Busy as Beavers

Today was a very busy day. We got up early to check the small mammal traps we set out yesterday. Yesterday we set out 100 traps! They are laid out in a grid of 5 by 20 rows. Each trap has some hay, some seeds (bird feed makes excellent mouse feed too!), and a piece of apple. The apple gives them a source of water as small mammals don't normally drink. So when we checked the traps today we found 3 Red-Backed Voles! They were very cute. We measure and tag them (by snipping a tiny piece of their fur) before releasing them back into their habitat. We also put them through a little labyrinth maze to test their intelligence before we released them. We all got to handle the voles which was a very cool experience. They are very fragile but you can handle them by grabbing the scruff on the back of their neck. The scruff has no nerve endings (kind of like your elbow skin) so no matter how tight you squeeze it they don't feel it.

After checking traps we looked for porcupine damage on trees. They gnaw at the bark to get at the sap. Apparently they love birch trees but they also sometimes go for spruce. We found a lot of damage which sometimes upsets the locals especially the foresters. A lot of people will shoot porcupines for that reason! The scientists here think the population is declining fast but they need proof, so that's why we are taking this data.

Then we had lunch. Yum! After lunch we deployed some camera traps to catch some sneaky mammals who we don't always get to see in the daytime. We'll examine them next week when we take them down. I hope we catch something good!

Our next assignment was to do a mile long transect to look for more 'field signs' of mammals. This took 2 hours but we saw lots of signs of mammals including beaver damage and lodges, lots of coyote scat, small piles of bones and chipmunk holes.

Then after that we had to go back and check our traps again! We found 4 more voles but 2 were recaptures from the morning! Apparently some of the voles liked the traps so much they went back into them. We think they like being fed and having a warm place to stay as it was a bit chillier today.

Oh and I tried to test the satellite receiver today but it didn't work! :( I'm not sure what's wrong but I will try again tomorrow. I'm off to bed now because it's been a very long day. But I'm looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow. :)