mammals
This is where we coordinate communication within our Mammal Team. Please use the comments link to post questions and updates.
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This is where we coordinate communication within our Mammal Team. Please use the comments link to post questions and updates.
Q: I also got an email saying my name would be shown by a task and I dont see it. Just let me know what time to be there Friday and I will be ready and willing to help do anything and everything.
A: Brian, thanks for checking. We need for you to communicate with your team leaders and fill in one of the empty slots on the schedule of tasks! If you want to do this on -site, please be there for the briefing at 5:30 on Friday eve, to meet your team leaders.
Michael is adding in a bat component for the mammal team in 2009. He is putting up a bat box by the observation blind near the sedge meadow on Deer Run. He is organizing bat walks for Fri eve. He is looking into borrowing a bat sonic detector from Dr. Woolley.
Exciting new dimensions!
Jane
Hey everyone!
As you probably know, BioBlitz is just around the corner! Angie and I are heading up the mammal survey this year and we need your help to get the small mammal traps ready for the event. Though we have a small and dedicated team at the moment, this is a great opportunity for those who are interested to gain trapping experience! We are having a trap cleaning party TODAY, Thursday March 26, at 4:00 pm at TCWC, if you would like to help, just stop by and be ready to learn!
We will begin trapping on Sunday March 29 at 3:00 pm at Lick Creek Park. We will meet in the main parking lot. We will be setting out 50 Sherman traps in each of the 3 designated locations in the park. Link to Lick Creek Park: http://www.cstx.gov/home/index.asp?page=538
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Annaliese
Annaliese K. Scoggin
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences
TAMU, College Station
tell us more what worked about the bat walk?
I heard that the highlight was the release of ten bats, thanks to the effort of Jenna Jarvis and the folks that run the bat lab in Biology. The kids all squeezed into the observation hut to look at the new bat house and hear Michael talk about ecology and conservation of bats, and about 50 people were on the walk (possibly because the owl prowl was delayed).
Annaliese stopped by and passed on a few tips for next year. She felt the week of pre-baiting with oatmeal did not help because only one mouse was captured in the entire grid. We talked about whether the locations sampled were good rodent habitat with thick enough ground cover, and whether the results might be different on the other side of the creek, further away from the human/dog activity on trails.
Spotlighting worked well, because just walking down the trail at night, several species were seen: rabbit, armadillo, raccoon. Coyote scat was identified. Scott observed the bobcat because he stayed overnight.
Looking for tracks in the streambed and trails was not part of the survey plan this year.
Should exotic species like horses and humans have been included in the count?
The aluminum tracking plates were not a good option this time because: (1) too heavy to transport, and (2) the red chalk dust had not been cleaned off them.
The camera traps were not put out due to concerns that they would be stolen. We did not discuss the den locations that Ryan and I had found in the drainage south of Iron Bridge, along Alum Creek.
Next year, I would like to discuss the standard protocol that is used for the global mammal survey that Dr. Lacher organized through CI. It is based on camera traps. I think it would be a good idea for us to learn from global scientific surveys and adapt that to our local efforts.
Valerie inquired about info on bat boxes:
http://www.batcon.org/index.php/conservation/topics/bat-houses/subcategory.html?layout=subcategory