Last weekend with the full crew :(

Sometimes in life, we often hear the phrase "time flies when you're having fun". In this case, I find myself thinking about how quickly this whole experience has entered and will now soon leave my life while I sit waiting for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to be ready. I have to admit, watching Dawn use all her arm strength to add more chocolate chips into the batter is quite amusing. That wasn't really what I was about to admit though. Honestly, this kind of living situation can be very stressful at times. However, learning to spend 24/7 with the same people for several months has really helped me in being more aware of my methods of communication and having an awareness in general of my surroundings. I know that everything I've experienced here will allow me to perform better on my next adventure in the Pacific Northwest where I'll be working with birds.

Lesson number...503?: It's important to wash your dishes, lest you feel like understanding how a butter knife can be used as a weapon. I like how Nate wrote after his threatening message to "have a nice day".

Last weekend we had a Russian dinner. I cooked "gulaptsi" (stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce) and "midovik" (honey cake). Gulaptsi are traditionally made with ground beef, but I made it with ground venison since there was an ample supply of that in the basement. I also made a separate batch for myself using "fake ground meat". I should have taken pictures! Alas, the thought only came to me just now. It was difficult cooking gulaptsi and not having a chance to taste it. Since I was cooking for hours, I doubt anyone wanted to criticize, but I still wonder if I overdid it with the fresh onion, garlic, and salt. Although I'm Russian, I love to add a lot of garlic to practically everything, and I've heard that is an Italian thing. One element that would have made the dinner a true Russian experience was vodka, which unfortunately was absent. I bought pickles so I could teach the field crew how to take a proper Russian shot, and I'm still hoping to do this in the near future. For those of you who are cringing now, don't judge! Pickles are the best chaser for vodka, no argument. It is hard to deny the stereotype given what I've just put here. Drinking is a large part of Russian culture, especially vodka. It is present at most dinners.

...Over the past couple of weeks, I have been organizing, doing an inventory of, and labeling samples. We have samples in the freezers from 2009 and 2010! There was A LOT to go through. Luckily the only thing I have left to do now is label the remaining red top deer blood. On the list of things I dislike, I would have to add labeling samples. Although I like organizing and to some extent doing inventory, labeling is simply tedious, time consuming, and banal after many hours (such as creating labels for and placing them on every single deer hair sample that we have since 2009, equating to well over 300 samples). I'm starting to think I should get tips since that evening I spent on deer hair happened to be St. Patrick's day, and I worked till 8:30pm, by force...actually no, it was willingly because I have a strong work ethic and like to get the job done. ;)

This is an inkling of what I had to go through. From this picture, you can see a few large bags of saliva and some red top blood on the left.

Here is something else one sees when opening the freezer. Normally we don't store food in this one. While deer trapping, rat traps were set next to some of the clover traps since squirrels would go inside them and cut the fishing line (thus making the trap inoperable). It was unfortunate that we caught so many squirrels in these, but dealing with bycatch is inevitable in wildlife management. Luckily we make use of all these animals. Right now some squirrels are being used as bait for bobcat box traps.

Nothing like homemade oatmeal chocolate chips cookies with butter (because margarine is simply not as good)....There was a lot of talk about what to do for out last weekend together as a full crew. A trip to Marquette was on the list, and unfortunately did not take place. We did, however, end up at the only "dance club" in town, which is 18 and up, on Friday. I can't remember the last time I was surrounded by so many people that were underage and could very well be minors. Aside from that slight feeling of discomfort, it felt great to be on the dance floor again. I love dancing, and I don't think I'll tire of it anytime soon.

Thanks to Dawn's aid, we successfully made several batches of cookies. I've had about six or seven now. My stomach will hurt in the morning, but it was worth it.

The following are random pictures of the field crew with black bears. There are too many good ones, so I'll show some more in a future post:

T-dog (Tyler) and Caitlin with mama black bear and her yearlings.

Mike Olson, a local nature photographer, who came out with us several times for deer trapping and black bears.

Alec holding a yearling with Tim in the background. Tim works for the DNR in Marquette and has helped out greatly with our project, including setting up and checking coyote snares.

Here is me with an adorable cub!

This is Tanya with her dad. She worked for this project last summer and has visited a couple of times this season. It's hard to tell in this picture, but Tanya is not only a very driven and ambitious person when it comes to wildlife, she is also is a great dancer!

One more thing! I keep forgetting to post links on this blog. The first link is to the Predator-Prey project website. I can't believe it's taken me this long to remember to do this. It is full of wonderful information about the research going on. The second link is to an article posted in an online outdoor magazine. The third is another article originally published in a local paper.

http://fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/predatorprey/

http://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2011/03/whats-killing-your-deer

http://www.freep.com/article/20110313/NEWS06/103130479/Wildlife-researcher-studies-predators-prey-UP

Blood centrifusion

Although I much prefer to be in the field than in the laboratory, I throughly enjoy blood centrifusion. This is a process which separates red blood cells from plasma. This is done by spinning the blood inside a centrifuge at very high speed. Depending on the type of blood, the speed and amount of time it has to spin is varied. This process needs to be done as quickly as possible, so after arriving home from the field, this is one of the first things to do at the house.

This is the set-up we have in the basement to centrifuge blood. Permanent markers are at the ready for labeling tubes filled with plasma and the white styrofoam holds the tubes in place. There are two pipets here because there was blood samples from two does. It is important to use a new pipet per individual to avoid contamination, as well as making sure the pipet doesn't come into contact with anything other than the plasma.

I swear my handwriting is normally much nicer than this. When labeling any sample, the doe ID number and the date are written. This is blood before being centrifuged.

As one can guess, the tubes are placed inside the centrifuge. It is imperative not only to place the tubes in the right direction, but also make sure there is an even number. That is why we have a couple of tubes filled with water in case of an odd number of samples.

After centrifusion, the plasma is taken out and put into separate tubes. I've found that the more blood in the tube, the better for separation. When the tube isn't full, the plasma appears more pink instead of yellowish. We hold on to the remaining blood in case it is needed for future testing. The plasma is sent to a laboratory in Lansing, Michigan, where it is tested for a few things, but mainly we look for the presence of pregnancy-specific protein B (PSPB) hormone. This way, we can confirm pregnancy not only through ultrasound, but also through blood samples.

Unfortunately, the picture I took of centrifused blood came out blurry, so I took this one from the internet. After centrifusion, the plasma is clearly separated from red blood cells and always ends up on top.

This is plasma after I've extracted it from a tube using a pipet and put into this smaller tube. Sometimes if one accidentally gets red blood cells into the pipet during extraction, the plasma will have a more pink hue.

Before centrifusion, blood must be kept warm. After separating all the plasma from the red blood cells, both are stored in the freezer. The freezer houses many other samples as well including saliva, fecal, urine, and blood with purple tops (the blood tubes here are referred to as "red tops").

Deer trapping over, let carnivore trapping begin!

Ahh....to those who read this I apologize for not having a new post up sooner. So much has happened since my last one. Instead of trapping till we have 50 does on air, lead scientists on the project Dr. Jerry Balant and another researcher who works for the DNR decided to stop trapping last Sunday, no matter number we were at. Right now we have 31 does on air. Discussing sample size with both Nate and Dawn, for research in general 30 is the minimum number one would want for a field study to have strong statistical data. Of course the bigger the sample size, the better since one would have a more accurate estimate of population size. It was decided, however, that having to do 50 VIT searches in the summer would be nearly impossible. By VIT searches, this means locating over 50 fawns after parturition (since it's common for deer to give birth to twins and even triplets) plus locating the dropped VIT tags that are excreted during the birthing process.

Alec and I are holding a captured doe down just after she was injected with an immobilization drug. I had to put my entire weight on this particular deer because she was very strong and wouldn't go down easily.

I am sad to be done with deer trapping. I had a day off on the last day that we deer trapped as well, so I wasn't able to work up the very last doe caught for this winter season. Right now work is more dull than usual since we have a lot of data-related work to do on the computers. The last five days were spent pulling deer traps, which are extremely heavy (luckily I strong like bull- repeat this to yourself with a Russian accent for added humor), and then fixing them. We have a total of 54 traps. My fingers, aside from getting very sore from the rope I was using to tighten the nets, actually ended up bleeding a bit. I have several cuts all over the place and a back ache on top of it. There is something gratifying about this work though. I don't think life is supposed to be easy. If it is, then that leads me to assume one has been handed everything on a silver platter. In essence, isn't that just an ignorant lifestyle devoid of realistic situations? (By "realistic situations", which I recognize is vague, that could applied to a range of things from being independent and supporting oneself financially to job hunting and applying for universities without having any connections). Being able to work a mentally challenging and labor intensive job full-time makes me feel more capable of taking on the future both in graduate school and my career.

This is a doe that just recovered after being worked up.

Josh and Alec watch as a doe recovers and takes off into the forest. We always keep an eye on the animals we work on to make sure they recover smoothly and appear healthy after handling.

Nate with his dad and his dad's friend after handling a pregnant doe.

Moving on from that rant, I am looking forward to carnivore trapping. We have over 15 snares set out to trap coyotes. Today we trapped our first coyote. I have a day off, so I wasn't there (and had plenty of overdue reading to keep me occupied). He was only 33 pounds! Coyotes are much smaller than I originally thought. In the near future, we might also set up snares for bobcats. Bobcats are even smaller than coyotes. In the UP, the average size is between 25 and 30 pounds. We still have two male bears to work up as well called "Ghost bear" and "Angry bear". Both bears we have already attempted to recapture this season four times. Ghost bear acquired this name from never being seen when using telemetry to locate him. Angry bear initially was in his den upon recapture, but unfortunately was not asleep and came out of his den charging at all the researchers and technicians who were there. Since then, Angry bear has been out of his den and on the move!

Side note: Four out of the total seven in this house are left-handed and five have colored eyes, myself included in both ("colored" meaning non-brown because brown doesn't count). We are slowly taking over.

Side note: All these photos are from Nate's camera and most of them were taken by him. Thanks, Nate!

Parents weekend, black bear cubs, and the flu

There never seems to be a dull moment at the Predator-Prey Project house! This past weekend there were some parents in town who joined the crew as we worked up two female black bears and their cubs. Unfortunately, I was not able to come out for the second female black bear since the flu began to take over that day.

Caitlin is measuring canines. All four canines must be measured for black bears, plus the spacing between the upper and lower teeth.

Dawn's mom and grandma came out, complete with homemade goodies. Do I want a cookie? Yes, yes I do. Dawn's grandma is the epitome of what I want to be at old age, a rugged woman with all her original teeth walking through the forest to explore a black bear den. It doesn't get more bad ass than that at old age I suspect. T-dog's parents came out as well, along with Tim's (a wildlife technician for the DNR out of Marquette), and Nate's dad. T-dog's parents also came with homemade sweets. Life is wonderful. However, my will power has disintegrated immensely since I moved into this house. The thought of eliminating processed sugar from my diet is now laughable. I have accepted the fact that if a donut is put on the table, I will eat it, and no, eating it quickly does not lessen the shame I feel afterwards.

Nate getting ready to do bioimpedence on a male black bear.

The first black bear we worked up was a bit challenging in the beginning. After Nate successfully dosed her in one shot (it can be difficult since sometimes the needle breaks or the bear moves and you have to try and dose a second time to get in the full injection in), the bear took off running from her den. After tracing her footsteps eventually the bear collapsed from the dosage and was moved to the road behind the trucks. At one point I took her rectal temperature. I will never again forget to put on gloves since I ended up with fecal matter on my fingers. Holding a black bear cub was a wonderful experience. There were two of them, each only around three weeks old weighing approximately three pounds. At this point the cubs should have their eyes open, but one of them still had his closed. Note: pictures will come soon. I was lucky enough to hold one cub inside my jacket as we made it back to the den after everything was done.

I'm putting in ear tags on that same male black bear.

Earlier last week I went out with Josh to check hair snare sites. We caught a possum eating bait at one of them. He/she had a distinct black mark on the end of the tail, which Josh attributed to frostbite. Possums don't have hair on their tales, so frostbite is common. This perplexed me in the evolutionary sense since it would seem plausible that part of adaptation to such a cold environment would be growing hair on the tail. We also discussed green energy and the negative aspects of solar and wind power. What is the cost/benefit of both? How much money goes into implementing this on a global scale? Are solar panels and wind turbines efficient enough to combat global warming?

Josh is putting a radio collar on. This bear had one on before, but after a year or two we usually replace them (this goes for does as well).

Since I have what appears to be the flu, I have been out for three days, although I did do some data entry before my fever rose to a "I feel like crap" stage. This led me to stay in on the evening that part of the crew drove to Marquette to see the sled dog race begin. I was very upset about missing this since I've never witnessed a sled dog race before, but the crew got into town too late and missed it as well. I hope we get another chance to go to Marquette soon. Now I'm wishing to feel well enough to go out into the field tomorrow. We moved some deer traps, which means I'll see a new part of the UP!

I'm not sure what Nate is doing in this picture, but clearly he is holding a paw.

Side note: All the pictures in this post are from Mike Olson. They were taken last month (I think) when we worked up a young male black bear. Since I seem to be behind with pictures, I decided these would appropriate because they're related to the female black bears we worked up this past weekend.

Hands full with black bear yearlings

What a week this has been, and it's not over yet! Each week we have a quota of trapping five pregnant does. Thus far we have already trapped seven! This is partly due to having 54 traps open for a few days while Jered, another Phd student on the project, was in town. Jered is in Mississippi State taking classes currently. Him and Nate are the only two people certified to give the immobilization and reversal drugs to animals. After Jered left, we closed some of the traps and at present have 38 open.

With Jered we also tried to locate and work up two male black bears after deer trapping, but unfortunately were unsuccessful since the males were not in their dens. Nate and Jered tried to dart one male with a special gun that is loaded with tranquilizer, but weren't able to get a good shot before the bear spotted both of them and took off running. (Originally the bears were located using radio telemetry). Black bears can run in spurts up to 30 miles an hour! Nate, Alec, and I went to the DNR last week to shoot the tranquilizer gun to see how accurate it was. I had a lot of fun shooting. I even hit the very top of the bull's eye on my third try!

Both Thursday and Friday were successful for black bear handling. We had a bunch of people from the DNR (from different regions of Michigan) come up to aide us with black bears as well as see the research we are doing up close. I was a bit nervous being surrounded by so many scientists, but everyone was friendly and down to earth. We went in on female black bears, both of which had yearlings, so they were still in their dens. Black bear cubs will stay with their mother up to two years. Yearlings, as one might guess, indicates the offspring are around one year of age. These females were caught last year with cubs, so we knew what to expect. Yearlings can range from 40 to 90 pounds. We handled a total of five, which varied in size from 45-55 pounds. Since all these bears were female, that could explain for the smaller size. Black bears are sexually dimorphic in size. Females weigh around 200 and can reach 300 pounds, while males can go up to 600 (or even 800 according to Nate in populations outside Michigan). T-dog explained since harvest is big in this state, many males don't get the change to reach full growth.

This is the field crew and myself posing with black bears we just worked up. This photo is courtesy of Jessie, a former technician for the DNR that has assisted with the Predator-Prey project.

Mike Olson came out with us again on Friday. I am as always very excited about getting more pictures from him. As far as protocol goes for black bears, it is very similar to that of deer. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in an earlier post, but to determine body condition, there is a machine used called bioimpedence. (For deer, we do an ultrasound to look at fat layers above their rump). Bioimpedence sends an electrical current through the bear's body, and body condition is determined based on the level of resistance. With yearlings, we don't do this. Instead body condition is determined solely by feeling the hips, ribs, and shoulders. In simplistic terms, the more fat, the better! I wish it was like that for humans.

Side note: I started this post last week, so the good luck I began typing about in this blog has not carried over to the past few days. We got "skunked" two days in a row! "Skunked" is the term used when we don't trap a single deer. This is the first time this whole season, however, that has occurred.

Side note: Last week Nate bought pizza. He was kind enough to get one veggie despite me being the only person in the house who is vegetarian. Nate believes pizza without meat on it shouldn't even exist. As he savagely tore into a slice of veggie pizza the following day, I reminded him of this. His response was: "I'm not happy about it".

Nate (picture courtesy of Mike Olson)

Red top time! (and much much more...)

I just got a bunch of pictures from Nate, so I will be going a bit backwards in time before getting to more recent events. I mentioned in an earlier post working up a black bear. Here are some pictures:

Mike Olson, the professional photographer who came out with us a couple of times, is taking pictures of a black bear den.

Caitlin taking measurements. Masks are used to cover the animals' eyes, which reduces stress.

Nate is adjusting a radio collar to put on the bear. I'm not sure why he looks angry, perhaps his face was cold.

Now on to deer! I've finally reached a point where I'm very comfortable and confident when working up a doe. I am able to draw up drugs (including antibiotic, immobilization drug, and reversal drug) easily. Like anything, it feels a bit overwhelming in the beginning trying to remember all the proper steps of a particular task, but once done several times, the procedure becomes ingrained in one's mind.

I have successfully drawn blood several times now! On my second attempt, I was able to get blood after the first needle injection into the deer's vein (along her front leg). There are two types of tubes that blood is collected into (three with red tops and two with purple tops). The second blood starts flowing into the tube, one must exclaim "red top time" to whoever is recording data. It was amazing watching blood flow into the tube and at the same time doing my best to stay focused and not move at all. As Caitlin explained to me when I first tried this, it is vital to have a steady hand with the ability to hold the needle in place while simultaneously pushing the tube onto the other side of the needle after it is injected into the vein. On my third attempt at taking blood, I was able to fill up all five tubes in one go!

Alec is inside a clover trap that we use to get deer. There is corn (bait) with fishing line arranged as a large cross. When a deer walks into the trap, his/her body presses against the fishing line setting off a trigger, which makes the "door" come down.

When a pregnant doe is caught, researchers hurry to prepare all the tools needed to carry out procedures. Initially, various tubes, such as those for blood and urine, must be taken out and labeled. Tools for tooth and urine extraction must also be out and ready. There are two ways a single doe is monitored via radio telemetry: one is with a radio collar, and the other is with a VIT tag. Both of the frequencies must be checked before being placed on, or in the case a VIT tag, inside the deer. This avoids putting a dysfunctional collar on a doe. If a collar or VIT tag doesn't have a signal, then we wouldn't be able to track the deer after handling them.

While the doe is still inside the trap, we wait for her to become induced and make preparations. I'm labeling some tubes in this picture. Alec is behind me recording data. The sleeping bag is used to keep the deer warm while we work on her.

I'm preparing a radio collar. Each collar has to be measured and adjusted for individual deer.

I'm putting in ear tags. They are given to every new deer we trap, this includes males and fawns. Ear tags allow us to identify deer we have re-captured in traps.

I'm removing a tooth using a tool called a dental extractor. One tooth (incisor I3) is taken from each pregnant doe we trap in order to determine age.

Josh is showing me how to properly read the caliper used to take teat measurements. Deer have four teats total. The width and length for one front teat and one back teat is recorded.

After all the measurements are taken and we've collected samples (this includes blood, urine, fecal, tooth, hair, and saliva), we record weight and inject the doe with a reversal drug (yohimbine). This drug reverses the sedative (xzyolzene), but there is no reversal drug for ketamine, which is responsible for inducing the deer. Deer are usually still a little "drunk" when waking up from the procedure. While we wait for a doe to get up, the clover traps are re-set and all the gear and tools used are carefully carried back to the truck. We don't take everything with us to each trap because that would be too time consuming. Since it takes a deer anywhere from five to thirty minutes (or possibly even longer) to "go to sleep", there is usually ample time to gather all materials and set everything up.

Alec with a doe we just finished working on. She is ready to take off!

Marquette: bars, search for a lip ring, and terrible pop music

The highlight of this weekend was taking a trip to Marquette, which is just over an hour away from Escanaba. Marquette is college town, home to Northern Michigan University. I wish I had pictures of the town. I'll try to take some when we go there next. This place is smaller than Flagstaff, where I went to college, but has that same feel of small city with its own unique identity. Dawn and I were thrilled about the food co-op, where I spent too much money at. I was able to find organic milk from the Midwest that is non-homogenized. Yay!!! I hugged the glass bottle. That might have been a bit over-the-top, but I type without shame! I love my organic, non-homogenized milk! I also got a little self-indulgent and bought some dark chocolate that is mixed with dried orange peels. I feel this was a very wise decision.

Anyways, as excited as one must feel while reading about my grocery shopping list, I should probably move on. Our first stop was a dive bar while waiting for Thai food that we ordered from a small local restaurant across the street. This bar was really interesting. There were wood chips all over the floor, which I had never seen before, but apparently a few places have this. There were various signs all over the place with an intimidating picture of Clint Eastwood (from "The Outlaw Josey Wales") that indicated the men's bathroom. The women's bathroom had a beautiful picture of Marilyn Monroe on the door.

Hard to tell, but I thought it was really neat that The Wooden Nickel served all their draft beers in glass jars. We played two games of pool; the second game Nate and I got our asses kicked by a local woman (and her partner) who had her own pool stick made of titanium.

That was followed by a local brewery and restaurant, which has blueberry wheat beer. Yum! The beer is served with actual blueberries in the glass. At one point I separated from the rest of the crew in search of a lip ring because mine came out while eating mediocre pad thai. I walked to two tattoo parlors, both to my surprise were closed. I guess that place is not like Chicago, where within a few blocks you can find a parlor that is open till 4am. On my adventure, I came across a house that was turned into a bar and a man outside playing the didgeridoo! I was pleasantly surprised to see someone playing this instrument. Up until then, I had only witnessed this music in Australia. This guy also happens to be a biologist and does work with plants and two endemic bird species (specific names of the species I unfortunately can't recall) within the Northern Michigan area. After meeting back up with the crew, we ended up at a dance club that played mostly over-played terrible hit pop songs. I was really craving to dance, so luckily the music had enough of a beat that I was able to do so. I can't wait to go back there!

Earlier this week we had an intense day of deer trapping since we caught six total deer, two them being pregnant does. I finally had my first try at taking blood under the great instruction of Caitlin. She has had years of experience having worked as veterinary technician in the past. Unfortunately, my attempts were unsuccessful, but I can't wait to try again! Dawn has gotten quite good at taking blood and is able to do it by herself now. We didn't get home that day till after sundown. There was still more work to be done, however. Josh was working on his hair snares with Alec, so I helped them. The wire gets cut in several places, and I was instructed to use a dremel to make bits of wire "stand up" along the cuts. This got a little painful as I worked my way down the wire. I was so slow at it that I only ended up doing one, which worked out in my favor since Josh told me after awhile you lose your sense of depth perception.

Josh in the middle of boiling hair snares. This is done to eliminate any shine, thus making them less visible to bobcats.