lot of animals today (only 2 out of 100 traps set) because of the rain, I thought it would be good to show you some pictures that I have of the coast. We are a 1 minute walk from the Atlantic Ocean Coast. It's pretty cool. Here are some pictures of my excursion one morning. I'm going to try to get up early to see a sun RISE (Remember that the sun rises over the atlantic ocean from the east coast of North America).

Journal Question #8: The picture below the entry above shows a rock along the shoreline. Is it a low or high tide when this picture was taken? How do you know?

This is a picture of what I found along the coast. Sadly, this is a common sight now matter where you go. Even in the outer parts of Canada where there are not a lot of people living in the area, especially when it is cold (Like now).

Journal Question #9: Regarding waste along coast lines (Even by a large lake such as Lake Norman), what regulation(s) could you implement to help with this problem? Write your answer as a response to a city that is trying to find the BEST solution, so be persuasive!

Some videos!

2009-04-20T20:56:00.002-04:00

Here are some videos. Hope you like them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b-aLIaQU3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Acy30bvw8&feature=channel_page

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fksSoBJt8jw&feature=channel_page

Cook's Lake

2009-04-20T20:29:00.004-04:00

Aloha! So here is what I found at Cook's Lake, the new site for our small mammal trappings. We set up our trappings and I'll let you know what our results are tomorrow. Let me go over the pictures so you can get an idea what I was trying to show you guys. The pic in the top right is a typical wood tick. I found 8-10 on me so far. Luckily they are easy to find since they are pretty big and other than a big bite, they don't do any damage to us. The last two pics are of some skulls we found. The first one is of a deer and the second one is of a cow (Interestingly enough, if you look closely, you'll see a black dot on the cow's head. That's a bullet hole!). Lycos, the scientists' dog, seems to take a liking to the cow. Ok, so here are my questions for you:

Journal question #6: The cow and the deer skulls show that they both have something sticking out of their heads. What is the difference between the two? Be as detailed as you can!

Journal question #7: The two pics at the top left (The second one right below the other one) shows the two sites that we are trapping for small mammals. There are big differences between the two. Most noticeably, the first pic shows a large forest while the second pic shows an open field with very few trees.

Can you think of any reasons why the trees in the open field are much shorter than the trees in the wooded area shown in the picture?

Kejimkujik National Park

2009-04-19T18:39:00.003-04:00

Hey everyone! Here are some pics of my trip to Kejimkujik National Park. This is about an hour away from where I am staying, which is a town called Cherry Hill.

The tree above is a Hemlock. As you can see, they are obviously very good at "anchoring" their roots. One of the teachers and I thought one of them needed a hug so there ya go! As you can see from the yellow sign, Canada protects their species as well. This one was for a type of turtle that lives in the area we hiked at. We also ran into some deer. We found some of their droppings along the hike too. More on that this week!

The pic next to the deer is of a lake in the park. We did a hike and looked for signs of mammal life in certain areas of the park. More on that this week.

Journal Question #5: Look at the first picture on the top of this entry. It is a part of the forest that has a lot of Hemlock trees. Is this primary succession or secondary succession? How can you tell? Explain!

Some highlights of our catches!

2009-04-19T18:20:00.003-04:00

Friday was a busy day for us as we found some animals you might be interested in!

The snake on the left was accidently found as we were patrolling an area for evidence of mammals. A teacher in our group emails some professors in the area to see what it is. We think it is a Maritime Garter snake. It's pretty big! We also caught a chipmunk in our traps. They are very aggressive so we had to be careful with him! That night we went to a pond that has a beaver lodge in it. The beaver stayed pretty far away but we were fortunate enough to have this guy pictured on the left come by us. Do you know what it is?

Saturday we went to Halifax and enjoyed a day off where we ventured into town to relax. The tugboat that is on the top left is used to ferry people across the bay in Halifax. Look for a postcard that I'll be sending to Mallard Creek High School to say hi. Hopefully you guys will get it before the week is up! No new journals. The next blog will be about my trip to Kejimkujik National Park.

The last entry of the week!

2009-04-16T20:42:00.006-04:00

Hey everyone! Hope things are well with you all this week. Today the traps that my partner and I set got 2 more voles, so I'm definitely representing you guys! While we were covering a section of the woods to check out for evidence of animals, we uncovered a large snake! It's pretty cool :) We also went to a pond that had a beaver den in it so we could check out the wildlife over there. I took some good pictures...unfortunately the blog won't let me download them today. I'll have them on there as soon as I can! Anyways, this will be the last blog for a couple of days. I'll be posting again this weekend. Have a great time this weekend (Especially the ones that are going to prom!).

Journal #4: Go to the other teachers' blogs and write down at least 3 things that you learned by looking at their photos, videos and entries. Here is the website to find the other teachers' blogs: http://www.earthwatch2.org/LFF/Buesching09_Team1/

We caught some mini mammals!

2009-04-15T20:32:00.002-04:00

We have success! Of the 100 traps we set, we caught 8 small mammals, which is actually a pretty high number for this time of year! (More on that later)

The link to the video for one of the catches is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv28VDiq0M4

As far as the small mammals, we caught 6 red-backed voles (Two were from the traps another teacher and I set up) , a deer mouse (shown on the video) and a chipmunk (Which can get very aggressive so we let our instructors deal with those). It was interesting to see them up close! Except for the chipmunk, the mammals were very mellow and easy to handle. All of this data we collect will be used to add to the years of data that they already have. Results will be coming soon!

As we talked to the scientists, we all realized that science research can be difficult and hard to collect and decipher (Figure out). Let's take a look at the first part of that, which is the collection of data. I have two questions for you to figure out.

Journal #3

Part 1: Setting up traps in a 100 square meter area does not necessarily give enough data to give accurate numbers. Here is my question: What other methods can you find animal #s? (Abundance and distribution)

Part 2: Going along with the first part of my blog today, why is a low number of small mammals expected for this time of year? Please use the word "primary productivity" in your answer. You can look it up in your book if you need to!

It's trapping time!

2009-04-14T21:03:00.002-04:00

Hey everyone!

The first day of trapping allowed me to learn quite a few things! Being on the field with the scientists here has really showed me how things work in the research world. Check out the photo on the left. It's a tin box! Ok, maybe a bit more than that. It's actually a mouse trap. We set up over a hundred in an area that has been used for monitoring mammal numbers since the 1980s! We will get our results starting tomorrow. We will be doing this until early Friday. The white footed mouse are the main focus of the trapping for our first leg of research. They have some interesting characteristics which help set up our traps correctly. So my next journal question comes in two parts.

Journal #2:

First Part: With the following information below, where (in general) would you put your traps to have the best chance of getting some of the mice? Assume your setting is a lightly dense forest.

Characteristics: The white footed mouse has a long tail, big ears and very little body fat. This means it is very agile, has a very high level of hearing and uses most of its food to make heat energy so that it stays warm.

Second Part: Looking at the picture, why do you think the shape of the trap is the way it is? There is a good reason for it! Also, there is a small hole on the back of the trap. Why is that?

Check out my video!

2009-04-13T18:13:00.004-04:00

Thought you guys would like to see what kind of weather I'll be facing. I'll have a journal question regarding Nova Scotia's climate soon so check out the video when you can!

-MW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1KlKfAAEsY

First Day of research!

2009-04-13T08:16:00.003-04:00

The first day of our trip was spent being briefed on the methods we will be using to track down the mammals of Nova Scotia. The two main methods that will be used are the use of traps and to count droppings (ewww!). The types of mammals we expect to find are mice, flying and ground squirrels, shrews, voles, porcupines and chipmunks to name a few. A picture to the left shows one that I saw as I took a trip along the coast by where our "home base" is.

Journal #1: (You can post on here or keep a journal of the questions you will be answering for the next couple of weeks)

Looking at the picture to the left gives you an idea of the mammals we will see in Nova Scotia. Why are these mammals that we will be catching all small? Tie into concepts we learned in class such as evolution, the second law of thermodynamics and the biomass pyramid. You might want to check out some info on the usual weather of Nova Scotia, especially in the winter and early spring (Hint...it's snowing here right now!)

I'll post info tonight or tomorrow on our first day setting up traps and looking for evidence of mammal life in the area. Have a good day!

Arrived safe and sound!

2009-04-12T22:20:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I'll be starting my research by getting out into the field to see what kind of mammals we can find. Plenty to come :) Have a good start to the week everyone!

-MW

A New Beginning!

2009-03-31T18:55:00.000-04:00

Hey Students!
I hope you all enjoy your spring break as I prepare for my adventure to Nova Scotia. I will be doing my best to make this as connected to you as I can, which requires you guys to check up on the blog as much as possible. I will be updating daily when my trip starts, which is April 12th. I will have a question or idea for you to think about a few times a week, which requires you to post a response on my blog. Before April 11th, you need to post ONCE on this blog so that you can make sure there are no problems when I begin this trip. Just saying hi will be fine for now!
We will talk soon and don't forget to do the pre-trip worksheet before April 12th!

-Mr. Wolfe
3/31/09