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?!