A Year-Old Tale of Romance (and how my students uncovered the continuing story....)

Happened across these pictures recently and can't believe I didn't post them before...

Last January, I happened to get pictures of two twitter-painted Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes)...they were together smack-dab in the middle of the fox breeding season 'round here (which is usually January/February).

I'm willing to bet that this is the pair whom are responsible for the pup we caught pictures of on the same site several months later (see here)....

So...the ATV activity this summer really cut down on the number of fox pictures we got on the cameras for awhile.

But....much like with the Coyotes....that has changed this winter.  However, I wasn't sure if we would see any kind of breeding activity or evidence this year.  I thought that if the ATVs scared them off this summer, they might not consider it safe enough for breeding again.

Which leads us to my Advanced Ecology class this year (which is a class I've posted about during past years...see examples here and here).

Two weeks ago, the students deployed their camera traps for a semester of monitoring. 

They also spent some time assessing the habitat communities on-site and using GPS units to delineate community boundaries.

This gave them a chance to get a good feel for the property we are working on, and make some important observations.

Now, zoom forward to this week.  We gathered on-site to begin our weekly exercise, while also checking camera traps, etc.

Not long after we got started, one of the students called me over to their camera trap location to show me a burrow he had found.  In the picture below, the student is standing about where the entrance to the burrow is located.

He's pretty critter-savvy (experienced hunter and trapper).  We agreed it was in the size range for Red Fox....

There were clearly tracks heading to the entrance and it appeared to be active.  But we had snow the night before, so it was hard to tell (a) what species left the tracks and (b) how recently the burrow was used.

 

Could it be a pair of Reds is making a nice little love nest in which to rear their pups again this year?

The nearby camera trap the students put up gave us reason to be hopeful.

Here is our first glimpse of a fox leaving the den.  Not a great picture, unfortunately, but you can tell its coming out of just about parallel to where the student is in the picture above.

...and again later that evening...

 Then...just to give us something to brag about....our resident Badger (Taxidea taxus) lumbered by for a sniff.

 

 So fingers crossed that we will get a repeat of the fox pups this year!  Always fun to get pictures of them....

The End of the 2013 Herp Season Approach-eth....but there are still TURTLES!

The beginning of the semester sort of stinks.....

The collision of the field season and the school season means there isn't a free second.  We have three projects still in the active data-collection phase, which we are trying to coordinate schedules for....and everyone has class (students) or teaching/grading (me).

All of that will change sooner than we think, though.  We are in that time of the year when weather becomes highly variable.  Last week, for example, we had a high of 90 deg. F on Tuesday, and a high of 63 deg F on Friday.  This week we had two days in the mid-80s, while today it was in the mid-60s over the weekend.

That means Fall is coming, which also means the cold-blooded critters will be going down for the winter very soon.

So....thought I'd share some late-season "herpstuff".  Mostly a random conglomeration of neat things seen over the last few weeks.

Our 200-level Field Methods in Ecology class had their annual day of turtle trapping and marking (see here for last year's haul).  This year was another great one.  By luck, we got to take advantage of the last few good days left for trapping before the turtles started to focus on hibernation (and, thus, aren't as attracted to bait). 

We set traps out for two days straight.  Day 1 yielded some nice little Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta)........

........ and of course some nice Common (northern) Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina).

 

 

On Day 2, however, our traps were nearly exploding with turtles! 

A ton more Paints....

.....no Snaps (suprisingly)...BUT...a much rarer find: a Blanding's Turtle! (Emydoidea blandingii). 

Photo courtesy of T. Gotrik

In three years of trapping this location, we've never caught a Blanding's Turtle before.....

We also trap the nearby creek...and this year got another first: a Spiny Softshell Turtle (Apolone spinifera).

Photo courtesy of T. Gotrik

The students were pretty excited (and so was I).  In the end, we caught 26 Paints, 2 Snaps, 1 Blanding's Turtle and 1 Spiny Softshell.

Enough turtles for everybody to be able hold at least one in a group photo!

Photo courtesy of T. Gotrik

The students worked hard and enjoyed themselves....even when hip waders weren't quite enough to keep them dry....

OH...and it's the time of year when salamanders are migrating from their summer ponds, to where they will spend the winter.

As we found out when checking our drift fences recently.....

Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum).
Photo courtesy of N. Rudolph



Blue-spotted Salamanders (Ambystoma laterale)
Photo courtesy of N. Rudolph

Winter is for mammals....but summer is for HERPS!!!!

So much going on....

I guess I should start at the beginning of the real herp field season this year....and it began with a field trip that I took my advanced ecology class on.  This is the same trip we took last year, although back then we didn't have much luck finding the cold-blooded crawly critters.

The conditions were alot better this year, so we pulled out of the parking lot with feelings of hopefullness a few weeks ago.

After nearly 2 hours in the car, we reached the first of our destinations: a sand prairie/savanna located immediately adjacent to a large river.  The part of the property where we were given access to is primarily used by a retriever club.  As a result, there was alot of more typical "grasses" that one might fing in a homeowner lawn.  As we moved further away from where the club operates, we ran into the results of recent habitat management.  These activities involved removal of some un-desirable/exotics: common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica) and Honeysuckle (Locinera sp.).  While it's good to get rid of these troublesome species of vegetation, it didn't provide great "herping" habitat.....

Yet, there were several pot-hole wetlands on site and lots of downed debris that the critters we wanted could be hiding in.  The morning was still a tad cool, but the sun was quickly warming things.  I felt confident we'd find something....

It wasn't long before....success!  One of my students called out that they found a snake...

A small species, the Northern Brown (or Dekay's) Snake (Storeria dekayi).


Photo by K. Kron

Brownsnakes are highly fossorial (living below ground or ground debris) and rarely seen for that reason.  They are relatively common, however....but still a great find!

We also found several other species at this site: a Common Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis), a Northern Leopard Frog (Lithobates pipiens), various birds, and some interesting plants (although this site was a tad disturbed for any really cool plants).

We ended our time there with only a handful of captures.   BUT...it was still early and there were several more sites to check.
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Next we headed towards a floodplain forest habitat along a major river in the state.  The primary objective here was salamanders and frogs, which require a bit of log-rolling (and "log-returning" after checking underneath).

So it was that we hopped out of the vehicles and plunged into the deer tick infested forest in search of sallies....

With 19 plus sets of boots on the ground, our chances of finding something were high.  It wasn't long before calls started going up that critters had been found.  The most commonly encountered was the cute little Blue-Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma laterale).

Photo by K. Kron

Another commonly captured critter was the terrestrial phase of the Eastern Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens).  The one pictured below is employing an interesting anti-predation behavior.  I believe the goal is to make themselves too awkard for certain predators to swallow whole.

A variety of frogs were also hopping around in the forest.  This included the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvatica), easily identifiable by it's coppery color and black mask.....

We also found Spring Peepers (Pseudacris crucifer) and a few American Toads (Anaxyrus americanus)....

So....the flood plain forest was mostly successful.  Thus, we moved on, hoping to grab some lunch and get to the next site: a sand prairie.
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Then....the equivalent of a herpetological distaster occurred!  On an already almost too cold day, clouds rolled in.  Next came the water-works, and the rain began to pour!  As we drove to the new location we were bombarded with a deluge.  Thus, we ate lunch and I watched through the windows glumly as the rain came down. 

We hadn't seen many snakes so far.  If the rain kept up this way, we were sunk.

But...then...as we were finishing our meals and throwing away our trash...things changed.  The sun suddenly poked through, the clouds started to break....and I got excited as the air temperature began to climb.

So it was that our boots hit the ground at the next location....

 

Although it was still a bit cloudy, the sun was peeking through occassionally and it became noticeably warmer.  Due to this positive change in the weather, it didn't take long for us to start catching things.

Within 20 minutes of arriving...one of the students yelled out: 

"Doc, there's a snake over here!" 

"Well, grab it!" I replied.

"There's actually two snakes!"

"Well, grab THEM!" 

I don't know if they heard me or not over the commotion, but when I got there, we had two nice Eastern Hognose Snakes (Heterodon platyrhinos) to admire!

 

One was a very pretty orange-brown......

Photo by K. Kron

Photo by K. Kron

In total, we found four (or maybe even five?) Hognose Snakes in a matter of an hour.  Presumably, they were congregated in such a tight area for breeding....although we didn't actually see them doing so.

Next we moved to the north a bit, searching for some of the other critters that I knew were on-site. It was not long before we found one: the incredibly rare Ornate Box Turtle (Terrapene ornata).  The Ornate is the only fully-terrestrial turtle in the upper Midwest.  It generally requires deep, sandy soils to burrow below the frost-line in the winter.  Because such habitats have mostly been converted to agriculture or housing developments around here, this species has been nearly extirpated from the region.  In addition to habitat loss, herp-enthusiasts who collect them to keep as pets have severely impacted their populations.  Luckily, our fine state protects this species, and large fines can be incured for removing them from the wild.

Given how rare they are, it was encouraging to find a juvenile individual.....

Also...a very nice looking adult male.  Males have bright-red eyes and reddish orange on their front-legs.

As we moved along, we found another rare species: the Racer (Coluber constrictor).


Photo by K. Kron

.....but we weren't done there!

A rare snake and a rare turtle....not to mention a few Hognose Snakes.  I was feeling pretty good about our trip, but not completely satisfied.  There were two other species that I knew were present, but we hadn't seen yet.  If we found only one of these, I decided that I would consider the day a success.

Luckily, the Herp-Gods smiled on us, and it was not long before we found one of the two sought-after species. 

Someone found a Bullsnake (Pituophis catenifer sayi)....my favorite snake in North America....

This one was polite enough for several of the students to get a chance at holding it.  Many of them were shocked that a snake species of this size lives in our region.  Unfortunately, this is another species that has been significantly (and negatively) impacted by the activities of humans.  The reasons run the gamut:  habitat loss is a key factor again....direct killing/persecution by folks afraid of snakes is another (to have such an unreasonable fear of something that you would kill it outright has never made much sense to me).  And...as with the poor Ornate Box Turtle....the Bullsnake has suffered greatly at the hands of collectors.  Unscrupulous "herp-enthusiasts" just can't resist bringing these back to keep in an aquarium....a damn shame, if you ask me.

It was not long after that when I heard more yelling "Doc! There's another big snake over here!".  Again, I yelled "grab it!", while running up towards the student waving his hands in the air. 

Another Bullsnake!

In total, we found five Bullsnakes! 

Even the students that were alittle uncomfortable with snakes, at least sucked it up and held one (even without any chiding from me! :)  ).

With every capture and encounter, they became more confident and several even grabbed the snakes without help.

All-in-all, I'd say it was a very successfull trip!  Probably one of the most important achievements of this trip is that those who are afraid of snakes (hopefully) see them in a more positive light.  Snakes really aren't scary....heck, they aren't even aggressive, if you leave them be.  Every snake we encountered on this trip first made a mad-dash for escape...it was only after we started to "mess" with them that any took a defensive posture.   Some never even did that. 

It also exposes younger folks to rare herps, and helps them understand the importance of conserving all components of an ecosystem....not just the furry/feathery charismatic ones....

I look forward to bringing a new crop of students on the trip again next year!

The 2013 Spring/Summer Field Season Approach-eth.....

....two weeks ago it was the "calm before the storm" and now we are in full-throttle "deployment" and "turnover" mode.

We're also getting to that crazy crunch time in the semester.  A constant string of grading and gearing up for finals.

This summer will be hectic, to say the least.

One camera trap project that has been ongoing for a year will terminate at the beginning of May.  And this will be replaced with a slew of new projects (all involving undergraduate researchers) that I will oversee and have to bounce around in-between all summer.

A second camera trap project will continue for another year.  One of my research students will take this one over for the summer (I usually do it, but it would be perfect for him).

I have one student who will continue wolf research that was started this last winter.

I also have two new herp-related projects starting....

1) A radio telemetry study involving Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingi)....you can see some photos below from the prep work for this project that started LAST spring.  I have three students involved in that project.

2) a study of riparian snake communities, which requires drift fences.  This week it was finally warm enough to really try and install the fences.  Luckily, I have a cadre of hard-working undergraduate students that I can trust to volunteer and help me with stuff like this.....

As a mentor to budding ecologists, nothing makes me happier than to see them all working hard....no one standing around....and no complaining or whining (which I have a zero-tolerance policy on.... ).  Furthermore, they looked to be enjoying themselves.

In a single afternoon we installed all of the fencing for one of three study sites.  Hopefully we get the other two sites done in the next week and we can start catching "stuff".  :)

I also was "mean" enough to force my Advanced Ecology students to measure out a small mammal trapping grid as part of a class exercise, just like last year.

Yet, this year we did our work in the middle of a down-pour......

We didn't actually set any Sherman Traps until the following week, when it was not raining and the critters wouldn't be so likely to die due to exposure.  We added a bit of alpaca wool to the traps to help them out (it was in the 30s the evening the traps went out.

Rodents were more than willing to take advantage of the peanut butter and oats we provided.  These are a Peromyscus sp., I always call them White-Footed Mice (P. leucopus), but they could just as easily be Deer Mice (P. maniculatus).

Then...of course....one of the students locked their keys in the car.  Luckily some of the others knew how to solve this problem (because they had locked their own keys in their cars at one point :)  ).

More to come when I get a chance to breathe!