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.

"Smells like fetuses"

Having set ten new traps on private land, Nate was at first very optimistic about capturing more deer. This morning we entered the site with energy and optimism. "Smells like fetuses" were Nate's lovely words of encouragement. Unfortunately, we didn't come close to smelling any fetuses, or to put more accurately, weren't able to see any during an ultrasound. Hopefully we will have more luck later this week with this new site.

Yesterday we caught one pregnant doe, and Nate showed me how to put in a VIT (vaginal implant transmitter) tag. It is much more difficult than it looks. First I had to make sure there was plenty of lubrication on the tube, which the VIT tag is placed inside of. Then I had to use my finger to feel inside the doe's vagina, which I admit was very strange and a bit uncomfortable, to have a sense of what direction the tube needs to go. I was instructed to slowly push it in until I hit the cervix. It is easy to know when the cervix is reached because the tube can't go in any further. VIT tags are used to help locate fawns right after birth. The tags are excreted during parturition, and researchers are notified of this since the tag gives off a different signal (i.e. change in frequency) which is triggered by temperature change.

A couple of side notes: in the field we've also seen bald eagles! This is always exciting for me. We've witnessed both adult and mature birds. Second, all our study sites are in mixed, new growth forests. It really saddens me to have learned that most of Michigan has been logged. According to Nate, there is some small bit of old growth up North near Marquette, but otherwise logging from last century and possibly in the 1800's has gotten rid of all the old growth forests.

I am surprised at what a fun and silly field crew I'm a surrounded by. I never would have thought that a tall, plaid-wearing man raised on a farm in a small town (T-dog) would be singing and dancing to "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. For the record, I just had to look up the proper spelling of this girl's name as well as the title of the song. This is clearly not my scene, but I do find it amusing that hard core research scientists "get down" to such pop music.

Black bears outside of hibernation

Before I begin blogging about the past few days, I want to correct an error from an earlier post. I mentioned the removal of a rocket net that was left outside near one of our deer traps. This was not a rocket net, but a cannon net. Also, rocket nets are shot out of helicopters, not airplanes. From a discussion last night on my mistake, the field crew and I have concluded that it would be fun to shoot rocket nets from hot air balloons. Getting back to cannon nets, these are on the ground and a trigger shoots them up into the air and then over the unsuspecting deer. Cameras are placed so that the moment a net goes off, the field crew rushes over to attend to the deer. Caitlin explained that these nets are only used if we aren't catching enough deer from the clover traps.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent deer trapping. On Friday we also went to locate a black bear that was trapped last spring and had a radio collar. At first, we attempted to locate this bear using VHF (very high frequency) telemetry. The way-point we used was given from an airplane, during aerial telemetry, and can be off by up to 200 meters. After some time, Tyler, who would like to be referred to as "T-dog", gave us the UTM points to get a better location. Nate was surprised to find this bear awake, which meant a little more effort on his part to inject him with a "sleeping" drug. After the bear was induced, it was a bit of a struggle to get him out of his den. It is amazing some of the hiding spots these bears find for hibernation. It is easy to walk past a den and not know it. Some of them have a very small opening. I learned how to put an ear tag in, which is quite different and more difficult than those for deer. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get the other ear done. This bear was an adult, but below average in size and weighed 220 pounds. Some adult black bears can weigh up to 500 pounds! From the telemetry being done, we've found that more bears are up and about during this winter. Dr. Jerry Balant hypothesized that this could be due to several factors including a warmer winter (as mentioned in my earlier blog), and a fall season with plentiful resources. This means the bears might have been able to eat to the point of satiation, and thus gather more calories than necessary for the winter season.

On Saturday, biologist Mary Martin (who was here last week) from Northern Michigan University came with nine of her students to witness our work in the field. Students watched us work on a pregnant doe. Unfortunately we weren't able to handle another male black bear because he removed his radio collar. We searched in the forest for awhile before finding his ripped collar. I'm glad the students at least got to witness us handle deer and see the procedures done when capturing a pregnant doe.

Today was another day of deer trapping followed by setting up new traps. Setting up traps is not fun at all. It is very hard work trying to get bullets into the ground to hold the traps down. I wasn't good at it. Alec hammered a driver so hard into the ground that it got stuck in the bullet. We eventually had to use the truck to try and pull it out. The steel driver, which is supposed to be designed to avoid getting stuck, ended up u-shaped.

Nate is holding the driver that at one point was straight. I guess Alec got a little over-ambitious as he was hammering the bullet into the ground.

Despite having some rather undesirable tasks, I am still grateful for the amount of time I get to spend in the beautiful forest. It is wonderful driving down narrow dirt roads with endless pines dangling at the sides and laced with soft snow. Sometimes the snow is so light and fluffy that without eyes, you wouldn't know it was falling. I also have witnessed a lot of wildlife from red squirrels, eastern gray squirrels, grouse, short-tailed shrew, and many black-capped chickadees. Josh and I had the pleasure of these wonderful birds flying all around us during our day of setting hair snares. You can go to this web address to hear their bird call:

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/black-capped_chickadee/id

Black-capped chickadee, which the crew now calls "wacked cat chickadee" in honor of my impaired hearing.

This is a picture of one of the hair snare sites Josh and I set last week. As you can see, that is one amazing fort.

A lovely town called Escanaba

This is my first day off in a week. I can't remember the last time I worked seven days straight. That in itself is a challenge. Instead of going out last night and finally exploring the bar scene, I passed out around 9:30pm while cuddling with Timothy. It's not the worst way to end an evening.

So, where am I? I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, more specifically, the southern part of this northern territory. Escanaba is a small town with a population of approximately 13,000. With little finances, I have succumbed to the pull of SuperWalmart. There is no Safeway, Target, or an organics food store. The organic food here, which is in small numbers, is quite expensive. Even Walmart has ridiculous prices, such as $1.88 for one zucchini! Of course you can probably guess that there is no mall here, which is no problem for me. However, there is one street that is considered the "downtown" area. I was suprised to find a Swedish and a Greek restaurant in town. I hope that one day I'll be able to check both of them out.

The lovely sign everyone gets to see when entering downtown Escanaba. Down this street you will find a few bars, a tobacco shop, some restaurants, and other needs such as dog grooming and hair salons.

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan, often referred to as the "U.P." is obviously very close to Canada. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that people from here and northern Wisconsin have a dialect very similar to that of some Canadians. They say "aye" a lot at the end of their sentences. Escanaba is near Lake Michigan, while Marquette, the biggest city in the UP region and only an hour away, borders Lake Superior. I look forward to visiting this college town, which is home to Northern Michigan University.

This is simply a map that outlines the entire state of Michigan. The Upper Peninsula is separate from the mitten-shaped part of the state. The drive from Escanaba to Chicago was merely 5.5 hours. Escanaba is located near Iron Mountain, directly south of Marquette.

The study site for this project is very large. We often drive through smaller towns on our way to the forest including a place called "Powers". I find that an amusing name for a town. One of the things I love about the woods out here is that it's very diverse. Some of the deer traps are located in relatively open areas, but most of the forests are very dense. Trees encountered range from spruce to cedar to white and red pines to aspens. Walking or running off trail to get to trap sites can be challenging since the ground is covered with fallen trunks and/or branches. The canopy layers are relatively closed, but there is still plenty of sunlight that manages to poke through. Since we're so far up North, however, there are less sunny days and they're very short during the winter season.

Black spruce, a beautiful tree that hurts a lot when being used

to make a fort for hair snares.

Aspen trees, quite gorgeous, but barren over the winter.

In Michigan you will find both big-toothed and trembling Aspens.

Needle leaves of white pine tree.

Could you grab me a meat necklace please? (Part II)

I am a day behind on my blogging! I fear that a physically demanding job along with my body's need for a minimum of nine hours of sleep, which I'm not getting, is leaving me extremely tired and achy this past week. On Wednesday, I went out with Josh to help set hair snare traps. I admit this isn't as fun as deer trapping, but I really enjoy being apart of such a large scale research project where I get to directly partake in a diversity of procedures. Hair snares are a non-invasive technique of acquiring population estimates of carnivores. The hair snares we worked with are specifically designed for bobcats. A long metal wire has a bunch of tiny spikes on it which "catch" a bobcat's fur as he/she walks through it. Since bobcat fur is so thick, they can't feel it. Analysis of the hair is done through genetics, in which DNA taken from the samples are studied. This allows researchers to pick out individuals from a given population.

My main job was gathering branches to set around the snares. Basically the trap is made into a circle and there is deer bait (meat necklaces) inside the trap area. By creating a "fort" from various branches, bobcats are forced to pass or go through the hair snares to access the meat. We also had to hang a piece of deer skin from a branch over the meat that is referred to as a "fur bracelet". The final touch is a foul smelling gel-like substance called "skunk junk", which lures the bobcats to the hair snare site. Josh said they can smell this from about a half mile away! The day was long and hard. We worked till sundown, nearly ten hours. Unfortunately we didn't hit all twelve sites and had to finish the following day.

Several things I learned while being out in the woods:

1. Being smacked in the face by a branch(s) hurts a lot.

2. Always keep a minimum of five feet between you and the person in front of you when walking on or off trail.

3. If you work through the pain, hands warm up eventually.

4. Being smacked in the face by a branch(s) after the tenth time still hurts.

It was nice to come home to a care package. Thanks, mama! It was filled with organic black beans, tumeric almonds, a big box of toe warmers, and a digital camera. That was followed by a lovely dinner with the some of the field crew. We discussed how Sesame Street isn't the same anymore. Apparently Bert and Ernie are gone because they were gay, Oscar the Grouch now lives in a recycling bin, and the Cookie Monster is newly named the Veggie Monster. What is this world coming to?!

Could you grab me a meat necklace please? (Part I)

Last night I spent a good half hour typing up a blog, which then was accidentally erased. I decided to do this blog in two parts to discuss various events that have taken place over the past few days. Deer trapping on Monday and Tuesday was more intensive than usual since we had 30 traps to check instead of 22. It snowed as well, making it more difficult for me to walk rapidly or run to and from traps. Sometimes I love being short, other times I wish I had long legs of a model, but real muscle-y like a cyclist or gymnast. I guess I could make the second wish come true, but not soon.

Anyways, both days we caught pregnant does. I am finally becoming very familiar with the trap sites and the roads. I have a good idea of the tasks at hand for the data recorder as well as the procedures done a doe. I recorded data on Tuesday, but also helped take heart rate, prepare antibiotic for injection, and administer the reversal drug. I can see now that I really enjoy medical procedures and working with needles (is that creepy?). There is something so exhilarating about hearing the heart beat of another animal.

Local nature photographer, Mike Olson, came out with us on Monday and took wonderful photos. I can't wait to receive them! A biologist from Northern Michigan University came out the following day. One of the things I love most about the Predator Prey Project is how big we are on public awareness. One of the top goals this season is to promote it. We take certain people with us on deer and carnivore trappings to inform the public about what we're doing and why we're doing it. Tomorrow we are going to have nine undergraduate students join us in deer trapping and den checks.

Earlier this week I was also sent to the DNR with a couple other technicians to help make "meat necklaces" after deer trapping. These "necklaces" are really pliable metal wires that have pieces of deer meat and bone, which get tied around trees and used as bait for hair snare surveys. (I will explain surveys in the next blog). Unfortunately, the meat was frozen solid in boxes. It was a real struggle to break apart the pieces. I'm not sure who felt it was a good idea to hand me an ax, but there I was hacking away at a box of deer meat and managed to not cut off any limbs. It is a truly effective method of letting out aggression. Caitlin had a great idea to pick up the meat and slam it against the cement ground. It was too heavy for me to lift above my head, but I was still able to break some pieces. Dawn used a tool, the name of which I can't recall, to drill holes into the frozen bits and then string them through the metal wire. I still find it humorous to picture myself, a vegetarian, hacking away at broken bits of frozen deer carcasses. I find that I'm not grossed out by much, but quite fascinated with what the inside of their bodies, and those of other animals, look like.

You need heart rate?...I'm on it!

Today was another of day of deer trapping. After checking ten traps with no success, we found one clover trap with both a doe and buck inside. It is very rare to have more than one deer caught in a clover trap. The doe was pregnant, so we quickly began the procedures. I put in ear tags for the first time today. I had to feel the two main veins in her ear and then punch the ear tag in-between them. I also took her heart rate. I have only gone through these procedures once before, and my first time checking heart rate was unsuccessful. This time I was able to find her heart beat rather quickly. It is so fascinating to be a part things that I would up until this point only see at a veterinary or doctors clinic. Performing some of the duties myself feels unbelievably stimulating and surreal.

On top of everything that was going on, I also helped record most of the data. It is very difficult to record data while working with a sedated animal because timing is everything. Her temperature, heart rate, and respiration rate must be recorded every ten minutes for the first half hour. The time recorded must be down to seconds. This is excluding all the times that needed to be recorded for everything else like time of induction (for sedation drug) and time at which first blood was drawn. When we were done, we had to give the doe a reversal drug, which Nate instructed me to do. Luckily I don't have a fear of needles. Once I properly prepared the needle, it was pretty easy to give her the injection. There are quite a few steps in preparation though, including pushing all the air out and making sure you have the correct amount of the drug.

Alec, another wildlife technician, learned how to take blood. Getting the needle to hit the proper vein looked extremely challenging. I am very excited for my chance to learn how to do it. I was also in charge of recording data for each trap (i.e. time at which trap was set, whether or not there were any captures, what was done to the trap if anything, such as re-baiting). Unfortunately the map that shows the location of the traps and route taken was hard to read, so I messed up the trap numbers. Nate said he is going to create a better map, so I hope I won't make that same mistake again.

After we finished checking deer traps, we pre-baited areas for future traps. This means we drive around looking for deer tracks, then find an area that would be a potential spot for trap placement and put bait there. Right now the bait we're using is corn. This will attract the deer and hopefully keep them coming once the traps are set. Overall the day was long and my toes and hands were frozen a good portion of the time. I can't wait for my toe warmers to come! I also wish there was some way I could stimulate the blood circulation in my limbs more efficiently.

I'm sorry there are no pictures. Fortunately I have a camera being mailed to me soon along with the toe warmers. I can't wait to start taking pictures, which I'm sure would make this blog more interesting.

I saw deer today...from two thousand feet in the air!

So today was my first day experiencing aerial telemetry! What an adventure! Unfortunately I was sick on and off for the three of four hours in the plane, but I didn't throw up, which according to research assistant Josh, happens to people 90% of the time. I actually felt very excited and unnerved going to the plane and taking off. The pilot, Gordy, was very kind. He answered all my questions, which were quite a few considering I am most inquisitive and like to know how things work.

This is Gordy and myself in the plane probably an hour or so into the telemetry. Even though I'm smiling, I was feeling pretty sick at this point. Josh was kind of enough to take pictures.

Gordy was very good at detecting frequencies. I learned that there are special points (called way-points) that are recorded from the previous telemetry survey and individual deer and carnivores (that had been caught and are radio-collared) are found by flying near that same point. Radio collars on each individual operate at a specific frequency. After locating many deer, carnivores were next. Some bears are still moving and not hibernating! Apparently the temperature here is warm for this time in the season, so they aren't always in dens. When locating a deer on ground, the plane, which has antennae on each wing, flies in a circle at a 60 degree angle, thus making the antennae closer to the targeted animal. After many circles, we finally reached ground again. It took me some time to regain an appetite.

Once again, Josh offered to take some pictures. Here is the plane and me, surprisingly enthusiastic after nearly throwing up.

I was completely unaware that Josh was still taking pictures...

Still unaware....oh sillyness!

After a short break at the house, Josh and I went to the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) with Nate, one of the PhD students leading the project, to help repair clover traps. Nate showed me how to set-up the trap to get a trigger "pushed" for the door to come down on animals that enter it. Although I was very tired and cold, it was great to learn how these traps worked. I also used a wrench to tighten loose bolts. Of course whenever someone hands me a tool, I seem to hurt myself. I love working with tools, but I feel with my clumsy manor, I'm very prone to injury. I ended up smacking myself in the face with the wrench since I put too much force into tightening the bolt and lost control of it. As luck would have it, the wrench went straight into my new lip piercing. It hurt for a bit and I lost the ball that keeps the piercing from coming out.

It's hard to tell, but my lip is pretty swollen right now. It doesn't hurt though, and I still have my piercing! :)