Cascadia Wildlife Blog
News from the Wolverine Tracking Project and more
This week teams visited Bear Springs Near, Bear Springs Far, Alpine, Glade, Government Camp West, Meadows, Clear Lake, and Yellowjacket West. Trackers visited Barlow Pass and reported back the "day of the weasel!" Tracking Trip Updates Above, mouse tracks with tail drag and a short-tailed weasel tunnel with breaks to the surface. Below, a weasel tunnel just below the surface. Incredible views on a beautiful day! Lastly, a moment in time captured in the snow in this bird's swooping track. Wildlife Camera Findings Bear Springs Near Bear Springs Near enjoyed a mid-morning visit from this bobcat only once during the set. It's nice getting to see the bobcat in color, compared to our usual black & white nighttime captures. A coyote dug a huge pit in front of the bait station. The outstanding sense of smell that all members of family canidae enjoy and utilize helped this coyote locate something buried deep in the snow. While it looks like it may have just found some old bait scraps, coyotes are fully capable of capturing live prey deep in the snow, although their methods differ from the charismatic style of foxes. Watch this video for a comparison! Government Camp West A bobcat saunters through the snow at Gov Camp West in the very early morning. A fox at Government Camp is an exciting capture! This is the second lowest elevation we have seen foxes out, outdone only by a single fox at Teacup Lake last year. Meadows
Marten bound easily across the snow, and rather than digging or pouncing like the coyotes and foxes, they will tend to seek out hollows in the snow near trees or rocks and seek out prey in their tunnels from there. It is likely that this marten has a litter at home, and if not, it will soon! Young will typically be born between March and April.
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We had camera checks at Government Camp East, Meadows, Yellowjacket West, and Alpine. We've also had two tracking trips since our last update, including a trip leader day. Tracking Trip UpdatesTrip leaders spend a beautiful day together looking at snowshoe hare and squirrel tracks, then on their way back when the day was almost over - they saw fresh bobcat tracks! Over the next few photos, notice the trapezoid-shaped heel pad and lack of claw marks in the bobcat tracks and its neat, consistent direct register walk. Are you intersted in becoming a trip leader? Participating in Cascadia Wild trainings and tracking trips is a great place to start learning the skills. As a leader, not only do you build experience participating with nature in a more intimate way, you get to share that experience with others! (Not to mention the trip leader tracking trips!) The tracking trip to Snowbunny found hare, mouse, and multiple bobcat trails and brought back some wonderful photos. Wildlife Camera FindingsWe had lots of naughty visitors in our photos this week! Okay... maybe "opportunistic" is a better word. The bait at Alpine made it about two days into the set. before... ...and after! The bait at Government Camp East made it a bit longer than Alpine, lasting for two weeks. This coyote posed for so many beautiful photos, we suppose we can forgive her. With two hours of work, perhaps she earned it... Meadows was not spared... Another thief! And so casual about it, too! Let's not forget that we had plenty of well behaved visitors, too. This bobcat at Governmetn Camp East is barely visible and was only around long enough for this single photo. Another marten leaving perfect tracks at Meadows. It visited multiple times. A coyote at Government Camp East. (Alright, this is probably the same one from earlier. But she's on good behavior this time!)
The summer season has come to an end. Thanks to all your help, we were able to get new information on 3 different target species, as well many other carnivores. Wolves A wolf pack is now confirmed to be on the Warm Springs Reservation. They also utilize parts of the Mt Hood National Forest, as seen in the photo below. Now that the pack is established, the questions become: will they be able to survive in the area long term and where will they disperse to next? We now need to keep on eye on the rest of the forest and see where they show up next! Sierra Nevada Red Fox Two cameras got Sierra Nevada red fox detections this summer, Lambertson Butte and Meadows West. The photo from Lambertson Butte went unnoticed until recently - the fox passed quickly and only left this one blurry photo. But that is enough! The Meadows West camera detected two different individuals when it was up last winter, based on their coat color. The pictures this summer could be one of the same individuals. Here are the two individuals from the winter: And here's the pictures from this summer: From the grid of cameras we had in the Meadows area, one tentative conclusion is that these fox prefer the higher elevation locations, at least during the summer. Marten Marten are known to live in high elevation, closed canopy forest, and their pictures from Lambertson Butte, Newton Upper, Meadows Ski Lift, Meadows West, and Meadows Buildings confirm this. But this summer we also got one unusal sighting - from Lemiti Creek! This site borders the Ollallie Lakes area, where they are known to live, but the site itself is in a young lodgepole pine forest that is still recovering from a severe burn. It has a thick regenerating layer of trees less than 10 ftt tall, but hardly any large trees at all. The camera only picked up one picture before it failed for the rest of the summer. Too bad! It would be great to know more about this individual. Here's a marten from the camera near Mt Hood Meadows Resort: And here's the one blurry picture from Lemiti Creek: Final tally Here's the final tally of what we found this summer. The winner for the greatest number of species goes to Jackpot Meadows, and the winner for the least number of species - but still getting a target species - is tied between Lemiti Creek, Newton Upper, and Meadows Ski Lift.
Having so much information on many different species, for many years, has creeated a great opportunity to detect any changes to the wildlife community now that wolves have moved in. We look forward to continuing the study in the years to come! Thank you all for a great season!! |
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