Black bear den season: part IV

This is my third and final installment of black bear den visits for the spring 2013 season. I had a good run with the NYS DEC Region 8 wildlife biologists and technicians. Their invitation allowed me a truly unique experience that many, including those "in the field", may not get to experience. I'm aware of that, and VERY grateful!

To catch up on my other black bear den experiences from this year and in the past, check out those entries here.

My first entry this season focused on the protocol of handling bear cubs, and what data is taken from them. My next entry was all about Mama Bear. Every piece of information that can be taken, seems to be written down. And why not? We have the time and the access to the bears while the mother is chemically immobilized. In this entry, I'll show you what this den actually looks like. Not all bear dens are created equal, keep that in mind.



The township of den visit #3 was in Cameron, NY.
Click to enlarge the image.

Often, when people think of a bear den, they think of a cozy, sheltered rock cave. This is rarely the case. I've not seen enough dens to know what the majority of black bear dens look like in New York. I've visited and seen with my very own eyes 5 black bear dens. All of them broke "convention", or what I made convention to be in my mind.

I think it's safe to say that all of them have some sort of protection from vegetation. In a couple of cases, it was thick, dense thorny branches. In one case, it was dead Christmas trees in a brush pile. In another, the den was underneath a blown-down dead tree. The bears seem to be way more exposed to the elements than is preconceived they would be.



Region 8 Wildlife Biologist Art Kirsch (left),
and Fish and Wildlife Technician Ron Newell (right).

The location of this den was in the township of Cameron, NY. This town seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and really to close to anything. Except maybe the Pennsylvania border!

We drove down a road (dirt, seasonal, 2-track) for a few miles and ended at a dead end which had one house at the end, and was surrounded by agricultural fields. The den was down a bit of a hill, and about 50 yards into the woods at the edge of the field. Standing at the edge of the field, I could see the den, once I knew what I was looking for, so it really wasn't far from the field.

Both of the above images were taken at the same spot. The top picture was taken to my left, looking into the woods.
The red arrow shows approximately where the bear den was located.
The bottom image was taken to my right, looking out at the agricultural field.

The whole process went smoothly- the team went in a successfully and safely chemically immobilized the mother, and the rest of us came in to handle cubs and take data down from them.

There were triplets at this den, but I could only get my hands on 2 at a time!
Photo credit: Marty DeLong

Meanwhile, the mother was under the case of the veterinarian, Dr. Jeff Wyatt, and vet tech Robin English.

I was invited over to get my hands on the mother bear. It was a really neat experience...most of the group was off to the side with the cubs, obviously preoccupied. But Art, and the vet staff were working on the mother. I kind of meandered over, and they invited me to listen to her heart beat. I'm not a mother, so I haven't heard the first sounds of my child's heartbeat. But, listening to that bear's steady heart beating was awe-inspiring.
Photo credit: Art Kirsch

At this den visit, the FLCC students and faculty did not attend. They had to get back to the college for classes, but since I was there on my own, I stayed for the entire day (this was the second den visit we did that day). They asked if I would be OK with taking down some data for them, in their absence. Of course I said I would, but really it was for selfish reasons. HAVING to take down data only gave me more access to the fun stuff. And this time it was data off any of the bears, it was the characteristics of the bear den.

When I was a student at Finger Lakes Community College, during my first full time semester, John (my professor) tasked me with revamping the "den data sheet". It's not in my nature to turn something down, so I started working on it. Looking back, in the fall of 2010, I had never USED a data sheet and had actually never even seen one. I hadn't experienced a den visit, or met any of the biologists. I really had no idea what I was doing. I had the old, out of date data sheet to guide me, as well as a 3" binder stuffed full of journal articles related to bear dens. "Have at it" I was told.

I distinctly remember sitting at a computer in the Conservation Department equipment room at FLCC in tears because I had been asked to do this, and I didn't want to disappoint, but I was lost. It seems so trivial and silly now, since I've created that new data sheet, and used many, many of them since for various projects. But at the time, it was very overwhelming.

So, to be able to take "my baby" into a bear den, alone, and use the protocol I wrote and take down the measurements, and read my own phrasing...it was a "moment". Nothing too profound, but cool.

Here's the den!

Instead of a rock cave, this is more likened to Bird Bird's nest! In the middle of the den is a digital thermometer reading the in-den temperature. To the right of that is some one's camera that fell out of a pocket when they were removing the bear from the den.

This is the view from laying inside the den looking straight up. As you can see, there isn't a whole lot of cover.
Precipitation comes right in...

Don't judge me! I'm in a BEAR DEN, people! You'd take a picture like this too!

Below are a few snippets from the data sheet, so you can get an idea of what types of information FLCC students are interested in. A current student of the Black Bear Management class at FLCC, just presented the class's findings of bear dens in the Finger Lakes at a national conference. It was really well received, and very interesting to see all of the data collected!

And so, another fantastic experience was coming to a close. Envious classmates of mine, current and past, keep telling me how lucky I am. I am a lot of things: grateful, appreciative and fortunate mostly, but not lucky. Luck would have been if I woke up that morning snuggled in with the bears in the den! The opportunities I've been presented were made with forged relationships (with generous, patient people), and persistence on my part. It's been number one on my bucket list to visit a bear den and handle a cub. And by the time I was at the 3rd den, handling cubs was not old news by any means, but I was comfortable enough to meander around the scene, taking in different aspects of the science taking place, and enjoying the wonder on everyone's faces.

After everything was wrapped up, the cubs were placed back with their mother. There are 3 in there, although just one little guy, probably only 6-7 weeks old, peeked back at me.

I lingered JUST long enough to get this shot of this bear family.



Black bear den season: part II

In my previous post, I shared with blog readers that I was afforded a very unique opportunity. I was invited to attend 3 black bear den visits where biological information is taken, and live bears are handled. I am VERY fortunate and very happy to share what I learned.

I’ll begin by explaining WHY we want to visit black bear dens and handle the bears. I had a very outdoorsy and wildlife saavy friend write to me and say “Not trying to be a buzz kill but this is a wild animal. Why are we handling them like a child or a pet? makes no sense to me that they are exploited to human touch and then hunted, killed skinned and eaten!” I will admit that at first, I got hot. Here’s a man who sticks out in my mind as a conservationist, and a life-long hunter and trapper…and yet he can’t understand that what I’m participating in is important to conserving wildlife?


Den #1 was located within the township of Almond, NY

Click to enlargen

In Western, NY and specifically the Finger Lakes region, black bears are moving Northward from Pennsylvania. Over the past 10-12 years they’ve really made a comeback. A combination of factors have influenced this. Many farms are being abandoned, and land is reverting back to how it was historically wooded instead of wide open agricultural fields. This is allowing the bears, and other animals, more cover and suitable habitat. I also think that bears are particularly adaptable. They are similar in feeding and human interaction habits to raccoons. Many people have preconceived notions that bears are vicious. ALL wild animals have tendencies to be vicious. Deer mice can act vicious, cottontails, foxes, and yes bears can act vicious. But black bears don’t TEND to be vicious, unless they are sick, wounded, or given reason to be defensive. I liken them to raccoons because often the most they are to humans are annoying. There are a lot of summer homes and hunting camps in the Finger Lakes that are seasonally used. Bears looking for a place to hunker down may break into these camps. And they love bird feeders, grills, garbage, cars with coolers, and all sorts of other treats that people living in this newly reclaimed “bear country” forget to put away. They’re really just like a 200 pound raccoon. Of course bears are capable of greater damage, so they’re often feared more than ‘coons.

Ok, so all that being said, since bears are moving back into “our” territory, the biologists of the Department of Environmental Conservation Wildlife Division strive to learn as much about their habits and movements as possible. The easiet and least invasive way of doing this, is to place a collar of sorts on certain bears. In Region 8, for example (which is where I visited dens), the biologists are monitoring approximately a total of 7-15 adult bears. Also, with some of those adults are cubs or yearlings…but those are not individually monitored. There are a lot of human-bear interactions, and also there is an interest in hunting black bears in New York State. They are considered “big game” , and to help control the population, there are hunting seasons, which you can view here: Deer and Bear Hunting Seasons.

To address a word that my friend used…”exploiting” the bears. I do not look at handling these bears and cubs as exploiting. Yes, we take pictures with them. But for them, it’s a moment in time. As Art Kirsch, Senior Region 8 Wildlife Biologist, told me that “the science obtained from monitoring these bears, far outweighs the inconvenience they experience”, which is very true. The adults are always immobilized with a cocktail of drugs. There is no safe way to handle the adults without them being immoblized. The cubs though this time of year are quite small and easy to handle. There is no reason to impose unnecessary risk (there's always risk with use of chemical immobilizers- bear, dog, cat, human) by immobilizing the cubs. The largest cub I think I handled was just around 6 pounds, and the smallest was 3.2 pounds. If any memories of these interactions with the bear biologists are remembered, it’s not of terror and panic. The animals are treated with respect, voices are kept low, and the adult bear’s eyes are covered to further keep it calm. Cubs are kept in fleece bags to keep them warm and secure.

A question I’ve been asked since I shared that I handled bear cubs is “Won’t the mother reject them with your scent on them?”…no! Please keep in mind that the protocol for these visits has the bear's health and safety as the first priority. The mother is handled the same as the cubs, her den is entered by biologists when she’s removed, and so everything and the whole bear family have human scent. Everyone is required to wear gloves, and “nuzzling” is prohibited. The team does not want the other people at the den visits, to "Disney-fy" the bears. Really there is nothing cuter than a 2 month old bear cub, but these are wild animals who are returning to the wild. They are not pets or cartoons. We do not name them, or kiss them, and hugging is ONLY allowed to keep them warm.We are handling these cubs to obtain data from them, as well as keep them warm while mom is being processed. They've never been out of then den before, and have never been away from mom's side. If for some reason the mother can not be handled (she runs off, for example), the cubs are not handled. It’s all of them or none of them. That way, everyone smells the same.

The whole experience takes less than 1 hour, as that is how long we have for the drugs to keep a hold on the adult. This is not a process that drags on for several hours, but is done efficiently and safely for all involved.

Now I know if you clicked on this post, you don’t REALLY care about all that I’ve written. You came for the pictures. I will describe my experience of den #1 through the captions. Also, all people mentioned by name are from Finger Lakes Community College (unless otherwise noted) where there is a Black Bear Management course offered. John Van Niel is the professor of that course.

 

In this massive brush pile of dead Christmas trees and other debris, a mother bear and 3 cubs are in a cozy den. Region 8 Wildlife technician Jeb McConnell along with Region 8 Wildlife Biologist Art Kirsch and Region 9 Wildlife Biologist Tim Spierto are searching for an access point to shoot the chemical immobilizer into the mother bear. Once the drugs are administered, they must wait 15-20 minutes for it to take effect.

After the sow was stabilized, I was invited to climb up on top of the brush pile (10-12 feet off the ground) to see the entrance of the den.

The veterinarian on hand, Dr. Jeff Wyatt DVM, of the Seneca Park Zoo, went 8 feet down into the den to watch the sow's vitals. She maintained a strong and steady heartbeat, and was breathing normally through out. She was not removed from the den, due to how precarious the brush pile was to maneuver. Jeff mentioned to me while I was taking this picture that he was almost 'hot' down in the den. Lucky, we were freezing out on top!



Art Kirsch, Senior Wildlife Biologist, has the second best seat in the house. Art held his post just outside the den monitoring all that was going on, and recording data from the sow still in the den.



When cubs are first removed, the are placed into a fleece sack as seen here. This helps contain them (they are wiggly) and keep them warm. Weights are taken for each cub, as seen here. Alicia Walker is reading the scale, as John Van Niel holds it. Ben Williams and Julia Lampman record data in the background.

Here John Van Niel removes the cub from the bag for a moment so that the cub can be sexed. I think in this case, it's a girl! Grasping the cub by the scruff of the neck is not painful, this is something the mother, like many other mother animals, do to move their babies when they are too young to move on their own.



Here, I am holding the cub as Alicia continues to take measurements. There is a hair length (from the top of the head) to ear length ratio that can be plugged into an equation, which can give a fairly accurate date of birth. Jon Muller and Kevin Skryzinski watch on, while Ben records the data.

Here John is readying me for the insertion of the Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tag. This is very similar to a 'micro chip' you may have put in your cat or dog. It is not an active means of tracking the animal, but if the animal is handled again in the future, a receiver can be waved over the location of insertion (between shoulder blades under skin), and the unique ID

number can be read.



Cubs are born with blue eyes, as many mammals seem to be. I do not know why this is, but with age the eyes will likely darken to brown.

Once all data was collected from cubs and the mother bear, we formed a bit of a 'bucket brigade' from the ground up and over the brush pile to get the cubs back into the den. It was easier and safer than trying to hold your balance and keep your footing while holding onto a squirming cub. Photo credit: Julia Lampman

 

 

In total, the experience was around an hour and a half. That includes walking time from the road to the den, and the time it took the team to immobilize mom, wait for the drugs to kick in, and then for all of the data collection. It was one of those experiences that I could not WAIT to partake in, and then in a blink, it was over. BUT, fortunately I had 2 more dens to look forward to. I will be blogging about those experiences soon. Hope you enjoyed!

Finicky Fisher

Since I moved to Schoharie, I've been told to be on the lookout for a few animals different that have been absent from the Finger Lakes in the past. Those 3 specific critters are the bobcat (Lynx rufus), the porcupine (Erithizon dorsatum), and the fisher (Martes pennanti). They are my "Big 3" of the Catskill region of NY.

I got a great picture of a bobcat in my backyard within weeks of moving here:





And I've seen enough road-killed porcupines to last me a lifetime! I would like to see a live one show up on my camera though...







What I have yet to see with my own eyes, or through my camera, is the fisher. I have had two classmates set up cameras in my backyard. Both cameras were set up within a stones throw of mine. In fact, one was set up on the very same tree that mine was on when I got the bobcat, although I had moved mine temporarily...ugh!



I wanted to share the pictures because fisher are cool. They belong to the weasel family (Mustelidae), making them cousins to weasels, mink, marten, otter, badgers, and wolverines! It's pretty crazy to think that they're all related, but they are. And, for a long time the skunks were thrown in that family too, although now they've been placed in their own family.



The "weasels", and I use that generally, are hard to camera trap, or observe with the naked eye. They are very smart for their size, they are wary, and are mostly nocturnal. So, unless you're skulking around in the dark, in their specific habitat (because they all have very specific habitats), you're not likely to see them. I've only ever seen mink, otter, and a weasel species of some sort by chance. I've much more often see sign left behind: scat.



Here are the fisher images:




Photo credit: Adam Rogers

Photo credit: Courtney Stein

I don't know why I haven't gotten a picture of my own yet! Unless it's the technology I'm using. I am using a flash camera, where as both of these pictures are taken on an infra-red camera. Perhaps the flash keeps the fisher away, although I would think that I should at least be able to get ONE picture before the flash goes off and spooks the animal! ((Plus..I still think my Cuddeback is a lemon.))


And as you can see on the time stamps, this is likely the same animal. Taken the same night, 3 minutes apart. The bottom picture was actually taken first. My camera was BETWEEN these two. I don't get it!!!

Oh well, I'm crossing my fingers for the future.

River Otter Dissection

Last weekend (September 28-29-30, 2012) I travelled back west to the Finger Lakes region to visit my family and some old classmates and professors. A class I took 2 years ago, in the fall of 2010, was in progress that weekend at FLCC's Muller Field Station on the South end of Honeoye Lake.

Muller Field Station - 9/29/2012

The class, Wetland Mammals, is taught by Professor John Van Niel, and Conservation Tech Sasha Mackenzie. It's taught over 2 weekends, where the class eats, sleeps, and learns at the field station. I believe there are also some meeting times outside of those weekends in the traditional classroom. All in all, it ends up to 3 credits worth of face time with John and Sasha, and one of the best classes I've taken yet. And I took it the first round, when they were still figuring out how to run the course...I could tell this past weekend they really had established the class and articulated what they expected from their students.

I was barely able to contain my jealousy, I'm not sure those FLCC students realize how lucky they are to have classes like this available to them! :)

The part I wanted to blog about from my experience hanging out with them for the day on Saturday (9/29/12), was the river otter dissection I got to watch. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation Region 8 Furbearer Biologist, Scott Smith, came to guest speak on the ins and outs of trapping in New York. I first met Scott when I was a student in this course, and have since gotten to work with him a couple times (Honeoye Fur Auction). He's a great biologist, down to earth, and really willing to talk about his job. He's great addition to the course.

 

Scott ran through different types of traps, methods of making a set, using scent lures, the biology of how the animals actually die (FYI, it's not drowning, it's high levels of CO2 in the blood stream), and set them all up so we could see how it was done. He explained the necessity of trapping: I am not a hunter or a trapper, but I realize the importance of these methods of harvest for managing these species of wildlife.

Scott also brought with him some road-killed specimens of interest. It's great for FLCC's conservation faculty and staff and the local DEC biologists to have such a close relationship. The students get to totally take advantage of that relationship and shadow the biologists, and also get cool presents like dead beavers, bobcats and otters delivered to them in class!

Sasha and student Rodney checking out the beaver.

Bobcat

...and student Luke with the river otter (and a couple of really excited classmates behind him)!

A side note before I talk about the dissection:

One of these is the tail of the beaver, and one is the sole of a porcupine foot.

Both have similar textures, and are REALLY cool! Glad I got the check them out.

(The porcupine picture was from the Porcupine Paws entry I wrote recently..)

---------------------------------------------------------------

 



 **WARNING**

The following pictures will be increasignly gory.

If you have a weak stomach, please don't continue.

This otter was killed by a car, retrieved by the DEC and saved for educational use. It's opportunities like this that allow students an up-close chance to appreciate a rare, BEAUTIFUL animal that's slowly making it's way back up in numbers.

 

---------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

 

So Scott took the otter, and strung it up by a foot for easy access and leverage while skinning.

 

 

Once he made it down the tail, around the ankles, and around the vent, it was just like "pulling a sweatshirt off"...gross, but I guess true. An analogy we could all relate to :)

On one leg, he found these parasites. I don't know what they were, but it seemed very strange to me that they were between the skin and muscle. I would expect to find them in the organs, but Scott seemed unsurprised.

 

Once the skin was totally removed (it was going to be saved, tanned, and used as an educational skin), we moved the group outdoors. A naked, dead, thawing river otter smells a bit...ripe...and we needed that fresh air.

 

Scott took the lead on the dissection, with John as back up...and as you'll see in a few pictures, a ton of student help as well!

 

Working up the animal: I thought these round, bulbous features were testicles, making this a male otter. WRONG, these are scent glands. Otters are in the Mustelidae family, along with weasels, mink, fisher, badger, and wolverine. All are stinky critters, and possess this scent gland. Both males and females have these glands, and this, by the way is a female!

 

Scott cut through the sternum and through the diaphragm to expose the internal organs.

 

Kidney(s?)...very different than what we "know" kidneys to look like. This is was all segmented and in one group, rather than separated into 2 halves.

The heart- we all agreed it seemed relatively large for the size of the animal. A human heart is about the size of our fist, right? Well I imagine if this otter made an adorable little fist with it's paw, this heart would easily be twice as large.

Gall bladder- full of bile, which is apparent because of the color of the organ.

We had a visiting professor, Lisa Tracy (North Hennepin Community College, MN) with us for the weekend, a professor of biology, who had a lot to share. It was really neat to have John (the wildlife educator), Scott (the practicing biologist), and then Lisa (the lab biology educator) all on the panel dissecting the otter. Having taken this class 2 years ago, and watching John go through this alone, I had something to compare to. Lisa talked a bit about function of the parts, and how they connect.

 

THEN...they took the large intestine and stretched it out. This picture only shows part of the students holding it. To my left there were 2-3 other people standing, stretching the organ out. It was REALLY impressive!

OK, this is the part that got me and made me walk away for a minute.

They began squeezing the contents of the intestine out. Along the way were various levels of digested food matter. Otters eat fish and small invertebrates, which stink on their own. This was truly a smell to behold in person. I'm sorry I can't convey it through my blog.

Jackie sorted through a bit of the "scat", and found these indigestible parts. There's a bone there on the right sticking up, and the thing in the middle looks like part of some kind of carapace. Belonging to perhaps an insect or maybe a crayfish?

It was really cool to see all the hands in on the dissection. Morbidly, it was like kids and play-dough! I love this kind of learning, and haven't really had the opportunity to "get dirty" yet here at Cobleskill. I know it's gross to look at, but for people like us who want to learn to be biologists, this is a golden opportunity.

 

 

 

That pretty much ends the dissection, and I walked away shortly after the squeezing of the intestines. I'm pretty tough, and can handle doing this kind of stuff. But the smell was a little overwhelming, kudos to those who stuck it out!

 

 

I miss this place, but I must move on for now!

And come back to visit as often as I can.

Thanks to John and Sasha for letting me hang out for the day!