Week's End Survey Round Up VII: Copperheads and Cyst-laden Salamanders

Much like last week, we had a lot of rain and wet to deal with during our surveys.  As you can see from the pictures above, a bunch of standing water and dripping vegetation.

Interestingly, we didn't catch as much this week, as we did last week.  I imagine that because it had been so dry for nearly a month prior to the rains last week....once it got wet, the critters exploded out of hiding and became very active.  Now that the wet conditions are sort of old hat, they aren't quite as active.

Regardless, we still caught some cool stuff....but nothing really new.
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Another nice sub-adult or, perhaps, young adult Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis).  We carry a bucket of our gear with us in the field.  Every time we get a critter to deal with, we set up a little workstation to collect appropriate data.  One person takes measurements and yells out numbers, while the other records.  It works out pretty well.  Often, a back-pack of gear is a good option too...but I sort of like the bucket (I can fit more in it and whatever I put in stays dry).  It can be a bit cumbersome, though.

Above: our bucket O' gear that we carry with us in the field.  Also you can see the handle of the potato rake, which is the most versatile and important tool a field herper can have!  It will flip rocks, turn logs, act as a walking stick, and help balance you when rock-hopping across streams.  It can also be used to carry funnel traps with venomous snakes AND act as a snake hook for venomous snakes, if necessary. 

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The Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortix).  I just can't get enough of Copperheads.  I'll post pictures of every one I see.  They are absolutely beautiful.  This little juvenile was in our grassland/old field drift fence after a few days of heavy rain.  Could have been after some frogs that crawled in....who knows.

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The Box Turtle in the funnel trap.  Well, it wasn't quite in the funnel trap, I guess.....  But it sure seemed like it was trying to get caught!  When we found it, the turtle had been meandering along the fence right up to where entrance to the funnel (which it couldn't fit into, as you can see below).

This adult male ended up getting marked number 13 and left to go on about his business.

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The cyst-laden Two Lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera).  This week Dave actually randomly saw two of these guys wriggling around in the leaf litter near our fences and grabbed them.  A consequence of the more moist conditions out there these days is that salamanders hang out closer to the surface of the ground.

After giving one of them a little scrutiny, we noticed these white dots that appeared to be just below the surface of the skin of this little guy's front legs.  I'm fairly positive these are the larval stage of some type of parasitic flatworm.  Either a trematode (a.k.a. fluke) or a cestode (a.k.a. tapeworm)...probably the former.  While I can't be 100% sure of this, because we didn't want to necropsy the animal to be sure, I've worked with two parasitologists in the past.  Both were involved in research on amphibian parasites, and these little critters pick up alot of invertebrate baggage throughout their lives.

The lifecycles of parasitic flatworms are fascinating.  Particularly those considered digenetic trematodes.  These may have two or more larval stages that will exist in as many hosts...and an adult stage that occurs in yet a third host....throughout their lifecycle.

Let us begin with a simple example: a group of adult flukes living in the intestines of a predatory wading bird (like a Great Blue Heron).  The flukes in the intestines reproduce and shed eggs...these eggs then exit the Heron when it defecates.  In this way, thousands of eggs are broadcasted into the environment.  Herons often defecate in or near water...when these eggs hit the water, they hatch into their first larval form, which is a tiny free-swimming stage called a miracidium.  The miracidium is microscopic and ciliated.  It uses these cilia (little hairs) to swim around in the water like a paramecium.   They are on the look-out for an appropriate invertebrate host, which is often an aquatic snail of some kind (the first intermediate host for these critters is usually an invertebrate).  When the find a snail, they burrow into their tissues and start to develop.

After a period of development inside of the snail, the parasite is shed and returns to the water as a form called a cercariae. The cercariae are basically microscopic and look almost like tiny little tadpoles..little tail and all.  Now these little guys also start swimming around the water looking for a host (called a second intermediate host)..but this time they don't look for a snail.  This time they're after a cold-blooded vertebrate (often a fish or larval amphibian).  The cercariae penetrates the skin of the larval amphibian, burrows into its muscle and encysts into a resting stage called a metacercariae. I *believe* it was the metacercarial cysts that we saw on the arms of the salamander pictured above.

A larval parasite can remain as a metacercarial cyst for a fairly long period of time (what this period of time is, on average, I don't know).  Basically, it bides its time until an appropriate terminal host consumes the second intermediate host.  The terminal host is usually a predatory bird or mammal...but may also be a larger fish, snake, turtle, etc..  So...for example...a heron eats an infected fish...or an infected tadpole/frog.  When that infected muscle is consumed, the metacercariae pops out of the cyst in the terminal hosts stomach and becomes an adult fluke.  Once it is an adult, it can reproduce in the intestines and start generating its own eggs that can then be shed in the feces of the heron and the lifecycle starts anew!

Click here for more information on how these parasites may cause malformations in amphibians.  This is the website of Dr. Pieter Johnson at the University of Colorado.  He has studied digenetic trematodes of amphibians for some time.  There is more information on the lifecycles and also a picture depicting a lifecycle at this link.

I've given you only one example.  Certain parasite species may have more or less hosts....these hosts may be of a variety of critters, or specific to one or two.  Depending on species, adult parasites may end up in places aside from the intestines, such as the lungs, the bladder, the stomach, the esophagus and so on.  And any one host can carry many individuals of many different species of parasite at any given time!

Very fascinating and very complicated life cycle for such a small little critter.  I'll say it again, the importance of wildlife diseases cannot be overstated!

Week's End Survey Round Up V: The Copperhead, the Peeper of Spring, and the Misfortuned Furbearers

Well, despite the theft of our survey equipment, this week wasn't all bad!

Let me start with another bit of scenery.

Surprinsingly, the location above resulted in another interesting scenic photograph (see last week's post). 

This one, however, is interesting because of the pronounced rays of light coming from the upper right.  I also find it interesting because if one compares this picture to the one taken at the same location only a week ago, you can get a feeling for how much variation there is in the appearance of photos on these cameras.

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The Juvenile Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortix).  We captured this little guy in one of our grassland drift fences.  He was in a funnel trap.  This is the fourth Copperhead captured in this particular drift fence since last August.  So, not very common.  I've posted about finding Copperheads before, and catching a venomous snake never really looses its thrill.  Plus, these snakes are gorgeous!  Juveniles have an additional dimension to their beauty: the tail   The tails of juvenile copperheads are a bright yellow-white (see below).

This is because juvenile Copperheads hunt using a strategy called caudal luring. Copperheads are ambush predators, so they sit in one spot and wait for prey to come by.....then they strike.  Juvenile Copperheads increase their chances of ambushing prey with the aid of caudal luring.  This is accomplished by moving their yellow-white tail-tip in a serpentine fashion so that it resembles a worm....or some other bit of prey.  This tail movement then attracts frogs and lizards (which are a staple food item for young Copperheads).  Once the frog or lizard is close enough, the baby Copperhead strikes.

For a great document that summarizes and investigates information on the ecology of the Copperhead, see Fitch (1960).

Above: the juvenile Copperhead captured in our drift fence this week.  Note the yellow-white tail tip.

Above: a nice head shot of the little Copperhead.  I'll say it again, they are a handsome-looking snake!

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The metamorphosed Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer):  It's the time of year when the amphibians species who laid eggs in the early spring are now having larvae metamorphose into tiny juveniles.  This week, for the first time, we started seeing froglets and tiny terrestrial salamanders.

One example was this tiny Spring Peeper froglet that I captured while tracking Box Turtles with radio telemetry equipment.  I happened to look down just as the little critter hopped out of my way.  It took alittle effort to catch such a minute (and delicate) amphibian while not injuring it, but I managed.

These frogs are some of the earliest breeders in the state, along with the Upland Chorus Frog (Pseudacris feriarum).  I heard both species calling in the ephemeral wetlands on-site as early as February of this year.  This is only the second individual of this species that we've captured at this site.  The individual captured previously was an adult....so click on the link to see the difference in size from the juvenile pictured below.

Above: newly metamorphosed frogs are usually small, but they are even smaller for members of the Genus Pseudacris.  These frogs are diminutive as adults, and as juveniles....well you can see the size compared to my thumb in this picture.

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The D.O.R. Mink (Neovison vison).  A Dead-On-Road, or DOR, animal is something one never wants to come across.  It really puts a downer on the day.  So...if I'm not at risk of putting myself or others in danger...I try and at least get something useful out of the carcass.  I don't have the facilities to make mammals into suitable museum specimens, but if it is an uncommon species and the carcass is still in good shape...I try to at least snap photos, get location information, note associated habitat, and take some measurements.  I then send this to the appropriate regulatory and/or museum folks.

For herps....it's alittle easier (no skinning involved, you just need access to a chemical fixative and preservative and some jars).  I always try to make specimens out of the DOR herps I find, if possible.

Anyways, we saw this poor mink dead in the middle of the road as we drove to the sites this Monday.  It was killed near a stream-crossing....with a fairly dense wooded riparian (i.e., stream-associated) buffer.  The carcass was fresh and in good shape.  We got some photos of the feet, head and etc..

Also turns out, it was a female with enlarged nipples, which meant that she was nursing young nearby.  Those young may not have very good odds of survival anymore.

While taking pictures, I attempted to snap some of the critters feet (with Dave's help).  Having pictures of the feet really helps one see what they should be looking for when identifying tracks in the mud.

Thought I'd share the feet/paw pictures.

I'll post more information about Mink in the future....

Above: the right front paw of the road-killed mink.  Check out the slight webbing between the toes.  Also important to note is the shape of the inter-digital pad (i.e., pad between the toes).  It's that pad which gives mink tracks that crescent-shaped imprint directly below where the toes register in their tracks.

Above: The rear left paw of the road-killed mink.  Again, note the webbing and crescent-shaped inter-digital pad.  Also, five toes...but you may be able to see why one of those toes doesn't always make an impression.

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The D.O.R. Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus).  The downside of being a wild animal in suburbia, is that you face mortality from a variety of sources that you otherwise wouldn't face in a more natural setting.  A great example of which is mortality due to vehicular traffic (see also Temple et al. 2010).  I'll post more specifics about carnivores in suburban lanscapes at a later date...but for now....I'll tell you about the road-killed Gray Fox we had the opportunity to see this week.

Above: the road-killed Gray Fox that we were told about on 6/23/2011.

This individual was not encountered at our normal study sites (nor on the road as we drove to our study sites).  Dave and I were working in the office one afternoon...data entry...data analysis....etc., when a colleague stopped by.

He told us of a freshly dead fox on the road not far from campus.  He said it had not been there in the morning, but was there now (several hours later).  He said it looked mostly intact.

Dave and I jumped up and hopped in my truck to check it out. 

Within about 30 seconds we found him......laying stiff in the road just about at the middle of a busy suburban intersection.  So busy, in fact, it had a stop light.  On one side of the road was suburbia...densely packed with houses.  On the other side was a large wooded buffer associated with a corporate headquarters of some kind.

We drug the little fella off of the road with garden rake and donned some gloves.  Took some measurements, got a GPS reading, and snapped some photos.  The body was pretty stiff with rigor mortis, but I was able to pry the legs apart enough to see that it was a male.  It was in perfect condition....the skull appeared intact...the pelt in good shape aside from being split along the shoulder and part of the front leg.  Would have made a fantastic museum specimen.  Unfortunately, I don't have a good facility to deal with a dead critter this large.

So we had to leave him there.  Seems like a massive waste, but we submitted our data to the state wildlife commission.

Among the photos we took were some good shots of the paws.  As with the mink, I think seeing the actual paws of an animal can be very helpful in learning to identify tracks in the wild.

The pictures below are all of the front right paw.  Due to rigor mortis, I couldn't get a very good shot of the back paws (and we were trying to do this along a busy roadway...so we were working quickly).

Above: in this picture, the pads of the digits (i.e. toes) are in focus.  You can really see the details of these pads, including the dermal pappillae (i.e. which essentially are the "finger prints" of this individual fox). 

Above: in this picture, the interdigital pad (closer to the heel) is in better focus and you can also see the dewclaw (near the thumb of my glove).  The dewclaws don't usually register in the track the animal makes.

Above: the same paw with a ruler for scale.  The Gray Fox really is a pretty small critter.

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The Gravid Wormsnake (Carphophis amoenus):  This is a very commonly captured species at our sites, and I've reported capturing them in the past.  However, on Thursday we first noticed definitive evidence that the females at one of our sites are gravid (i.e. carrying eggs).  I had thought previous females looked as if they might have eggs....but the one we caught this Thursday has eggs that are clearly visible in the second picture below.  

It's that time of year for the egg-laying snakes and turtles!

Above: the gravid female and juvenile wormsnakes captured in an upland forest drift fence this week.  They were found in one of the pitfall traps.

Above: the whitish blobs in her belly (visible through her ventral scales) are individual eggs.  It appears she has four eggs ready to be laid.

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The Southern Two-lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera).  We captured this juvenile in a pitfall trap along one of our lowland forest drift fences.  It is the first time we've captured Two-Lined Sallys in the drift fences at this site (although we'd found them flipping rocks in the stream edge nearby).  We hadn't seen any this year at this site.  At our other site, we captured an adult in an upland drift fence back in May.

There's not much to add.....the pictures are just cool.

In addition, it's just another example of the juvenile amphibians we're seeing this week.

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The metamorphosed Spotted Salamander (Ambystoma maculatum).  You may recall that last week we were still seeing larval Spotted Salamanders (note: as larvae most salamanders are fully aquatic, breathing with gills and spending all of their time in water).  Last month we found many larvae in the ephemeral wetlands on-site, but slowly the numbers we captured began to dwindle, which meant they were metamorphosing (i.e. transforming from aquatic larvae to land-dwelling adults and leaving the water).  But until this week, we hadn't captured any juveniles that had metamorphosed and began living terrestrially (i.e. on land).

Finally, we captured a pair of them in the pitfall trap of a lowland forest drift fence.

Above: a small juvenile Spotted Salamander, just beginning his new life as a land-dwelling organism.

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The Adult Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis).  You may recall that we captured a juvenile Eastern Ratsnake a few weeks back in a lowland forest drift fence.  In that post, I made mention of how different adult individuals look compared to juveniles.  Well, here's another chance to see what I mean!

This adult female was captured in a funnel trap along a grassland drift fence at the same site that we caught the juvenile.

You can see, she's very black....no real discernible pattern.

A very cool snake!  Back home, these are very rare (listed as "Special Concern" by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources).  Here, they are one of the most common large constrictors encountered (I've even caught them in the university's "community garden" just outside my office door).

Funny what a difference geography makes.

Above: although it may be possible to confuse the Eastern Ratsnake with the Black Racer (Coluber constrictor), there are two basic differences that most folks can figure out.  (1) if its warm out, the Racer will be gone almost immediately after you see it....they are FAST....while the Ratsnake is a bit more pokey.  (2) if you can capture the snake (and you will probably get bitten in the process...trust me) look at the underside.  The Racer's belly is basically solid-black with the exception of the area around the chin.  Although it also has a white chin, the Ratsnake often has a "checkerboard" pattern along parts of the belly....not the solid-black scales of the Racer.



Hopefully, we'll have more to report from our surveys next week.  And hopefully we wont have any more camera thefts!
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Literature Cited:

Fitch, H.S. 1960. Autecology of the copperhead.  University of Kansas Publications of the Museum of Natural History 13:85-288.

Temple, D.L. et al. 2010. Spatial ecology, survival and cause-specific mortality of gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in a longleaf pine ecosystem.  American Midland Naturalist 163:413-422.

Week's End Survey Round Up III: Meadow Jumpers, Toothy Skinks and the like....

Things were hot, muggy and active in the woods this week.  Surprisingly, the turtle traps resulted in a big fat goose egg, which was disappointing.  There's still time left for turtles to show up, though.

The drift fences, on the other hand, caught some critters to keep us busy!

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The Eastern Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis).  

The individual pictured above is a juvenile.  As adults, this species mostly loses the pattern found in juveniles.  In fact, I've posted some pictures not long ago where you can sort of see what this species looks like as an adult (see The Snake Hole posted on April 22, 2011).   They are basically black on the top (or dorsal) surface as adults.  We caught him in a funnel trap along one of our lowland forest drift fences.  After recording the appropriate morphological data, I let him go on a low-growing tree branch nearby.  Within 40 seconds he climbed to an adjacent tree with no lateral branches and scaled it, up to 40 feet (just by gaining purchase on the tree's bark somehow).  Then we lost sight of him. 

The taxonomy of this group of snakes (i.e., the ratsnakes) has been somewhat in flux over the last 10 years.  For decades, ratsnakes were considered members of the genus Elaphe.  At that time, the Eastern Ratsnake was part of a group that was sort of generically referred to as the Black Ratsnakes (Elaphe obsoleta), with various sub-specific designations depending on location.  Around 2002, new analyses revealed that the genus name of the New World Ratsnakes (those in North America and South America) should be changed to Pantherophis (Utinger 2002).  While this change took awhile to catch on, it is now...basically...accepted by most professional herpetologists. Other taxonomic research (focused mostly on mitochondrial DNA and physical characters) resulted in the elimination of all subspecies for this genus.  Instead of having a variety of subspecies of Pantherophis obsoleta, three distinct species were classified based on region: the Eastern Ratsnake (P. alleghaniensis) in the east, the Gray Ratsnakes (P. spiloides) in the midwest, and the Texas Ratsnake (P. obsoletus) in the west (Burbrink et al. 2000, Burbrink 2001).  Honestly, there may have been more changes since then.  It's hard to keep up with it since the advent of molecular techniques, which can allow for questions of this nature to be investigated much faster than in the days of analyzing hundreds of museum specimens.

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The Five-Lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus).  Although this is a Five-lined Skink, there is also the potential for Southeastern Five-lined Skinks (Plestiodon inexpectatus) around here.  These two species are pretty hard to distinguish.  Basically one can look at the size of the scales on the lower surface of the tail, or count the number of labial (mouth) scales between the eye and the nostril on the side of the head to identify them.  I wish I had good pictures of what I'm talking about!  Didn't think about it when we were snapping photos of the animal.

These are a fairly common woodland lizard.  Relatively small, and usually found rooting through ground debris, and beneath logs for invertebrates....there is a pronounced sexual dimorphism (differerence in how males and females appear) in the breeding season.  Adult males have reddish heads and often lack the bright blue tail of the female and juvenile (see reference picture below).  The individual we captured (pictured below) was probably an adult female, and we found her in a pitfall trap along one of our lowland deciduous forest drift fences.  

Skinks within the genus Plestiodon were not so long ago considered members of the genus Eumeces.  But, based on new molecular analyses, their taxonomy has been re-evaluated (see review in Crother 2008).  

As a side note, skinks in the Genus Plestiodon are generally referred to as the "Toothy Skinks".  I don't know why....but that name always makes me chuckle.

The above two pictures show the female Five-Lined Skink that we encountered during surveys this week.  Note the bright blue tail and lack of reddish color on the head.

A picture of a similar species, the Southeastern Five-lined Skink, found elsewhere in the state.  This is a male (note the red tinge on the head), and the male Five-lined Skink appears similar.

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The Meadow Jumping Mouse (Zapus hudsonius).  An apparently rare species in our fine state (which may be the result of no one really looking).  Only a handful of records exist (one in the far western part of the state, and a handful of other recrods to our east).  Observations and confirmed presence of this species in the central part of the state (where we live) are rare, so it turns out our finding was very valuable!  We found him in one of the box traps along a grassland drift fence.

This is an aptly named critter, with the ability to jump or bound up to three feet, according to (Webster et al., 1985).  It can be identified by its large feet, wide band of darker pelage (i.e., fur) down the back, and its long distinctly bi-colored tail (dark on top and light on the bottom),

Interestingly, this is apparently the only mouse in our region that actually hibernates (Webster et al. 1985).  They also do not store food for the winter, but lay down a layer of fat to sustain them in their torpor and pop back up sometime in March or April (Webster et al. 1985).

For those interested in more pictures of these guys, John Van Niel recently posted a story about capturing some during Sherman Trap surveys on his cool blog, Backyard Beasts. 

Check out the long feet and dark mid-dorsal pelage (i.e. fur) down the center of the back.

Note the bi-colored tail of the individual in the picture above. 

The Black Racer (Coluber constrictor) has become the snake species we most commonly encounter at our sites.  This individual was captured in a funnel trap placed along one of our grassland drift fences on the same day we found the Meadow Jumper above.  We also happen across them while walking through the woods with some frequency.  As the name suggests, they are quick! There can't be a moment of hesitation if one hopes to catch an individual randomly encountered while out and about in the woods.  

To top it off, they're usually biters.  I've been tagged more by racers than any other snake here in the Southeastern US.  It doesn't hurt, and barely draws blood.  

The individual in the picture below nailed Dave on the hand a few times.

It builds character, if you ask me.

He looks none-the-worse-for-wear after the experience, anyhow! 

I've summarized some pertinent ecological information (such as dietary preferences) for Racers in a past post (see A Good Day for Herps posted March 23, 2011).

Literature Cited:

Burbrink, F.T. et al. 2000.  Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of the polytypic North American Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta): a critique of the subspecies concept. Evolution 54: 2107-2118.

Burbrink, F.T. 2001.  Systematics of the Eastern Ratsnake complex (Elaphe obsoleta). Herpetological Monographs 15:1-53.

Crother, B.I. (ed) 2008.  Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles North of Mexico.  pp 1-84. SSAR Herpetological Circular 37. 

Utinger, U. et al. 2002.  Molecular systematics and phylogeny of Old and New World ratsnakes, Elaphe auct., and related genera (Reptilia, Squamata, Colubridae). Russian Journal of Herpetology 9:105-124. 

Webster et al. 1985. Mammals of the Carolinas, Virginia and Maryland (1st edition).  University of North Carolina Press.

Learning to Follow the Trail....

Above: the attendees of the 2011 wildlife tracking and survey workshop.

Photo by M. Schriber

Recently, I organized and helped facilitate professional-level naturalist/ecology workshop through the University.  Workshops such as this offer great learning opportunities for a variety of folks (college students, environmental educators, government employees, etc.).  Also because of said workshops, I have the opportunity to interact with some very cool folks.
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Meet Jim Halfpenny, Ph.D.. 

Above: Dr. Jim Halfpenny speaking in-class to students about the wolf restoration project in Yellowstone.

Dr. Halfpenny is a nationally-renowned carnivore ecologist and expert wildlife tracker.  He lives in Montana, and is the president of A Naturalist's World (ANW).  Currently, he conducts a large number of ecological workshops across the western hemisphere through ANW that are designed to educate folks about mammals, ecology, and conservation.  His expertise and research experience includes bears, wolves, cougars and....what he is most famous for...wildlife tracking.  Jim wrote the book (well, several books) on wildlife tracking.   One of my favorite field references is a book written by him in the 1980's called:  A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America.   I refer to it often (and even reached full-blown geek Nirvana when Jim recently signed my original copy of this book).  Jim's written many updated books on tracking since and a search for "Halfpenny" on Amazon.com will result in several great pieces of literature.

Jim is also one of the main "characters" in a non-fictional book called "The Beast in the Garden" by David Barron.  This is an interesting book that focuses on the events surrounding a cougar that kills a high school student in Colorado in the early 1990s.  This was the first time a cougar had killed a person there in many, many years.  The book outlines the events that lead to the unfortunate death of this young man.  In doing so, it provides lessons for wildlife ecologists, wildlife managers, conservationists, and outdoor enthusiasts. 
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I had my first email correspondence with Jim as a result of The Beast in the Garden.  It's written for the lay-person, and so I have had students in my non-science major Wildlife Conservation class read it and discuss it.  One day I figured it would be cool to see if I could get some thoughts from the folks involved in the events outlined in the book.....just to determine if their feelings have changed over the past twenty years.  I figured this was a complete shot in the dark...but hey...no harm in checking.  Jim responded to my query pretty quickly.  After answering my questions, he mentioned that he conducts educational workshops about cougars and many other topics related to tracking and carnivores all over North America. 

From that first conversation, we ended up hosting one of Jim's Cougar Ecology workshop here last year.  It was well-attended and very successful.  So this year, we decided to do another workshop, but change the topic slightly.  As such we went with a basic tracking skills workshop.  Eventually, we came to the conclusion that, to keep all of the attendees we were hoping to attract busy for the whole two-days...we'd have to split them up.  This meant I'd have to teach half of them some stuff for part of the time, while Jim worked with the other half (then we'd swap student groups).  And...hey...who isn't interested in co-teaching a workshop with Jim Halfpenny?

My contribution involved the basics of small vertebrate survey techniques.  The idea being to give the attendees experience with these techniques in the field.  This inlcuded: drift fences, cover boards, Sherman traps, turtle traps, and hints on visual surveys.  We targeted amphibians, reptiles and small mammals because I already had survey equipment deployed at a site near campus for these critters.  I also showed the students how to use radio telemetry equipment (they tracked the box turtles I have on the air at the same site).

The workshop was jam-packed with "stuff" (both for the instructors and the students).  It was about 50/50 lecture and field work.

The day before the workshop, Jim was nice enough to speak to several of our undergraduate classes at the university.  He discussed the Wolf Resoration project in Yellowstone that he has been a part of.
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Day 1.

We started in the lecture hall.  It was here that Jim discussed the history of tracking, the anatomy of animal tracks, and ways to identify species by tracks.  I also went over a variety of survey techniques for large, medium and small animals (a very basic overview).  After a morning inside, we went out into the field.

Tracking in the field: There had been a big storm here two nights prior to the workshop.  Thus, the stream beds and dirt trails that are usually riddled with tracks had been wiped clean.  It took alot more work for the students to find tracks then I had hoped, but most seemed to be able to work with this. Jim instructed them on finding tracks, identifying species, and the making of plaster track casts in the field.

Above: preparing the area to create a plaster cast of raccoon tracks.

Photo by V. Vickers.

Above: pouring in the plaster. 

Photo by V. Vickers.

Above: The Final Product!

Photo by V. Vickers.

Above: Group 1 displaying their plaster casts. 

Photo by S. Habel.

Radio Telemetry:  Workshop attendees were exposed to the basics of radio tracking animals in the field.  Although this involves slightly different skill-sets depeding on whether one is tracking small vertebrates or large vertebrates, the principles are the same.  The class tracked eastern Box turtles (Terrapene carolina) and learned the very basics of what this entails.

Above: Locating a turtle with the telemetry equipment.

Above: Found him!

Above: recording data on a located box turtle.

Photograph by V. Vickers

Above: reviewing marking techniques for turtles.

Photo by M. Schriber

Above: A 200 acre woods to roam in, and one box turtle we tracked decided to hang out directly in front of a camera trap!  As a result, there are a bunch of pictures of the students on this camera!

Day 2.
We started the second day off with lecture again.  This time Jim covered specifics about animal gaits, and how to follow and read trails left by wildlife.  This involved Jim actually getting down on his hands and knees with cards that represented front and hind foot prints....these he laid on the floor as he stepped (or crawled) showing  students the relationship between how an animal walks and where the foot prints end up.  This information prepared the students for field exercises.

We took a brief break at the field site for lunch before plunging in to more field work.

Understanding Gaits and Following Animal Trails in the Field:  Due to the rain storm that occurred right before the workshop, there was a real lack of tracks and trails out at the site.  Therefore, Jim requested that a medium-sized, well-behaved dog be brought to the workshop to simulate wildlife trails for day 2.  Luckily one of the students had just such a pooch!  Thus, the ground was prepared in an area with good soil, and the domestic canine was used to create animal trails for the students to learn from.  The dog was walked, trotted, sprinted, and etc....each of which left a different series of tracks in the dirt to be deciphered.

Above: using a pet dog to create trails in the field

Photo by V. Vickers.

Above: flagging the dog tracks.

Photo by V. Vickers

Photo by V. Vickers

Photo by V. Vickers

Above: students scrutinize the trail left by the domestic canine.

Photo by V. Vickers

Conducting Small Animal Surveys in the Field. Students were exposed to variety of small vertebrate surveys in the field...focused on amphibians, reptiles and small mammals.  We discussed effective incorporation of various pieces of equipment, hints for deployment/installation, the best times to conduct surveys with specific equipment,  the best baits (if applicable) and how to deal with the captured animals.

Above: Checking traps along one of the drift fences on-site.

Above: an Eastern ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) captured in a drift fence.

Above: checking out an otter latrine (Lontra canadensis) during visual surveys.

Photo by M. Schriber

A good time was had by all (I think), and the workshop participants got exposed to alot of new skills (I hope).

My only regret is that I didn't get to make plaster casts or do the gait stuff that the students experienced! 

The downside of being a facilitator and co-instructor!