Finally ! Puff and Scruff!

It is not the mountain that we conquer but ourselves!
I DID IT! I DID IT!

Mrs. Tang conquered her squeamishness....

Did you know that....

1. These traps are called Longworth traps made in England for the purposes of trapping smaller mammals.

2. Each trap is worth around $80.00 EACH !

3. A vole's gestation period is 3 weeks.

Friday April 17, our team's schedule was to check the traps one last time in the morning before we packed up our gear to move on to a different trapping site for this coming week, April 20 - 24.

Team A, which was Mrs. Tang and my CA connection partner, Mr. Pembroke did not find anymore trapped mammals in our grid after the first initial find of a chipmunk and a redback vole on day 1. But our other teammates brought back theirs! We have ONE NEW capture and ONE RECAPTURE.

Heart thumping and nervous, I finally had the chance to undo the trap, check the tunnel,dump the nest into the plastic bag, scruff it, check its condition, weighed, clip marked ( getting a haircut) and released it using the timidity tray. No Name, a red back vole, weighed 18.5 grams, a male adult and took a little over 6 minutes to go into the maze and out the exit door.

Here are the findings for this 3 day trapping:

1. Based on the quadrat of land - 100 meters by 100 meters, we averaged that we captured 10 red back voles and at least 3 mice only.

2. We can not count the 2 squirrels as part of our capture because they are not forest floors animals ( think where you see Alvin all the time!) and they eat a different diet as compared to mice and voles.

3. Compared to 2008's data, our 2009 capture data shows no greater change between this year's findings and that of last year's data results.

4. The next few weeks will be very critical or important for the survival of these smaller mammals but it depends on alot of factors for survival.

Here are the following questions I want you to research, discuss, and respond to all of these 4 questions.

1. Convert meter to feet - what is the total perimeter of the area we researched on in FEET?

2. Technically, the longer we run this test of capturing the mice and voles, we have a better picture of the total mice or vole population or density in our 100 meter X 100 meter. We only trapped and observed for 3 days. WHY can we NOT run the test longer than 3 days. Think hard, think of their environment and habitat and think of 10 of our team mates on this forest floor. Give me 2 of your theories.

3. Why did our findings say that the next few weeks is critical for the survival of Ms Cali and No Name Vole and their friends. What will happen if these 10 voles die in the next few weeks?

4. What do you think Mrs. Tang learned with this week's capture and release research?

More on poop with my next blog....

Onward we go boys and girls!
Till the next time...

Mrs. Tang