The Beaten Bear, Poor Ol' Slim, and a Size-13 Snapper!

A random conglomeration of stuff from recent happenings during summer field work.  There's been alot of things going on.  There's so much to share that I can't fit it into a blog post in any type of logical order.

We've been running the drift fences surveys since the beginning of May, which has resulted in many excellent captures (one of which is below).

Yet, we also see cool stuff while we are walking out to our fences.  For example, there's an old gnarled tree that overhangs the creek near one of our fences.  Every day there are multiple Northern Watersnakes (Nerodia sipedon) hanging on the branches catching some rays.


Photo by N. Rudolph

They never really appreciate my grabbing them...and the result is usually a bit of drawn blood (as you can see on my hand below).  The bite looks much worse than it is, however.  They are non-venomous, and their teeth feel like nothing more than tiny pin-pricks.

Photo by N. Rudolph

The poor watersnake frequently suffers greatly at the hands of humans.  When the average person sees a snake near the water with a body pattern that is NOT similar to a gartersnake, they often think: "cottonmouth!" or "water moccasin!" and the snake is killed.  There are NO cottonmouths or moccasins in the upper Midwest, unless one inlcudes southern Illinois (and I don't think they do?). 

Amazingly, folks often argue with me about this!  Here are example responses I get to telling them it wasn't a cottonmouth they saw: "Nope, I saw a cottonmouth on that canoe trip.  There's nothing else it could have been." ...or..... "Well, I'm pretty sure that it was a moccasin that swam along the bank next to me while I was fishing." 

But, let me re-iterate: the snakes in my hand above are NOT cottonmouths/moccasins!  We do not have said venomous species 'round these parts.

BUT....none of this is even the point of my current post!  So, I'll get on with it....

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The Beaten Bear:

Below is an impressive and "battle worn" Black Bear (Ursus americanus) that the wolf researchers captured on one of the camera traps.

Take a look at the lip on the left side of his face (right at the beginning of the clip).  It looks to be torn....and his ears have clearly seen better days.  He must be a wily sort to have avoided the hunters all these years.

I wonder whom he had a run-in with to have acquired all of that damage?  Males compete for breeding rights, and perhaps his

I wonder whom he had a run-in with to have acquired all of that damage?  Males compete for breeding opportunities and perhaps this was from another male Black Bear?  They certainly run afoul of wolves, which may be particularly problematic when wolves have pups in the den. Hunting dogs are another possibility, I suppose.  But all of that damage is to the face and head.  Is this type of damage typical of such encounters?  Could the torn up ears be where identifying ear tags were yanked out?

I love a natural history mystery!
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Poor Ol' Slim:

Poor Slim.....the unfortunate Short-tailed Weasel (Mustela erminea) that I found dead on the road not far from my house.  I caught a glimpse of it while my daughter and I were driving home one day....and I thought it looked like a weasel, so we had to turn around so I could pull over and snap a picture (it wasn't in good enough condition to turn into much of a specimen).

Slim is either a juvenile Long-Tailed Weasel (Mustela frenata) or an adult Short-Tailed Weasel (M. erminea), based on the size and the black tip on the tail.  The other weasel in our state...the Least Weasel (M. nivalis) has no black tail tip. 

Adult Long-Tailed Weasels attain average sizes (13-16 inches) and this individual is not that large.  Yet, this could be a juvenile Long-tailed Weasel....which would also make sense, seeing that the Long-Tailed Weasel is more common in the southern part of the state (where I am located) than the Short-tailed.  But the tail on this specimen looks to be particularly short. 

Hmmm.....

Another good mystery!

Fortunately, the summer hasn't been only negative encounters with weasels.  Below are pictures of a little Least Weasel my students and I captured in a drift fence a few weeks ago (note the lack of black-tip on the tail).  The drift fences are primarily for amphibians and reptiles, but we get just as many small mammals.  In fact, the hidden secret of this herpetological technique: it's probably just as effective and less work day-in and day-out for small mammals as Sherman Traps.  Although the fence takes alot of effort to install initially, there isn't the hassle of setting and re-baiting traps all the time.  Plus, we get many intectivores (Shrews) and the occassional weasel, which Sherman Traps aren't effective at catching.

I imagine these little carnivores are attracted to the fence due to the smell of vole, which we catch many of.  According to King and Powell (2007, The Natural History of Weasels and Stoats, Oxford University Press) the Least Weasel is the weasel that is the most narrow in its dietary preferences....eating almost exclusively on rodents and then focused primarily on voles (especially Microtus sp.).  I've caught Least Weasels on several occassions in drift fences in years past, so I wasn't totally shocked.  This is also not my first weasel post in the last year (see here).

But that doesn't mean I wasn't incredibly excited to see one!  The Least Weasel, in particular, is rare 'round here....so it was quite a treat!  Holding still is not the strong-suit of these frenetic little carnivores....so forgive the blurry pics (these were the best of about 30 attempts).

Photo by N. Rudolph

Photo by K. Rutzen

 

Photo by K. Rutzen

I love me some Mustelids.....

A Size-13 Snapper:

Mid-summer is when I often do most of my turtle trapping.  As part of survey work this summer, I've been trapping in wetlands with the hopes of catching some Blanding's Turtles (Emydoidea blandingii).  I've caught a few (as you can see)....

We also catch many, many Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta)....


Photo by N. Rudolph

Frequently these are given a unique mark.  This is done by notching the edge of their shells in a certain order with a file or dremel tool so that we can identify the turtles in the future.

Photo by N. Rudolph

But, in addition to the Painted Turtles, I almost always also catch Northern Snapping Turtles (Chelydra serpentina).  In fact, I would not be shocked if just about every water body in the state (from tiny pond to giant river) has at least one snapper lurking in the depths.  The Northern Snapping Turtle (previously called the "Common" Snapping Turtle) rarely leaves the water.  It doesn't usually sit on logs and bask in the sun, like many other pond turtles.  It mostly remains unseen in the mud and muck on the murky bottom.  The females are seen more frequently on land during the nesting season, when they must traverse the dangers of an over-land movement to lay their eggs.  It's during these times that snappers must frequently head out into vehicular traffic.  Poor snappers.  Especially considering that people apparently swerve to hit turtles crossing roads.

Regardless, the Northern Snapping Turtle is one of my favorite turtles: ornery, cantakerous, dirty, smelly, mean-looking.....everything I like in a critter :)

Photo by N. Rudolph

This summer, we've been lucky enough to catch many snapping turtles, like the individuals above.  At one particular pond, I caught at least five individual snappers in a single night that had carapaces (upper shells) which ranged from 8 to 12.5 inches.  The one below is a prime example.....

 

But that one pictured above wasn't even the biggest captured this summer.

That prize belongs to the individual below.  To put this into perspective, the boot on my chest-waders in this photo is a size 13.

It would be nice if more snapping turtles could make it to this size (or bigger). 

I guess we have to start by getting folks to restrain from hitting them on purpose (I can't believe I had to actually say that). 

Next we can try and come up with ways in which the average person can avoid hitting them on accident.

-sigh-


Week's End Survey Round-Up: Snakes, Salamanders, and Mice (and toads), oh my!

Although we caught more than what I'm going to show...these were some of the week's highlights from our drift fence and coverboard surveys.

The Northern Watersnake (Nerodia sipedon): This very common species can occur in just about any lowland habitat in our region (swamps, ponds, marshes, streams, rivers, resevoirs, etc.).  Although it's always a treat to catch them, it's not neccessarily unusual.....except the circumstances under which we captured this individual.  We usually throw funnel traps into ephemeral wooded wetlands at the study sites to catch amphibian larvae.  These funnel traps have been chalk-full of salamanders larvae lately (Ambystoma maculatum larvae).  This juvenile watersnake was captured inside one of those funnel traps in the wetland, which shocked the heck out of me when I pulled it out of the water.  He was probably taking advantage of a captured food source....but I guess he couldn't figure out how to get himself back out! 

Note the vaguely triangular-shaped head that occurs when the animal is threatened....this superficially resembles a venomous snake.   Unfortunately for the watersnake, its penchant to be alittle nippy and the tendency to flatten its head when threatened reminds folks of a venomous snake (often a Cottonmouth).  Thus, the harmless watersnake is often treated as harshly as venomous species are.

Fowler's Toad (Bufo fowleri) is a species that I had no experience with prior to moving down south.  The individual pictured below was hopping along the trail as we walked into the site earlier this week.  They are superficially similar to the American Toad (Bufo americanus), which is also common in this region.  Interestingly, though...at this particular site almost all of the toads I find are Fowler's, not Amercan Toads.  Not sure why.  The habitat is good for both.  I can't imagine they competitively exclude eachother.

The Fowler's can be distinguished from the American in several ways.  First, is the number of tubercules (or "warts", or bumps) inside of the dark circles on their backs.  If any of the dark circles have 3 or more large tubercules, then you probably have a Fowler's Toad (the American Toad has only 1 or 2 tubercules in each circle).

Also, the Fowler's has relatively small tubercules (or "warts" or bumps) on their legs, as below.  In contrast the American toad has large tubercules in this region.

For comparison, see two examples of American Toads that I captured at a different site last year.   Note the 1-2 tubercules in the dark circles on the back.

Juvenile White-Spotted Slimy Salamanders (Plethodon cylindraceus) were very common under the woodland coverboards at one of the sites this week.  I've posted about capturing them in the past too (see A Good Day for Herps posted on March 23, 2011).

The Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is a relatively common species, but one that hadn't been detected at this site until this week.  Last year, I found them at the other site nearby.  The individual below was captured while searching for box turtles in a lowland deciduous forest.  This species can exist in very high densities back home in Wisconsin and I am used to finding hundreds of them in the spring.  This does not seem to be the case in my experience here in the southeast to-date.

As an aside, the specific latin name of crucifer refers to the "X"-shaped mark on their back (second picture below).

The Eastern Harvest Mouse (Reithrodontomys humulis) is not the most common rodent species we encounter at our sites.  Usually, that is reserved for the White-Footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus), which we catch frequently in drift fences, under coverboards and in Sherman Traps.  Every so often, however, we get alittle Harvest Mouse.  The individual below was captured in a pitfall trap of one of the grassland drift fences we're running. 

Some general rules for distinguishing them from the white-footed (aside from the obvious fact that white-footed mice tend to have lighter, more whitish feet):  the ears aren't (proportionally) as large in the Harvest Mouse as in the White-Footed Mouse.  Also, the light fur on the underbelly of the White-Footed is more clearly delineated and comes higher up onto the sides than on the Harvest.  Finally, they can be distinguished by habitat.  While the White-Footed is most often encountered in woodlands, the Harvest Mouse is more common in grasslands, old fields and field edges.

For comparison, here are two pictures of White-footed Mice captured in a drift fence (top) and a Sherman Trap (bottom) earlier this year. 

The Southern Two-Lined Salamander (Eurycea cirrigera) pictured below was a first-time capture at this site.  We'd found them in relatively high numbers at our other study site...but hadn't gotten them at this one yet.  Another lungless salamander of the family Plethodontidae, this rather delicate little critter is more often encountered near streams. In fact, the way we find them at our other site is by flipping flat rocks along a stream edge.  This fella was captured in our upland forest drift fence, which borders a rather dry pine stand.  Not where I expected to catch him.

More to survey info will be posted in the coming weeks, I hope.

Have a good weekend!