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!