Your Questions...

Thanks, Melissa, for reading the entire blog. (Also, thanks for your post, Jasmine.) I know there was a lot to take in! You're right, it was a very busy two weeks; but so rewarding. The two things I will miss most are the new friends that I met there (It's surprising how quickly people grow on you!) and being out in nature every day knowing that I would be learning new things.

I really loved learning how to trap and safely handle the small mammals. Even though I felt a bit timid in the beginning, by the end of the two weeks, it felt very natural and I looked forward to checking the traps twice a day. It was a great experience for me and I felt that I made a some small contribution to science and the environment.

By the way, Room 106, I forgot to answer your tree question the other day. If you get a chance to read this, the reason that the roots grew on top of the boulder was that the hemlock tree started to grow in the moss and soil on the top of the boulder.

The Invincible Team V: Mammals of Nova Scotia

Below is the photo of my Earthwatch team and a bit of biographical information, provided by my new friend Jen Griffith. Thanks Jen, for all your wonderful photography!

• Drs. Christina Buesching and Chris Newman—Principal Investigators, University of Oxford
• Jennifer Griffith—2nd Grade Teacher, Chicago, IL
• Amy Andrews—3rd Grade Teacher, Chicago, IL
• Bob Minoff—5th Grade Teacher, Long Island, NY
• Sharon Avis—Bank Compliance Manager, England, U.K.
• Carole Bradley—Retired Music Teacher, Richmond, VA
• Elaine Clubley—OR Technician, England, U.K.
• Lyman Davenport—Radiologist, Providence, RI
• Karen Elder—Telephone Co. Compliance Manager, England, U.K.
• Catherine Harkness—Physician, England, U.K.
• Cheryl Liddiard—Midwife, England, U.K.
• Jane O’Shaughnessy—Civil Servant, Ireland, U.K.
• Joan McBain—Retired, Hartford, CT
• Lycos—Chris & Christina’s dog and team mascot

Day Eleven, (Wednesday) Last Day in the Field

We are almost at the end of our journey! Checking our traps for the final time, we realize once again that out of the five that are closed, all are empty. A few other teams were still catching new red-backed voles, mostly in the clear-cut area.

Chris and Christina inform us that there will be no Deer Pellet Inventories today (oh, shucks!) but I will learn how to do a "Botanical Survey" under the direction of Christina and five other team members who are already experts. Cheryl scribed the results as the rest of us identified and counted the trees in 1o meter x 10 meter areas (just like in the DPIs.) The types of trees we found are birch, maple, service berry, various spruce species and white pine. It was enjoyable activity and we returned to base camp after surveying seven areas in the same woods in which we had been trapping.

When we got back to base, the gazebo was gone! The other members of the team had broken down the camp as we were completing the surveys. So we enjoyed our last picnic lunch and admired the work of other team members (like Bob and Carol) who were up in the trees installing bat boxes constructed by the team that had worked this site before us.

The final activity was Survival Training, taught by Chris (Dr. Newman) as Christina (Dr. Buesching) secured the rest of the site. During this training we learned about the four main survival points called PLAN: 1. Protection, moving way from danger and guarding yourself from the elements, 2. Location, figuring out where you are and where you can find help, 3. Acquisition, finding water and food sources you need for survival, and 4. Navigation, moving towards civilization with the sun as your guide.

After Chris demonstrated how to build a tree trap (very cool!) he showed us a device that can be used to make a fire. Several of us took a turn at it to see if we could create the smoke needed to make a fire. It seems I need a bit more practice, but it was certainly fun trying!

Another full day's work, and a very productive one at that. It was time to pack up the pickup and the Earthwatch bus for the drive back to Cherry Hill--but not before Jen took a team photograph--it took awhile but was well worth it!

Day Ten, (Tuesday) Field Work and "Chataway"

This morning we repeated the same sequence of trapping and then completing several rounds of Deer Pellet Inventories. My team (Team B: Jen, Bob and I) each captured and released one vole. Once again, though, we had several more traps that were closed, but turned out to be empty. We are finding that the majority of voles were being caught in the areas that Christina and Chris referred to as "clear-cut" and not the heavily forested area where you might think they would be more prevalent. This is definitely worth looking into, to find out why. Our results, so far, were different from what our P.I.s had hypothesized. Perhaps we can email Chris and Christina to find out more about what they think is happening here and why.

The latter part of the day included a trip to the "Chataway" Cafe for the teachers, so that we could go over our field notes, make contacts to the school and do some posting to our blogs. Bob took some pictures of the cafe and surrounding area. As you can tell by the photo, I was beginning to feel just a little bit tired. Our work is almost done!

In your Science Notebooks...

Did you get a chance to answer any of the journal questions in your science notebooks? Hopefully you did. First the question, “What makes a mammal a mammal?” Some of the characteristics that distinguish them are: mammary glands, sweat glands, a covering of hair, jaw articulation, ear anatomy, live birth, (or reproductive specialization), a diaphragm, and a soft palate for breathing and chewing. Some other important features are: specialized teeth for grinding and highly developed brains.

Now another important question…Why look for scat (poop)? There are many reasons it is important to locate and identify mammal droppings. The most obvious reason is that it tells us which animals reside, or at least “use” a certain area. Another reason is that it gives us an idea of population size, based on how many droppings (or piles of droppings in the case of deer) that we find. One more reason is that it can tell us about what an animal eats, and where it falls in the food chain. If scientists take a closer look at a scat sample they may also examine DNA or possibly parasite detection.

One interesting thing I learned about (white-tailed) deer is that they often contain a parasitic brain worm called a nematode. Although this parasite is not lethal to the deer, it is often lethal to the moose with which they compete. They way the moose contract the nematode is a bit complicated, but I would be happy to explain this further if anyone is interested.

Let's Talk about the Weather...

Lucy, Nicole, Devon, William and several others of you asked about what the weather is like here and more specifically about high and low temperatures. (See the picture of the weather station that is checked daily at Cook’s Lake.)

This is an interesting question because all of last week the temperature hovered around 20 degrees Celsius (which is about 70 degrees Fahrenheit) which Christina said was atypical for this time of year. As of this past Sunday, though, the temperature dropped significantly. The thermometer on our weather station read 12 degrees Celsius (which is about 54/55 degrees Fahrenheit.) So you can see that between the two weeks there has been a big change. This is, of course also having a dramatic effect on the flora, and the many deciduous trees in the area. The leaves are changing to their full fall colors right before our very eyes. Each day when we ride the Earthwatch bus to Cook’s Lake we are in for a treat of gorgeous new scenery.

This idea of temperature is very important to the science of this project. The question of the missing mice (or at least very low numbers of mice) could possibly be directly related. Isabella asked about which mammals could be affected by climate change. Could the decrease in numbers of mice be a result of change in climate? Why would this be?

One thought is that it has something to do with last year’s reportedly cold winter. The temperatures last winter here in Nova Scotia were significantly colder then average. The amount of energy that mice need for survival is directly dependent on temperature. Remember that mice have very large ears, eyes and a long tail, which means that they lose heat (energy) quickly. Voles, on the other hand, are largely adapted for colder conditions with their smaller orifices. In addition, Chris and Christina told the team that there was a snowstorm here in the late spring, which may have made it difficult for the mice to find food at a time that was crucial for them to find nourishment.

Think then of all the other animals in the food web that depend on the mice for energy. How would all of this affect them? This is a question that Chris and Christina hope to answer through their research in years to come.

Compared to Chicago

Mr. Hall and Room 202 asked about how Nova Scotia compares to the Windy City.

I have included some things about location and climate earlier in this blog, but generally Nova Scotia is considered a Canadian province and the city of Halifax is located within this larger region. Halifax has a population of about 372,000. (Remember that Halifax is where my plane flew in last week). To learn more about Halifax, please see the link at the right of this page. Much of Nova Scotia is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and so you will see a lot of fishing villages, lighthouses, harbors and marine animals Actually 4,750 miles (or 7,600 kilometers) of Nova Scotia is seacoast. Unfortunately, you can’t find lobster in Lake Michigan! Nova Scotia is generally much cooler than Chicago. Their currency (money) is currently about equal in value to the American dollar right now.

I believe it was Charlie and Joseph who asked about the forest. I found out that 87% of Nova Scotia is actually forest landscape. Good question! And yes, most of the pictures (of forested area) were taken at Cook’s Lake, which was our work site.

Your Posts/Comments

It's been a pleasure reading all of the comments and questions you've posted to the blog. I have tried to answer some of them within my daily journal (posts) but I realize that there are many I've not yet answered, so thank you for your patience. The limited access to internet has been a little challenging, but our P.I.s have made sure we have at least an hour every other day. This leaves me little time, however, to address your individual questions.

Many of the questions can be answered by scrolling through the blog. For example, all the animals I saw over the last two weeks are pictured within the posts. Sorry to report I have not seen any bears or moose as yet. Sorry Hannah and Janelle. Most of what we've seen are birds and small mammals.

Hunter and Megan, I really appreciate you taking the time to access the blog at home to read through and post questions. Let's see... My favorite things have been learning how to do capture, mark and recapture with the small mammals, and I also really enjoyed getting to know some wonderful new people (and dog.) I mentioned my non-favorite things in a new posting, which are deer poop surveys and same lunch every day.

The big track in my hiking pictures likely belongs to a brown bear. May be Bigfoot, though, you never can be too sure. I can't wait to share more information with you about field signs--mainly scat and tracks. I have a lot more pictures of these things, too, that I hope to get up on the blog soon.

There are 11 other people on the trip (not including our bosses, the P.I.s) . I will post a special feature on my team very soon. The two other teachers are Bob Minott from Long Island, New York and Jennifer Griffith, also from Chicago. No other Lincoln teachers.

Alex, Hunter and others who asked about my house, yes it is the "yellow house" pictured in my blog. Not too fancy, but it does the job quite comfortably. I share living space with Jen, Bob (the other teachers) and a fun couple, Lyman and Carol who have done 18 Earthwatch trips in the past! They are amazing and I am in awe of them.

Carly and Andrew, thanks for your question about what I was sniffing in Catherine's hand. It was not an insect...was your second guess otter poop? If so, you are correct! Again, we will talk more about scat later. By the way, Nikki and Devon, I appreciated your answers to the Science Notebook question regarding searching for scat.

They answered: You can tell if an animal is sick (very true), you can tell what lives where and what eats what (excellent) and that you can tell if an animal is affected by global warming. Follow-up question for you girls: How can deer poop give clues about animals affected by global warming? Please explain.

Beatrice, your question about the traps is an important one. Rather than trying to answering it in the next 3 minutes (the bus is on its way) I will include a specific post about trapping. It's very interesting.

Joseph and Charlie--Did you mean how big is the forest in which we're working, or how much land in Nova Scotia is wooded? Let me know, but good question.

I'm sorry if I did not get to your question, but hopefully I'll have some more time online tomorrow.

Talk to you again soon!

Day Nine, (Monday) Field Work

Today was a bit of a longer day at Cook's Lake Farm, but we definitely got a lot of work done.
As usual, we checked our mammal traps as soon as we got to the site. Pictures here are Karen with her catch, a red-backed vole, and Joan (close-up) with a bog lemming. Bog lemmings are caught much less frequently. Like voles and mice they are in the rodent family, but tend to be much smaller, and as you can see in the picture, the juveniles are dark-gray in color. My team (Team B) did not do well at all today on the trapping scene. We found six closed traps, but they were all empty!

The team completed another round of deer dropping surveys after checking our traps. Pictured are my teacher friends Jan and Bob taking a much needed rest. Of course, our project dog Lycos is never far away. Even our project leaders Chris and Christina found time for a short rest.

We ended the day with two hours of path clearing. Chris and Christina need some new paths at the lake site for future mammal monitoring, so Earthwatch Team Five was on board to help out!
I grabbed the axe, Bob OWNED the saw and Jen found a pair of hedge clippers to help her do the job. We definitely earned our dinner that night.

Before and After

I thought it might be fun to look back at day one in the field to review my reaction to my first vole-trapping experience.

As we move closer to the end of the expedition, (see black shirt picture)
I have become more confident with handling the rodents and am no longer afraid.

A couple of other differences are colder temperatures (which obviously you can't tell from the pictures) and two different vole species.

Orange shirt picture: meadow vole
Black shirt picture: red backed vole.

Day Eight, (Sunday) Continued

Once again, I've been dropped off at the internet cafe so that I can fill you in on my trip happenings..we're almost at the end. Room 106, thanks for today's post. What a great question (I will answer it in a separate post.) I will be flying back to Chicago this weekend, and ready to report to work on Monday. I can't wait to see everyone!

OK, I left off by telling you that we redeployed our Longworth traps in a forested area of Cook's Lake; very different from the first week's grassland area. Pictured is my teammate Bob setting one of our traps.

We had lunch at our base camp (the gazebo) as usual. I believe it was Hunter who asked about the things that I am NOT thrilled about. By now, I must say I am growing a bit weary of the same picnic lunch everyday, which consists of egg and tuna salads, small pieces of sausage and sandwich rolls. The deep pellet surveys are also not my favorite, but I'm getting through them.

After lunch, we were back off into the grassland (where we trapped last week) to conduct more Deer Pellet Inventories, otherwise known as poo time! Once again we measured out 10 meter by 10 meter sections to find as many scat piles as possible, which gives us an idea of the white-tailed deer population. Bob and I took some pictures of this activity so you can see the sequence. Hours of fun! Some days, we survey as many as seven sections.

The sideways picture (sorry about that I forgot to turn it before uploading) is my friend Carol holding something I learned is called a fummet. A fummet is a pile of deer droppings that has been molded together as one clump. Need I say more? See Carol looking lovingly at her fummet. I never in a million years thought I would be so excited about finding deer poop.

Day Eight, (Sunday) Back to the Field at Cook's Lake

Our day began with Chris’ presentation of the preliminary data collected from the first week of field work. This was the work that was completed only in the grassland area. He showed us how to take the numbers and plug them into a formula (called the Jolly-Seber) which would provide an estimate for each small mammal accounted for (meadow voles, bog lemmings, short-tailed shrews and mice, or should I say mouse.) This number is called the MNA, which stands for the Minimum Number Alive. The resulting numbers for each species is as follows: Meadow Voles 34, Bog Lemmings 3, Shrews 3, and Mice 1. What we actually measured is the population and the distribution of the mammals, using the common method of Capture, Mark, and Recapture.

In addition, we went over the deer population surveys that we had conducted throughout the first week. Chris showed us a method of calculating the droppings (called deer pellet groupings) in order to estimate how many deer per hectare are using (or living in) the Cook’s Lake area. We figured out that using our data, there are .375 per hectare, which ultimately comes out to about 30 deer per kilometer. According to Chris, this number was fairly consistent to what Teams 1-4 came up with this year. The number of deer living on this land affects the project because the deer eat the vegetation that serves as shelter for the rodents being monitored. When the covering is lost, the voles become vulnerable.

After the data crunching, it was back out to the field. Back at Cook’s Lake, we reset the traps at a new site, one that seemed much more challenging to maneuver. Our new site is deep in the woods and in order to set the traps we had to do some fancy footwork. Jen, Bob and I (Team E-the teacher team) hypothesized that we would not trap as many voles as we did in the grassland area. We found out that a different subspecies of vole inhabits the forest. It is called the red-backed vole, as you might guess, due to its coloration.

I will share a few more tidbits about Day Eight on Thursday, when we hopefully be able to return to the "Chataway" Cafe for the final time. Right about now, Chris and the others should be coming to pick us up in the Earthwatch bus. I hope you enjoy perusing the blog until then.

Last of the "Keji" Pictures...

Read about some of these pictures in the post below. Can you tell I really loved this place?