Cleaning Skulls and Setting Cameras

This past weekend I went back to my hometown because we had a 4 day weekend for "fall break". As a disgruntled professor of mine said last week, "Isn't Columbus Day a made up holiday? Wasn't he like the 8th guy to "discover" America?"...well, whatever. I'll take 2 days off from class!

So while I was back, I picked up a few things from my alma mater, FLCC. Among the things, was a container with skulls in it. Animal skulls. Like, meaty, gory, brainy, yucky skulls. I know, I know...but let me explain.

Mady (my roommate) and I collect skulls. We like them because we can learn from the skulls. It's a sign that's left behind, after the animal has died. I know it may seem morbid to collect, but they're already dead. We don't kill animals for their skulls. We started last year tramping through the woods after the snow melted looking for antler sheds and skulls....we've morphed a bit, and now we do collect roadkill with the intention of keeping the skull.

See: Porcupine Paws for more information about collected roadkill :)

We've had a long-tailed weasel skull and porcupine skull sitting out in the woods, underneath rocks, rotting. Carrion beetles come and naturally clean the bones, making it very easy for us to clean up and make sanitary.

The container I had of skulls, was given to me by a taxidermist. I had expressed a want of skulls, and he hooked me up with a flying squirrel skull, coyote skull, and red fox skull.

Today Mady decided to clean skulls, which is awesome because I'm too squeamish to do it myself. I like them, and I'll collect them, but I don't like the cleaning part, unless it's passive like setting them out in the woods for 3 months.


These pictures are gross, just a warning (Well, not of Mady...the pics after that!).

Mady cleaning skulls.

After they've been outside for a long time, and most of the "meat" is rotted off, Mady boils the skull in water and hydrogen peroxide.

 

Suggestions: Do this OUTSIDE in a pot that you will never use for the preparation of food items ever again. This is our "skull pot". I got it at Wal-Mart for a few dollars, and serves it's purpose well.

A "pre-rotted" red fox skull.

Mady boiled this for a few minutes to loosen stuff up, then we put it out in the woods, where it will sit for a month or two.

This is a completely cleaned weasel skull.

 It came out really nice! I love that elongated brain case. They have a large brain in relation to their body size. They are cunning little creatures.

Porcupine skull and incisors.

Those gray blocks are just packaging material stuck to the cardboard. My computer was broken, got fixed, and was sent back with this cardboard and Mady just used this piece as a surface to work on.

 

Upper jaw of the porcupine.

Upper jaw again: Mady and I thought these teeth looked old.

The teeth are very worn, flat looking- and the dentine is evident (dark brown). Porcupines average between 5-7 years of life in the wild (according to Nat Geo). 5 years is a long time to be chewing on wood, bark, and other woody plant material, so no wonder these teeth look the way they do.

Porcupine incisors.

The darker end was the end implanted in the jaw of the animal, and the orange is the extra hardened enamel which aids in protection of the tooth. These incisors are the same teeth that beavers have, mice, tree squirrels, muskrats and woodchucks (although woodcucks don't have orange enamel for some reason). But they all share the characteristic of constantly-growing, self-sharpening, large front teeth. This makes them rodents in the Rodentia family!

Weasel skull in hand, for some scale.

Flying squirrel skull, pre-cleaning, in hand.

Gross, I know. Flying squirrels are adorable, ADORABLE, and this is not. But, look at the eye socket of this thing. HUGE eyes!!! Compared to the weasel above! Why is that? Because they're nocturnal! Weasels I suppose do move around at night as well, but not as exclusively as the flyers. Which, right now I have 3 on the bird feeder in the backyard. It's cool to peep out there at night with a flashlight and see them munching on bird seed.

 

Flying squirrels are, by the way, the most common squirrels in NY. They're nocturnal, that's why we hardly ever see them. If you have a bird feeder, I urge to check it out at night! Eventually I'm going to rig up a camera trap on the feeder to get pics of them!

 

Then our friend and FLCC/Cobleskill classmate Adam came over to store his scent lures at my house. He lives on campus, and didn't want to leave them in his room or in his car because they're so noxious. He hung his Bushnell Trophy Cam on the tree my Cuddeback used to hang on, when I got the bobcat picture. And then he went to work setting stinky scent lures out for predators.

 

 

And on our way back down the hill, Mady set out the coyote skull and red fox skull to be cleaned up a bit by Mother Nature.

And the last pic of the day, the coyote and red fox skull side by side for some size comparison, along with the toe of my boot.

 

 

I have nothing exciting to show from my weekend away, when I checked my cameras upon my return. Crows and a raccoon. Boring! But hopefully I can do a follow up entry soon with some pictures that either Adam or I have gotten!

 

What Shat That Scat?

Yesterday our Wildlife Society Club visited one (we have two!) of our field stations, the East Hill Campus in Naples, NY. The point of the trip was to allow students to learn how to use camera traps, specifically the Cuddeback Captures, both IR and incandescent. We dragged along our local camera-trap expert, Dr. JVN.

We had a gorgeous day, there was a slight threat of rain, but it held off! I love this place, I really do. It came into official possession of the college's in the summer of 2010, right as I was coming into the fold at FLCC. The man who donated the land, facilities and assets is with us still, and I've been able to forge a nice relationship with him. He is truly and "old school" conservationist who has lived through the hard times of war, economics, politics, and ecological "stuff". I guess I can say that I am living those hardships as well, but he's of the era that we're learning about now in the classroom.

This property is the perfect representation of land that can be managed and used for multi-purposes...blissfully. He's owned the land for 25 years and shortly after buying it, he constructed hiking and cross country skiing trails, a campground with an A-frame, lean-to, fire pits, and newly added: an outdoor classroom as of last summer! There is a pine plantation, grassy fields, ponds, and all of it is ours :) Oh, did I mention that it's OPEN to the public? Year round? For FREE? His trails can connect you with the Finger Lakes Trail system, and eventually to the Appalachian Trail. So, Mr. Fraley- thank you for the outdoor classroom, generosity, and the laughs (at my expense)!


Now, back to our fun yesterday afternoon!

We had 9 cameras to set out, 7 students, and John...so I got to pick two spots :) I've been so focused on being precise and neat and tidy with setting my cameras lately, since I've been conducting a mini independent study with them, so it was really fun to pick camera sites that "looked good" and set the scent willy-nilly flinging it everywhere or shoving in a hole in the ground.

Judi and Adam set a camera in the background, and are now digging a little "cat hole" to stick the scent in. I took the New York State Trapper Education course this weekend, and am now certified to live trap, if I get my license. I took the course to learn about how trappers draw the animals in to their sets, because I'm pretty much doing the same with my cameras. So it was suggested to dig a hole and put the scent or bait in there to make the animal work a bit more for it. In their case, they want the animal to dance around and step in the trap. In my case, I want their cute little picture :) !!!

Next Dana and John chose this spot because it's a cross of trails. There's a trail coming in from the woods opening out to the mowed lawn we were standing on, so we thought it was a nice travel corridor to set a camera on.

John and Dana checking out the site :)

And here is where I got this entry's hilarious title. I found so many good scats that day! This happens to have been left by a Wild Turkey. I narrowed it down to Ruffed Grouse or Turkey...and was learned on the differences between them. Basically- this is a bit too big for RG.

Next on the list...who shat that? This is from one of our beloved foxes. Immediately I say red fox because that's who I have the most experience with. Until several weeks ago, I'd never seen one, and THAT was in North Carolina (the gray literally walked up to me as I was setting the camera). But, I asked, and John confirmed that YES there's probably an overlap in: size of scat, composition, habitat and so it could belong to a gray, but more likely a red.

On our way up the hill, we found a den or burrow that looked fresh-ish. There wasn't any fresh soil disturbed, but it wasn't completely closed in and plugged up with dead leaves and debris either. John's on this woodchuck kick right now (Woodchuck Love) so he was eager to set a camera on the entrance.

Adam, Judi, John and Dana...anyone home?

Kara setting an IR camera on a chunk of wood close to the entrance. I can't remember if we scented this site or not, but I think not. We wanted to see 'au naturel' activity here..if any.

Further up the hill we found this cool pine tree that was clinging to the top soil with all the strength it had. Again, all of us looking for a "cool" spot, were drawn to this little hidey-hole that some animal may live in, or at least come in to check out. So, Tyler set a camera.

Tree hugger gone too far? I think he's trying to grab the strap from around the tree, while holding the camera in place...

Now THIS scat...this is special scat. We, on good faith, know this belonged to a Mustelid, or loosely: a weasel. The tell-tale shape, twistiness, and composition of hair and little bones screamed weasel to us. When I say weasel, I kind of refer generally to all of those that are from the weasel family in NY. In this area and habitat, we could have: fisher (rare), mink, long-tail, short-tail, and the least (rare). We also have river otter and marten in NY, but not in this region or habitat. So, John thought that this was perhaps a little too small for mink, so maybe I filled in, a long-tailed weasel. Again, with the foxes, there's so much overlap. It's hard to tell.

Same scat again. To describe the habitat, we were in a pine plantation, and this scat (and the one below) was specifically on the berm of a small fire pond. Well, this year I guess we should call it a vernal pool- it was SO low and it's only the beginning of April!

A different scat, but perhaps a little more fresh. It was small, twisty...weasel-y.

Second scat again.

Dana and Adam are setting a camera to get the weasel. The pond berm is to my right in the picture, and in the picture below...

I'm standing on the berm, the pond to my left. Usually that pond is up to the lip of the berm. Not so much this spring...poor salamanders and frogs!

I convinced everyone to stop for a minute so I could set up and get a picture. That's the past yearbook editor and future mom in me. I like to include everyone! Especially now that I'm blogging!

On our way back down the hill, a final shat of the day. This is a beautiful coyote scat! Sorry for the lack of scale, but the pine cones are 4"-6" long.

It was just full of hair, and John explained to us that usually when you find a scat full of hair, it can mean that the animal was just picking a carcass clean. First choice at a fresh kill would be the meaty parts, but later in the season, or a late comer to the party is left with the hairy, boney parts. And that's what I found while pulling this apart- lots of hair and bone fragments.

I LOVE learning about scat, it's almost as cool as the remote cameras to me. Like the cameras, I don't have to 'be there' to learn all this information about the animal. I can come across it later and either look at the pictures, or examine the scat to get an understanding of foods, behaviors, habitats, etc etc etc. And scat is often NOT smelly (although I've heard raccoon scat should be handled with care), and not really gross. Just a lot of cellulose or keratin that the animal can't digest.

Anyway, we'll be letting our cameras soak for two weeks, and then hopefully I'll have all kinds of majestic creatures to share!

Fur Auction #2: January 15th, 2012

For those of you who read my blog, you may have seen my earlier post (Honeoye Fur Auction 12/18/2011). I was invited by Region 8 DEC Wildlife Biologist Scott Smith to come to the auction and help age and sex muskrats. I won't get into all of that again because it's quite lengthy- but I suggest reading the above blog. It's good stuff! Below are pictures of the highlights of the fur selections...

Opossum was a new species this time around. Not sure what the fur is used for, or who would wear it!

Something we learn about in class is how ill-adapted opossums are to the colder climates. If you see an opossum with frost-bit ears, nose, feet, and/or tails...you can safely assume it is over a year old. All of the opossums I got a look at were frost-bit.

Someone also brought in a whole muskrat, again- not sure why. But it was interesting to look at up close.

Muskrat hind foot. Look at those claws!!!

Mink feet! I'm not sure what happened to the full body picture of the mink...but I'm fascinated with critter paws and claws lately. I was tracking quite a bit last week, and it's interesting to see what left the prints!

Short-tailed weasel in the winter color phase. Also known as the ermine I believe...

And here is our friend the long-tailed weasel mid color change. Very interesting to see the differences in color.

And here they are side by side. QUITE the size difference. Weasels are my new fascination I think. It seems everytime I learn a little bit more about a critter, I become enthralled by them. After seeing weasel tracks and a possible otter slide and a first hand encounter with a mink (all of which are Mustelids) and THEN coming to the auction and seeing weasels...I'm hooked.

**Note: After speaking with a professor at school, he suggested that perhaps the LTW is a male, and the STW is a female. As I learned last week during my Winter Eco class, and then again at the fur auction, in Mustelids (the weasel family), the male is usually twice as large as the female. So, perhaps the large contrast in size is just an extreme of both species, and THAT's why they look so different. I was very surprised when we layed them side by side and saw the size difference.

Raccoon on the rack, and raccoon waiting to be "checked in".

Racks and racks of furs.

On the left: beaver pelt

On the right: striped skunk pelts

 And that's the best of the best! I'm very lucky to be afforded these opportunities as a student to participate in. Looking forward to upcoming adventures!