The wild-er side of Texas!

Well, I've posted pictures of scenery, other people's wildlife projects, and even Florida wildlife!  But believe me, there is more to Texas than bears, lions, pronghorn and mule deer!  While those animals (commonly known as big game species) may cause more excitement in the hearts and minds of those who get the privilege to see them in person, there is a whole other wildlife world that is usually given much less attention by those not directly interested in them.  I'm talking about small mammals - mostly rodents, who unfortunately get a bad reputation due to their tending to be rather destructive in large numbers.  But putting your opinions of the stereotypical giant NYC subway rats and house mice aside, these animals can be a lot of fun to work with in the wild!  Another sometimes overlooked animal group are reptiles and amphibians (collectively known as herpetofauna - aka herps).  But, if any of you know my boyfriend, Bob, you'll know that it is almost impossible for me to overlook this group!  :)  Down here in Texas the herps are pretty abundant - especially the rattlesnakes.  In fact there are some sub-species of snakes that only occur in the Trans-Pecos region of Texas.  (For example, there are a few different sub-species of the copperhead in North America - northern copperhead, southern copperhead, and Trans-Pecos copperhead.)  The hot and dry environment is perfect for several species of snakes and lizards.  Starting this month, when I do my small mammal trapping and bird surveys, I will also be starting herp surveys - meaning I'll be looking for all those snakes and lizards out there (frogs and amphibians are also in the herp group, but since the Trans-Pecos is so dry, I am not expecting to find too many of those)!

Anyway, I'll stop with all the writing and get into the pictures.  I have A TON of small mammal pictures since I usually try to take a couple pictures of every small mammal I catch - which has been a lot so far!  I will try not to overwhelm you with small mammal pictures, but maybe I'll help some of you rethink your possibly negative opinion of rodents and prove that not all rats and mice are gross and a nuisance!  :)

Ok, I think I am going to try to group the different kinds of small mammal together so that it is a little more organized... and easier for me to keep track of!  You'll see a lot of these different species look almost exactly alike!  So I am going to group them by Genus.  In taxonomy each species belongs in different groups starting broad (for example: Class Mammalia includes ALL mammals) to more specific all the way down to an animal's specific epithet which includes the genus and species name (also called scientific name), and is always in italics when typed (or underlined when hand written).  The species name is the most specific taxonomic level (for example, the specific epithet or scientific name of an American black bear is Ursus americanus - Ursus being the genus name, and americanus being the species name). Ok, sorry for the brief lesson in taxonomy!

Before I get into the genus groups... I wanted to put this picture in here to show you how I get a hold of the critters.  First I shake them out of the trap into a big zip-lock bag.  Then I get them to put their noses in the corner of the bag so that I can use one hand to hold them still and the other hand to reach in and grab them by the scruff of their neck.  They are usually pretty unhappy and squirm around a lot, which means I let go of several individuals before I finally got the hang of keeping a good hold on them!  Grabbing them in the right place behind their heads also keeps them from turning around and chomping down on one of my fingers!

Ok, here we go.  First up... genus Peromyscus (Deer Mice)!

I believe this is a Peromyscus maniculatus (American Deer Mouse).  Apparently he was hungry when I let him go because he just stayed there and nibbled on some bait that was on the ground :)

Here I am taking measurements on a mouse.  As I mentioned earlier many Peromyscus species look A LOT alike so it is important to take certain measurements on each animal caught since that can help determine the difference between species.  I measure the ear, tail, hind foot, and full body length.  I also determine whether it is male or female.

This is another American deer mouse.  I just thought it was cute that his fur was all ruffled up from me handling him :)

Here is another American deer mouse.  You'll notice this one has some orange colored fur along it's sides.  A lot of other Peromyscus species have that, so unfortunately it can't always be used as a distinguishing feature!

Here is a Peromyscus leucopus (White-footed Mouse).  You can see it's white hind foot in this picture.  Other Peromyscus species have white feet too, so there are still other features I need to look at to determine if this is in fact a white-footed mouse - which I decided it was.

These pictures are showing one way to help tell the difference between the white-footed mouse and the american deer mouse. The white-footed mouse (left) has more white on each hair making it's white belly fur appear to be almost purely white, whereas the deer mouse (right) has more black on each hair (the part closer to the body) making  it's belly fur look darker.  Again, this alone is not a way to tell the difference between these species, but combined with other features could be helpful.  Are you starting to realize how difficult it could be to identify these little guys??

Here is another species of Peromyscus - Peromyscus eremicus (Cactus Mouse).  This mouse looks pretty much just like the others, which is why I decided not to include a full body picture.  But, this is one species that has a fairly easy way to identify - you'll notice in the picture that the sole of its hind foot has no fur on it.  All the other species I have showed you so far do have fur on their hind feet.  A naked hind foot is one defining characteristic of Cactus mice.

Ok, enough of those... I think Peromyscus is the hardest group to tell difference between species! So, next up...  genus Dipodomys (Kangaroo Rats)!

There are only 2 species of kangaroo rats in this part of Texas: Dipodomys merriami (Merriam's Kangaroo Rat) and Dipodomys ordii (Ord's Kangaroo Rat).  So far all the kangaroo rats I've caught have been Merriam's kangaroo rat, like the one in this photo.

Telling the difference between Ord's kangaroo rats and Merriam's kangaroo rats is actually pretty easy.  Merriam's kangaroo rats only have 4 toes on their hind feet (like the picture on the right).  Ord's kangaroo rats have 5 toes on their hind feet.  As you can see in the picture on the left, I caught a kangaroo rat with only 3 toes on one of it's hind feet!  It was a Merriam's kangaroo rat, but I thought it was interesting that he only had 3 toes on that one foot.  I actually caught this one a couple times, and could tell it was him because of his 3 toes :)

Here is another photo of a Merriam's kangaroo rat.  It's a little hard to see in the picture, but they also have very long tail's that have long fur at the tips (called a "crest").

This was the last catch of the day on one of my trap days and it just so happened to get REALLY windy right when we were about to release this kangaroo rat.  I guess he wasn't ready to face the wind yet, because he decided to take cover under me instead!  This actually happens a lot when I release other mice.  They seem to go for the first sheltered area, which a lot of times ends up being under me or my backpack.  Sometimes, even if I move they won't leave... not the smartest creatures I guess.  :)

Next on the list... genus Sigmodon (Cotton Rats)!

There are 2 species of cotton rats in this area of Texas: Sigmodon hispidus (Hispid Cotton Rat) and Sigmodon ochrognathus (Yellow-nosed Cotton Rat).  An easy way to tell the difference between these two is again, to look at their hind feet.  The hispid cotton rat (right) has all black soles on their hind feet.  The yellow-nosed cotton rat (left) does not have black soles.  As you can guess, the yellow-nosed cotton rat also tends to have a more yellow colored nose and body.  Still, the hispid cotton rat can have similar coloring, making it difficult to use that as the only means of identifying the species.

Guess what!  These are two different species!  Could you tell??  I sure wouldn't be able to just from these pictures!  The one on the left is a yellow-nosed cotton rat, which makes the one on the right a hisipid cotton rat!  Now you can see why you shouldn't use color of fur alone to tell the difference between these two species :)

Ok, moving right along... genus Perognathus and Chaetodipus (Pocket Mice)!

I'll be honest and say that I do not know my pocket mice too well yet, because I have only caught a few. But now that it is warmer, I'm sure I'll start catching more of these (I think they hibernate during the winter months).  I believe the one above is Chaetodipus nelsoni (Nelson's Pocket Mouse).  Pocket mice are different from deer mice (Peromyscus) in that pocket mice have much smaller ears and bodies, and most have a crest on their tail similar to kangaroo rats.  If you look at the tail of this mouse all the way until it goes out of the picture, you can see the very beginning of the tail crest.

I think this is a Perognathus flavus/merriami (Silky/Merriam's pocket mouse).  Sometimes two species are so alike on the outside that it is pretty much impossible to tell the difference - this is on of those species.  Silky pocket mice and Merriam's pocket mice are two different species but look identical on the outside.  Usually there are skeletal features that can distinguish between species such as these, but since I am releasing everything I catch, I cannot rely on skeletal features to identify which species it is.  These species do not have crests on their tail, which help identify them from other pocket mice.

 I'm not positive about this one yet, but I am pretty sure it is a Chaetodipus intermedius (Rock Pocket Mouse).  This species does have a crest on it's tail (similar to Nelson's pocket mouse pictured above), but after looking at the measurements I took and some other differences such as fur color and presence or absence of a specific type of fur/hair called bristles or spines (usually longer than rest of fur and different in color) I decided it was a rock pocket mouse.

Alright, last but not least... genus Neotoma (Wood Rats)!

Sorry, I know I look kind of goofy in this picture... but I was excited!  :)  This is the largest small mammal species I have caught so far!  It is a Neotoma micropus (Southern Plains Wood Rat).  You'll notice in the picture that it's tail looks pretty short.  There was actually a lot of the tail missing from a previous injury, so it should actually be longer.  I was pretty excited about this catch!  As soon as I picked up the trap I knew it was something big!  This weighed about 100g more than the largest of the smaller species I've caught so far, which is a big jump!  Anyway, we took lots of pictures of this while it was still in the bag, just in case I couldn't hold on to it once I got it in my hands.  Luckily she was very docile and let us do what we needed before we let her go.  I also think she had some babies waiting for her somewhere because she was lactating.  I'm hoping to catch more of these now that it's warmer!  I'm definitely going to have to invest in a good pair of gloves first though!

A close up of the wood rat.  A little different from your typical nuisance city rat (which by the way are actually Norway rats and VERY invasive - meaning they are not native to North America at all).  I actually think this wood rat was very pretty as far as rats go.  :)

Well, I know that was a TON of information, but hopefully the pictures made it a little more interesting.  I hope everyone who's reading now has a little better idea and understanding of some of the things I do when I say I'm "out in the field."  Even though I catch a lot of the same species, I still get excited every time I see a closed trap!  Now that it is warmer I have a feeling I'll be seeing some new species, and I'm pretty excited about that!  I'll definitely keep you posted on what new critters I see and/or catch!

I didn't expect this post to be quite so long - I was actually going to put in some of the pictures I've captured on my trail cameras and some pictures of herps... but I guess that just means I have to write another post soon!  I will be out in the field this weekend and next weekend (Thurs. - Sun.) starting my second trapping season at Elephant Mountain Wildlife Management Area (aka EM).  I have an exam and a first draft of an annotated bibliography (composed of over 40 article summaries on black bears!) due in between those weekends so I will definitely be busy the next couple of weeks!  I'm sure the time will fly by.  I can't believe it's almost April already!!!  What happened to the first 3 months of the year?!?

Anyway, as always... thanks for reading!

Until next time, Laura :)

Spring Break!!

I can now say, for the first time ever, that I spent my spring break in Florida!  But not doing the typical thing I'm sure most college kids my age usually do in Florida on spring break I guess :)

It took me two days to drive there (the last hour of which was spent sitting in traffic - probably about only 10 miles away from my actual destination... ugh!), but the drive was totally worth it because I had such a great time!  As some of you already know, my best friend Kira, and her husband Rob, moved to Clearwater, FL this past fall.  Saying they love it there is a bit of an understatement.  Even though it was the first time I visited them down there, it seemed like they had been living in FL their whole lives.  They used to live in NYC (the Bronx), and although we always had a blast when we hung out there, after seeing them in FL I think they are now where they truly belong and I am SO happy for the two of them - ok, enough about them.... (love you guys!)  :)   Anyway, we were able to find a really great price on a plane ticket for Bob to fly down for the weekend even on such short notice!  He was originally going to only stay until Monday (he flew into Tampa Friday evening, so he would just be there for the weekend), but then he found out he had more vacation days than he thought he did, so he ended up staying until Thursday instead!  We both were so happy to be able to see each other for so long, completely unexpectedly.  Ok, enough of that too.

So I know this post isn't really about my grad project, or any one else's, but I still have some pretty cool pictures and figured I'd show them off!  (Those of you who are on facebook will probably have already seen most of these, but there are some on here that I didn't post on facebook.)

Here are some great crested comorants.  They are pretty common in Florida so no one really gets too excited about them - I think they are even considered pests in some places.  But I think they are cool.  A lot of times you'll see them perched somewhere with their wings open, just soaking up the sun.

This is a common moorhen.  I think this is the first one of these that I've seen in the wild, so I was pretty excited.  There were a couple of them in this pond.  (By the way, this is the pond that is in Kira and Rob's apartment complex right behind their building.)

This was also the first time I saw white ibises in the wild so at first I was pretty excited about these guys too, but they are also everywhere, so although they are pretty and I still liked watching them, I didn't get too excited over them after the 100th or so time I saw one :)

This is also an ibis.  It's either a female or a juvenile... I never looked it up.

If you look in the water in this picture you'll see two craters in the dirt under the water.  Those were built by fish (probably tilapia since we saw a lot of them hanging out in these nests).  The males usually build the nests to attract females.

There is a lizard hiding in this picture :)  Can you spot him?

Kira and Rob took us to watch the sun set on the beach.  It sure was pretty!

I liked this picture since I caught a couple gulls and a wave in there too :)

Here is another ibis.  I thought this picture was pretty cool since he was in the ocean.  Kira and Rob took us to Fort de Soto Park where we had a picnic lunch and hung out on the beach for a while.  This picture and the next few are from there.  We even saw dolphins playing in the ocean!  But I didn't get any pictures of those.

As usual, and unnecessary number of gulls were hanging around.

This is another bird I have never seen before.  I think Bob and I keyed it out as a millet.  I can't remember if that is the name, and I don't have my bird book with me right now, so I can't check.  It was pretty cool though.

Here is a video of him looking for food in the water.  You'll have to excuse the shaky camera work.  I was laughing during a couple parts because he runs away from the waves and I thought it was funny.

Here is a colorful spider we found along a nature trail.  I personally don't like spiders, but Bob was looking at it.  As far as spiders go I guess it is kinda pretty...

Right below the leaf that the spider was on was this cocoon.  Pretty cool looking huh?

There were also a lot of brown pelicans down there.  There were several in this area and they would fly straight down from the sky and dive for food.  I think it's so neat how they can fly so close to the surface of the water like in this picture.

On Monday Bob and I went to the zoo.  I won't bore you with pictures of all the captive critters there.  But we did get some cool pictures of some wild egrets and herons that were roosting above some of the exhibits.  This picture is of a great egret with two chicks in the nest! Once Bob and I started taking pictures other people around us noticed and started taking pictures of them too.  I don't think other people even realized they were there until we did.

Here is a short video of the egret's nest.  Looks like one chick was a little impatient about being fed!

This is a little blue heron.  These are one of my favorite birds! I think they are so cool!

Here is another view of the great egret.  You can see the long feathers they get that come off their backs during breeding season. They're pretty!

Here is a better view of a little blue heron.

Another picture of a great egret.  Again, you can see the long feathers coming off their backs.

Ok, so I guess I did include one captive picture, but I thought it was funny.  This ibis was pecking in the hay all around this snoozing black bear.  At one point it pecked really close to it's foot and then stepped back really quickly as if it was waiting for the bear to get up.  It was pretty comical to watch.

After the zoo Bob and I decided to make dinner for Rob and Kira that night so we decided on kabobs on the grill!  They were sooo good!  A perfect ending to a great day :)

I'm pretty sure that owl statue is there in the far corner to keep other birds off this little deck.  As you can see from the picture, it's not working...

Here is a little turtle in the pond behind Kira and Rob's apartment.  We're thinking maybe he is used to being fed because he came right over to us and followed us along the bank for a little while.  That's not usual turtle behavior.

Even though we keep moving further away from each other we're still best friends!  I'm so happy to have her and thankful that she let Bob and I spend the week with her and Rob!

Well that's it for spring break!  Now back to school and work.  I have one more weekend off before I am going to start doing some field work again.  It won't be the month and a half long marathon it was last time so hopefully I won't wear myself out!  It's already getting pretty hot down here.  It's been in the 80's here in Alpine, and I've been keeping an eye on the temperature at my other sites too - in Big Bend National Park its been in the high 90's!!  Not looking forward to working in that heat!  Guess I better get used to it though! We also haven't had any rain here since September!  Isn't that ridiculous??  I know people up north get the winter blues/depression... I think down here I am getting desert blues/depression - it's just so brown right now and there is no color anywhere!  I can't wait until we get some rain so that things will green up a little.  Being in Florida was a nice break from the brown.

Anyway, I guess that's it for now!

Until next time, Laura :)

Other grad student projects Part 2: Pronghorn Capture

A couple weeks ago Texas Parks & Wildlife (with the help of Sul Ross grad students!) moved 200 pronghorn antelope from the TX panhandle down here to the Trans-Pecos.  Not too long ago the number of pronghorn in the Trans-Pecos far outnumbered the number of pronghorn in the panhandle.  Due to reasons not quite understood yet, it is now the panhandle that holds more pronghorn.  In my first blog post I mentioned that I drove back from the panhandle with a TPWD Biologist, Billy.  He told me that the population of pronghorn in the panhandle is about 10,000 individuals - about 2x the number of pronghorn currently residing in the Trans-Pecos (I'll abbreviate this TP from now on).  There have already been several hypotheses about what is causing the decline in the TP pronghorn populations - which biologist and managers believe to have first started back in the 1990's when there was a series of severe droughts in the area.  Currently, research is being done on many different variables that effect pronghorn population growth including rainfall, fawn survival, predator impacts, diseases, habitat suitability and much much more!  About 80 of the 200 pronghorn that were transported down here are radio collared so that their movements can be monitored, and starting in about a month, TPWD (again with the help of Sul Ross grad students) will be capturing fawns to put collars on them also (hopefully I'll be able to help with that - and if I do you'll hear all about it!).  The entire pronghorn recovery project is probably the biggest and most popular wildlife project going on in the TP at the moment, which means it has received a lot of attention and a lot of funding (leaving my apparently meager little project in the dust! Oh well...).  There is currently one (soon to be 2) grad students here working on different aspects of this project - and several undergraduates who will be working as technicians on the project as well.  So it's a pretty big deal at the moment.

Anyway, I'll spare you all too much more background and just jump right into the pictures.  I don't think I have quite as many pictures from this capture since I was only there for part of one day (I had to leave to get back to the TP at a reasonable time in order to get up early to do my own field work the next day!).  But I'm pretty sure I still got some pretty good shots.  Oh and a couple more things... this was a MUCH bigger production than the mule deer capture, so there were MANY more people at this one.  The pronghorn were given a light sedative to help reduce the stress - they are very finicky animals.  We had to be extremely careful of their legs - if any of the pronghorn received leg injuries at any part of the capture or release they had to be put down, they simply would not survive without the use of their legs.  It was still a great experience, but I have to admit... after being at this capture with all these people, it was nice to do the mule deer capture with only a few of us - that way we each had many more opportunities to get in there and handle the animals.  Still, I was able to do some handling with the pronghorn... as you'll see now :)

Here is what the processing stations looked like (there were four of them).  You can see the stretcher that they put the pronghorn into.  It keeps them (relatively) still so that they don't thrash around and hurt themselves.  There are four holes that their legs go through and seat belts that belt around the top of their bodies - below there are pictures of the what it looks like with the pronghorn strapped into one of these. They are also designed to keep the feet of the animals from touching the ground - if they did they'd start trying to run away. To the left of the stretcher is a table that has all of the equipment that the vets needed to process the pronghorn (test tubes for blood samples, thermometers to keep track of the body temperature, and lots of other stuff too).  They also put ear tags on each pronghorn (I helped get the ear tagging tools loaded up, but didn't actually put any of the ear tags on).  And then the Sul Ross grad students working on the pronghorn project (well one grad student, and one undergrad - soon to be grad student) were in charge of putting on the radio collars.

If I remember correctly those four men standing around the table there are the vets that were there to do some of the processing work.

This is the helicopter that they used for this capture.  The capture crew that helped with this transport is actually from New Zealand!  Their accents were so cool :)  For those of you who heard me talking about the bighorn sheep capture back in December (I didn't help with that one since it conflicted with my travel plans home for the holidays), this was the same capture crew that helped with that project.

Here is one of the trailers that they used to haul some of the pronghorn back to the TP - this is actually the truck that I rode back in. Billy is one of those guys standing next to it, but it's hard to see their faces so I won't even try to point him out.

I was lucky enough to have at least one capture attempt happen pretty close to where we were stationed so that I could get these cool shots!  Those animals that you see to the left of the helicopter are all pronghorn!  I don't know how much you all know about pronghorn but they are the fastest animal in North America and can reach speeds of more than 50mph!  The capture crew were using a larger sized net because that way they didn't have to slow an individual pronghorn down too much in order to catch it.  The more the helicopter spends trying to slow down one herd, the more stressed the pronghorn get. So although they chased this herd around and did isolate a couple individuals (as you'll see in the next pictures), they didn't actually catch one from here at the time.  They could tell from the helicopter that they pronghorn were getting hot and didn't want to over stress or overheat them.

I know this picture is a little grainy and a weird shape, but I cropped it and zoomed in to get a better look at the herd.  I thought this was a good picture because although the herd is still there, it is barely visible since they have kicked up so much dirt!  A lot of times we could see the dust in the area of where the pronghorn were - but couldn't actually see the pronghorn!

This picture is cropped and zoomed into also.  You can see the one pronghorn that the helicopter was able to isolate from the rest of the group.  Still they decided not to capture it at the time since they figured it was too stressed to be handled.

Ok, here is a video of what it looked like when the pronghorn were all hooked up to the helicopter and being brought to us.  You can see that they carry more than one (unlike the Mule Deer capture where the only carried on at a time).  If you ask me, the pronghorn look a little more comfortable than the mule deer did :)

Here is a good example of why it was hard to get a lot of the hands on part at this capture :)  Somewhere in that pile are the pronghorn that are being untied by all the people standing around there.

Here you can see how the pronghorn fit into the stretcher.  Eventually, I think most of the handlers felt it was easier to keep the legs tied (like they were for the mule deer) and just laid them on the stretcher on their sides, instead of untying their legs to put them through the stretcher holes.  Still, their legs had to be untied eventually so they could be put in the trailers.

Yay! I got to carry one! Well... help carry one, there were at least 2 people to every pronghorn.  Good thing too, because there is no way I could have carried that on my own.  They are heavier than they look!  The guy helping me is another TPWD Biologist.  He is in charge of Black Gap - the area where I am trying to catch a bear!

I may have been carrying a heavy animal, but I still made sure I smiled for the camera :)

The picture on the left is showing some handlers trying to get the pronghorn onto the trailer.  Again, there were so many people there (which was necessary for this part) that it was hard to really see what was going on. The picture on the right is what the inside of the trailer looks like with the pronghorn inside.  This was the large trailer that is seen in one of the earlier pictures I posted.  It was actually eventually divided up into 3 different sections so that there were not as many animals grouped together.

Here is a close up of a pronghorn :)  They're a little different looking!  When you're this close it's obvious how different they look from other ungulates like white-tailed deer and mule deer.  You also get a fairly good look at what their ear tags look like - each one has a different number (1-200).

I included this one because you get a good view of what one of the radio collars look like.

Ok, last video.  This is the release of the pronghorn we were hauling in our truck.  I know it is hard to see since it is nighttime, but you can still see enough to know what is going on.  There were some media people there taking pictures, which can be a little annoying at times, but the publicity is good for funding! But they would take pictures of the pronghorn as soon as they stepped out of the trailer - basically blinding them... like they weren't confused enough, now they had bright lights flashing in their faces!  We asked them a few times to wait a little before they took their pictures, or at least try not to flash the pronghorn in the face, but they still did.  Oh well... here it is :)

That's all I have for the pronghorn capture!  I have never worked with pronghorn before, and probably never would have had I stayed in the northern half of the country to get my master's degree (same with the mule deer, actually), so I am pretty glad to have had this experience!

This upcoming week is spring break for me and I made some last minute plans to drive out to Florida to visit my best friend Kira and her husband Rob, who moved there this past September.  We were even lucky enough to find a cheap airplane ticket (even on such short notice - we bought it Monday!) for my boyfriend, Bob, to fly down for just the weekend so that we can all hang out together!  I'm so excited about it, but not so excited about making the 2 day drive alone!  Anyway, I may or may not post something while I am away, but if you're already subscribed to the blog then you'll get an email if I do!

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, Laura :)