MammalMonitoring

=Mammal Monitoring in the Preserve=

__**9/9 - 9/13/2010 - Trail Camera**__ We set out the trail camera on the preserve at the eastern edge of section 2A for a few days and ended up finally catching a glimpse of the coyote on camera.

A couple of students wanted to see the small mammal trapping, so we set out a transect of 10 peanut-butter-baited Sherman live traps separated by 10m along the southern-most hillside of the prairie. We didn't catch anything either day that we checked traps.
 * __4/19/2010 - 4/21/2010 (2 nights)__**

However, we did see a coyote both days that we checked the traps. It ran along the purple line on the map below. We set out a trail cam the next week to try and get a picture, but he didn't make an appearance.

We set out a trail camera just outside of the preserve near a den under a log in hopes that we might see a fox for the first time in several years, but as you can see below it was just a woodchuck.

__October 2009__ While collecting prairie seeds we spotted a coyote - see the map below for the path we saw him take.

We set out 120 small peanut-butter-baited Sherman live traps and 10 large wet-cat-food-baited Sherman live traps in the Ames High Prairie on Tuesday 9/28/2009. We checked them once each day but only did detailed measurements on the first day of checking the traps - the capture rate was higher than expected and so in the interest of time we just recorded the species after the first day of checking the traps. The weather was rainy starting on 10/1 and the night-time lows were in the 40's, so we did have some casualties. We caught the following species:
 * __9/28/2009 - 10/2/2009 (3 nights)__**
 * 1) Peromyscus (both were caught, but did not distinguish between white-footed and deer mice in our numbers) (N=139)
 * 2) Meadow vole (N=12)
 * 3) Western harvest mouse (N=1)
 * 4) Short-tailed Shrew (N=1)
 * 5) Chipmunk (N=3)

Here is a map of our three transects (A, B, and C) with the corresponding trap numbers for starts, turns, habitat transitions, and stops.

Day 1: Peromyscus = 47 Meadow Vole = 5 Western Harvest Mouse = 1 Chipmunk = 2

Day 2: Peromyscus = 59 (13 were recaptures) Meadow Vole = 2 Chipmunk = 1

Day 3: Peromyscus = 63 (17 were recaptures) Meadow Vole = 5 Short-tailed Shrew = 1

Detailed 9/29/2009 data: We didn't put the trap numbers in order (big mistake), so here are some files to help you find out where we caught each species on the first day of checking traps.

A research permit was obtained from The Nature Conservancy and special permission was obtained from the State Preserves Board in order to conduct live trapping of small mammals on the prairie.
 * __5/25/2009 - 5/28/2009 (3 nights)__**

Here is one of our Sherman Traps that we used to catch the small mammals without hurting them, along with Dr. Mike Peterson showing us how to handle the mammals the "old-fashioned" way; I make sure that if the students are handling the mammals they use gloves.

Here are several peromyscus we caught, the first two are males, followed by a female.

Here is a meadow vole we caught on the prairie; voles have different teeth, shorter tails, and their fur is more scruffy than a mouses.

While on a hike to monitor streams in and near the preserve, we came across a fawn in the prairie. It was calling out and a doe appeared out of the woods near the edge of the prairie, but she was scared away by the sight of 30 people near the fawn. The fawn was gone by the next day.
 * __5/21/2009__**




 * __Study from 2005__**

Here is a study that was done in 2005 by Stevan Wilson on the Ames High Prairie: