Neature is neat!

Have you ever seen Lenny Peppercorn videos? It’s hysterical. A satire on all nature show hosts, and a poke at all nature nerds. I love it! Check him out below…

I couldn’t help but laugh at myself this weekend as I was hiking with my dog and a friend. We kept coming across all sorts of *neat* things, and I kept exclaiming, “This is so neat!”… Am I a Lenny Peppercorn?

Shared via: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/48283.html

Tyler and I have spring fever. It’s now March, and STILL bitter cold with a lot of snow on the ground. Our spring break from courses at SUNY Cobleskill is in 12 days (who’s counting?) and we are tired of being cooped up in the house. He and decided to take my VERY energetic and young golden retriever out for an adventure. The temps here in Schoharie County on Saturday were mid-30s, a heat wave by all accounts of recent ambient temperatures, and it was sunny… perfect day for some outside time.

We have a few state forests around us within easy driving distance (Mallet Pond, Patria, and Petersburg State Forests) that we’ve explored for field labs during various courses, and we decided to try and get as far into the state land as possible. This was a challenge though, because many of the roads within are seasonally maintained, and this is not the season they are maintained.

We first tried to get to Rossman-Fly Pond (which is within Mallet Pond State Forest), a beautiful pond with access to launch a motorless boat. I like to think it’s a hidden gem, but I know others have to know about it. I really want to get up and check the ice out, but unfortunately the plow had stopped a mile or two from the turn off to the pond. We got out and hiked a bit with the dog in the snow, but I’ve been experiencing a flare up from an old ankle injury, and didn’t want to push it.

LUCKILY though, we observed something really neat from the side of the unplowed road. Lots of field sign that a porcupine or several, had been foraging in the hemlocks!

Have you ever seen this? I know it looks kind of unassuming, just some twigs on the ground, but with all the snow we’ve had, it’s not dead stuff that’s fallen over time. All of that would be covered over with snow. THESE twigs, are the sloppy leftovers of our largest arborial rodent.

Here’s the proximal end of a hemlock twig 

that’s been neatly nipped off by the sharp

 incisors of a porcupine.

Porcupines eat soft vegetation like leaves, shoots, and needles. And in the winter they have the advantage over others with similar diets, to be able to climb up trees, and nibble twigs and branches.

Porcupines are a solid critter, not as chunky as a beaver (but close), and not as light as a squirrel. So, they’ll eat their way along a sturdy branch, moving farther and farther from the tree. They are sloppy, and often drop as much as they eat. They nip a twig off, and it falls to the forest floor.

I’ve read (somewhere) that porcupines are often relied on by other forest-dwelling herbivores who can’t reach up into the canopy to eat. Deer, rabbits, hares, moose have all been documented eating porcupine “nip twigs” from the forest floor.

Here’s a porcupine I got to observe quite up close while living in Alaska. You can see her orange inciscors poking out. That orange color is enamel that covers the teeth of many rodents, especially those who eat or gnaw hard woody materials.

We wandered around the feeding grounds for a few minutes, checking out the carnage, when we noticed a well-packed trail in the snow. Porcupines, due to their short stubby legs, don’t often leave a very well defined set of tracks, but more of a trench where they’ve plowed through the snow. It’s hard to see in this picture below, but what I want to share is that we noticed it leading right to the mouth of a drainage culvert pipe alongside the roadway.

Porcupine trail through the snow, to a den in a culvert pipe.

We were intrigued. Could we possibly actually catch a glimpse of the porcupine?

Addie and Tyler trying to decided whether or not sticking your face into a hole in the ground, which might contain a porcupine, is such a good idea…

I did NOT want my dog to get a face full of quills. Tyler, well he was on his own, but I didn’t want Addie to get quilled. So we pulled her back, and I sacrificed myself to get down in there and investigate.
 
My first observation, was the overwhelming stench of ammonia. It reminded me of my pet rabbits cage. Porcupines are nasty animals, in the way that they defecate when and where they want. Many animals attempt to keep their dens clean of fecal matter, but not the porcupine. Check out this entry from last winter when I found a den, and the amount of built up porky poop outside: http://blog.timesunion.com/nywildlife/porcupine-sign/887/

A look inside the “den”. What a cozy place to live, right? Hemlocks in your front yard, and totally protected from the elements. You can see on the left side of the picture, the fecal matter scattered along. Just out of view above this picture, along the top rim of the pipe, were ice crystals. This led me to believe that the porcupine(s) were generating enough heat to melt ice and snow around the entrance which had frozen back over. Unfortunately, or fortunately, no one was visible. I have no idea how far back this tunnel went, but it was freaking cool!

So that’s one of my *neat* finds from this past Saturday. I have another really cool story, but I’m saving that for another entry. I’ve been reading for hours, and just thought I’d take a break to share this cool story. Hae a great Monday!

The true New York hibernators

Yesterday I wrote the entry Who actually hibernates? in which I started talking about special winter adaptations that wild animals must possess 1 or more of, to survive our cold winter months. I love learning about winter adaptations, because it amazes me how wild animals have no “creature comforts” like we do, and yet they survive and prevail.

Muller Field Station, 1/14/2012

 I took a course last winter in January 2012 called Unique Winter Ecological Adaptations, or Winter Ecology for short. It was a week-long residential class held and Finger Lakes Community College’s Muller Field Station, on the South end of Honeoye Lake (in the Finger Lakes). Clinton Krager, associate professor of biology, was the instructor, and he did a great job that week. I had such a great time with it, I was obviously inspired enough to write about it almost a year later. To read about the class, check out my entries from January 2012: Winter Ecology!

So I said that I would reveal the TRUE HIBERNATORS, and I will.

To briefly refresh, the loose definition of hibernation that I use is: A significant drop in body temperature over a long period of time. This is important, because other animals do similar things (torpor, dormancy), but their temperature MUST significantly drop, and for an extended amount of time.

So the three groups are:

1) Woodchucks! (Marmota monax)

2) Jumping mice: Meadow jumping mice (Zapus hudsonius) and Woodland jumping mice (Napaeozapus insignis)

 

 

3) Cave bats: Northern bat (Myotis septentrionalis), Little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus), Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), Eastern pipistrelle bat (Perimyotis subflavus) (*there IS a difference between cave bats and tree bats. I encourage you to look this up if you’re interested: Bats of New York)

I know that’s technically more than 3, but we can group and say that woodchucks (there’s only one species in NY), jumping mice, and some bats hiberbate. TRULY hibernate.

When animals head into their dens or hibernacula for the winter, and leave the outside world for the next X number of months, they enter this state where they are completely unable to be roused from their coma-like state. When I’ve talked about this before, I’ve said that if you dig down into a woodchuck hole, and was able to reach it- you could literally pick it up by it’s tail, swing it over your head, then tuck it back in and it would be none the wiser. It takes hours for the animal’s body temperature to raise to a normal level. Their temp drops so that their metabolism slows way down, and they aren’t burning through all their fat stores that they’ve been putting on in the previous months.

Everyone, including myself at first, is so surprised to learn that bears do not hibernate! It’s true, they don’t! They enter this state called “torpor”. Like hibernation, their temps drop, they hole up somewhere cozy and safe, and they are inactive. But, their temperature drops just enough to conserve energy. Bears can get up and run if they’re spooked out of their den (I’ve witnessed this, first hand in the month of January). They even give birth while they’re in there! If weather is permitting, they may peek out, sniff the air, forage for a snack, and then return to the den. I would say that while “in the den” they’re generally very groggy, sedate, and lethargic…but they are able to move if they need.

Woodchucks, jumping mice, and the listed bats are down and out for the count until something internal, or perhaps external (length of day? but wait…they’re in holes underground and in dark caves) tells them it’s time to come out. It’s not temperature, because if there was a freak hot day in December, which is becoming more and more likely as the global climate changes, that lasts for one day- the woodchucks, mice, and bats aren’t all going to snap out of it and be out and about. How they actually begin the process of coming out of it is widely studied, and I don’t think any conclusive statements have been made. But please, if someone knows different…please share!

Who actually hibernates?

For an EXCELLENT read on the habits of
wild critters, check this book out.
On Amazon.com it's less than $11 as
of 12/2/2012

I’ve been a bad blogger lately, sorry! My first semester at SUNY Cobleskill is wrapping up (only 2 weeks left!), I have a 9 week old golden retriever puppy that needs CONSTANT supervision, and most urgently, some unexpected family stuff came up this weekend which kept me busy. But I started this entry last week, and I am making time this evening to finish!

‘Tis the season to be hibernating. Those animals who do hibernate have got it made, in my opinion. They PACK on the pounds and scarf down carbs like no one’s watching, take a long (literally almost comatose) nap, and wake up thin and svelte like the bingeing never happened.

What the heck?!

There are some misconceptions about hibernation, and who actually does it. I’m going to share with you what I’ve learned in my wildlife courses. There are always different schools of thought out there, and if you have learned something different, I encourage you to leave me a comment!

I think a little bit of background information is necessary first. And then tomorrow I’ll share who’s hibernating in NY.

Wild animals have 4 basic adaptations for winter survival: 1) Migrate, 2) Hibernate, 3) Resist, 4) Tolerate.

Some birds, the most common migrators that I’m familiar with, experience a lack of food sources in the colder months as well as they lack physical cold adaptations (body fat stores, heavier fur). They must travel long distances to ride out the colder winter months, and then they return to their summer feeding and often breeding grounds. Other animals that migrate, not necessarily in NY: Caribou, bison, whales, elk.

Hibernation requires a significant drop in body temperature over a long period of time (there are only 3 TRUE hibernators in NYS!). This definition of hibernation is important to keep in mind when I reveal who the hibernators are. Although the action that a certain critter appears to be hibernation, their physiology tells us different.

Resistance includes animals experiencing specialized adaptations like going into torpor and dormancy. Both of these actions can “appear” to be the same as hibernation. But, their body temps, and the length of time they’re in torpor or are dormant can tell us that they aren’t truly hibernating. Examples of animals that going into torpor: black bears, chipmunks, and voles. Examples of animals that go dormant: amphibians and reptiles.

And tolerance is pretty self explanatory…the animals go about their daily business, and most likely have been preparing in some way for the cold months/lack of reliable food sources. Gray and red squirrels, foxes, cottontail rabbits, white-tailed deer, and some songbirds are all local examples.
It’s interesting to think about what these animals do, and these actions are innately engraved into their beings, when the winter is unseasonably warm. I can say with confidence that where I lived in the Finger Lakes last winter, the ground did NOT freeze all winter long. We had scant amounts of snow, but yet the animals still when about their annual business of preparing for winter in one way or another.

Tomorrow I will reveal who the hibernators in NY are!

[mini] Small Mammal Bait Preference Study

Last week while I was participating in the Winter Ecology course mentioned here: Winter Eco Day #1, here: Winter Eco Days #2 & #3, and here as well: Winter Eco Day #4. Check those out if you haven't seen them already. There are some cool pictures of wildife and sign!

Anyway, I mentioned somewhere in there that my friend and co-student, Mady, and I were working together on a VERY small scale study for the 4-5 days we were there. The following are graphic representations of our Powerpoint slide presentation.

The last days of Winter Ecology...

I last left off my Winter Ecology course with pictures of flying squirrels. The rest of the week was a crazy blur, and I will include some of the best pictures!

Scobie and Doug setting their traps.

Petra and Sean in a reed canary grass field.

Mady and I doing work!

Coon tracks

Group picture at Harriet Hollister Spencer State Recreation Park overlooking the south end of Honeoye Lake.

From Left to Right:

Tiger, Alicia, Sean, Tori, Petra, Krager-kins, Sash, Boy, Dougie

And in front:

Madeline, Alyssa

These above pictures belong to a mink. If my entire class hadn't witnessed this animal with our own eyes, we would have been only able to guess that they belonged to a weasel. The Muller Field Station shown here:

...is where we were all hanging out last Friday morning. We were all in the upstairs, where that long row of windows are, eating breakfast and getting ready for the day. As we were sitting there, someone spotted the mink running along the front of the house. We all flew to the window and watched as the mink climbed the willow to the left, and pursued a red squirrel. It was intense, amazing, and so cool to witness first hand. Unfortunately none of us got any good pictures because we didn't want to look away to get a camera. The tracks and the memories are all the proof we had of it happening!

Mink track

As the mink shimmied down the tree (he didn't get the squirrel), we watched him leap off the trunk and literally DIVE into the snow as if it were a liquid medium. It was nice and light and fluffy, so he was able to maneuver easily. Above is a track and tunnel left behind. He was moving from L-->R, and disappeared under that black line, which is the edge of a dock on the pond.

Later in the day, I had to go out to retrieve some camera traps and it was SNOWY!

Keeping VERY warm in my rabbit fur Mad-Bomber hat that I got for Christmas!

Along the way, we found this interesting track on the ice...

we (Sasha and I) believe a river otter made this slide!

Slide action, no?!

This sequence of pictures I borrowed from Jeff Dyck's Flickr page. I did a simple search in Google of otter slide, and this was the best result! I was REALLY hoping to see an otter with my very own eyes this past week, but the potential slide will have to do!

And finally, to end my pictures of the Winter Ecology course, I wanted to share this compilation I made. I stood in the same spot and took pictures. I love the colors and reflections. Right place, right time! By the way, this was taken on my HTC Incredible Android...not a fancy 'real' camera!

PS- Camera trap pics to come! We got ALOT of variety!