In nature, nothing goes to waste

My last entry described setting out cameras for my Black Bear Management Class and hoping to capture images of bears. As I reported, it was my third year conducting that activity but the first one that didn't produce bear captures. That activity ended about two weeks before the start of the regular firearm season for deer and bear, so I repositioned a few of the cameras in hopes of getting some last minute scouting in on the bucks in the area.
My Father is still recovering from his back surgery so hunting from a tree stand was not possible this

year. Instead, we set out a ground blind in a likely location, but one in which neither of us had hunted before. I set out a camera there of course.You can see the blind in the background. Notice the trail to the blind has been nicely raked so Dad would have an easy time getting to it. Although I changed cameras, this is the same set where I had placed "Bear Lure" on a dead log (foreground). We got some nice results!



The only deer photo:

A curious coyote:

And those bears we were hoping for two weeks earlier!!!

Bears rolling in "Bear Lure"

Well, opening day arrived and Dad saw no deer but he DID see these two cubs and their mother. He has no interest in shooting a bear. In addition, shooting a bear from a group of bears is not legal in our

part of New York. I was jealous of his sighting. I spent the day in my tree stand and saw no deer OR bears. The next day wasn't much better. We made plans to hunt on Tuesday. Turns out Tuesday was a far different day. Tuesday's hunt lasted a whole ten minutes. Dad had just gotten himself zipped into the blind and I had only taken a few steps away when I heard a soft whistle and turned to see his arm pointing out the side window at a buck that was walking through the woods. With a single shot, the buck was down and just like that I had my work cut out for me :). Not that I minded field dressing the deer. I made quick work of it and dragged the nice 8 point buck to level ground.
Now, I am not one to waste an opportunity. With that fresh gut pile just sitting there, I repositioned the camera in hopes of capturing whatever would come for the Thanksgiving-time feast. As you can see from the photo above, there was no snow on the ground on the day I made this set but a week later it was a different story when I went to retrieve it. It was cold. It had snowed, then rained, then froze, then snowed again. It made for some beautiful scenery:

When I got to the tree where I had left the camera, I found only a strap and attachment. This is a Cuddeback Attack so there is a plastic mounting bracket that goes on the strap. The camera can be taken off and checked and the strap remains in place. I could see some damage to the bracket and hoped it was either weather or wildlife and not a trespassing hunter. I felt around in the deep snow a bit and found the camera with no trouble. We had to take it back to camp to thaw it before I could extract the SD card and see what we had captured. First to find the gut pile were crows:

But the remaining photos (and video) were three bears: a mother and two large cubs.

I am always pleased to get bear photos but these were especially nice. First, these were certainly the same bears my Father had seen only a few weeks earlier. Second, it was interesting to see them scavenging. I wondered what their meat scats looked like. And finally, I had the camera set to take 30 second videos as well so I was treated to some excellent views of the big fat sow and her two healthy looking cubs. With so much food available this year, I was not surprised at their apparent healthy condition. I made a simple video and uploaded it to YouTube. You can view it here. Its only a few minutes long.

One final note: On our way out of the woods for lunch that day, I noticed something as we passed an apple tree near the ATV trail. Looks like our bears stopped and gave the tree a good clawing. I now have more bear sign to share with nest year's Black Bear Management students....

Well, we were hoping for bear...

Trying a "creative" overhead set

This was the third year in a row I have set cameras out at my Father's property with the goal of capturing images of bears for my Black Bear Management class. Here are last year's results and results from 2011. Let me assume most of you will NOT click on those links (even though I highly recommend you enjoy the stories) and let you know I captured bear photos in 2011 and 2012. This year, we were not as fortunate. Seven cameras were out for 12 days, including four of our new Reconyx cameras. I used the same brand of scent lure I used in previous years to attract bears and fully expected we would achieve our goal.
Some highlights:
WTD: We captured deer on each camera. Our biggest buck

One morning of snow and this lip-licking buck

The best image from my "creative" overhead set

Coyote: Five cameras captured coyote. Here are my favorites

The Reconyx seems to elicit a response from animals

But the images from the Reconyx ARE nice. Look at this distant coyote and how nice it looks, even with the high magnification I subjected it to.

Raccoon: Even though we didn't get bears, we did get their lesser "cousins". I poured the sweet smelling lure directly into a rotting log.

Below is the log I have used in the past to attract bears. If you did check out my 2012 post, this is the set that produced the bear(s) rolling. In this set, the log is running perpendicular to the camera and is just below the field of view.

 

 So no bears, but this set did have a surprise in store for us: FISHER. Multiple visits by one or more fisher made this class project a success. Fisher are increasingly common in this area but are considered recent additions. I was thrilled to get pics and will dedicate a future blog entry to them exclusively. For now, enjoy a few of the better shots:

Cropped fisher in some wet snow

Love that tail!

Rolling in the scent

We captured seven mammal species this year (less overall than past years):
-White-tailed deer
-Eastern chipmunk
-Gray squirrel
-Coyote
-Red fox
-Raccoon
-Fisher
Missing besides the black bear are common mammals in this area like red squirrel, opossum, deermouse sp., etc. I had fewer cameras but four were Reconyx (which have a wider range of detection than the Cuddebacks and therefore as a rule pick up smaller mammal species more easily). 
What will next year bring???

Why doesn't anyone care what the raccoon says?

The Shack

Last week, I attended The Wildlife Society's annual conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I flew out
of Rochester, NY on my birthday (49 this year!) and looked forward to celebrating in my own way. The conference itself was full of highlights: two of my former students presented posters while
another gave an oral presentation on her doctoral work at Penn State. Another alum and I caught up over lunch and I got to meet fellow blogger "Trailblazer" and some of his students. I even gave a presentation myself on my critical thinking unit based on the mountain lion controversy in New York. But all of that took a back seat to the post-conference field trip to Aldo Leopold's shack.

Aldo Leopold's Shack

If you are unfamiliar with Aldo, his shack or the book A Sand County Almanac stop right now and open a new browser window and buy a copy on Amazon or run to the library and check one out. I cannot attempt to explain the book here other than to assure everyone that it is an enjoyable and educational read. This book is a real favorite of mine and required reading for all of the freshmen in our degree program. The first hundred pages are the actual almanac of the book, starting in January and progressing to December, with the stories focusing almost exclusively on activities in and around the shack and property.
I teach the Leopold units (first unit is about Aldo's life while the second is more about the lessons of the book) to the freshmen and over the years have personalized the content in a way that makes teaching the first unit a real emotional experience for me. I have read SCA dozens of times and it seems the more I read it, the more connected I became to the work and to the man. And when I say emotional, I do not exaggerate. I have a confession to make: a "secret" that I just don't discuss. One year, with no warning, when I reached the part of the lecture on Aldo's life where he dies fighting a grass fire, I began to cry. I couldn't stop it. I was embarrassed. I was worried how my students would react. Surely I didn't want them to be turned off by the material but I had little control at that point either. The tears just flowed and I finished the lecture amid a perfectly silent crowd. And every year since, that emotion wells up and I can feel it coming. And every year I wonder if I should just change the lesson, make it less personal or not get so wrapped up in the story. The truth is, it takes a lot out of me and with multiple sections, I am pretty drained. But each year I receive positive feedback from my students. Not all mind you, but enough to continue to teach this section with all my heart.

Grindstone near The Shack

So you can see that I would be pretty excited to visit Leopold's shack. I had been there before, but just as I have read the book dozens of times, I wished for multiple visits to the place that inspired so much of it.
I brought two copies of SCA with me to Wisconsin. One copy was the original copy I bought as a Freshman in college; the one that is now missing both covers, has a spine that has split multiple times and is held together by a rubber band. I just had to have the old girl with me. The other is a newer book, one I will discuss later. I spent most evenings reading passages from the book as a way to wind down from the day's events and get ready for the trip to the Shack. One day I attended several presentations regarding wolf reintroductions, so I read Thinking Like a Mountain before drifting off to sleep. I visited the natural history museum one afternoon where I vaguely recalled that Leopold had somewhere written about the potential loss of species and that future generations might have to learn about birds only from specimens in museums. After much searching, I found that reference in Goose Music. I even listened to the audio version of SCA on my ipod while using the hotel's fitness center.
So it was with great anticipation that I boarded the bus on a warm October day to journey to The Shack and the recently built educational center. Among the 30+ like-minded passengers was Alyssa from Nature in a Nutshell, a former student. The chatter on the bus was diverse. Everyone had just finished a long conference and some where talking about future conference sites while others shared viral videos via smart phones. I took the opportunity to read Illinois Bus Ride:
"I am sitting in a 60-mile-an-hour-bus sailing over a highway originally laid out for horse and buggy. The ribbon of concrete has been widened and widened until the field fences threaten to topple into the road cuts. In the narrow thread of sod between the shaved banks and the toppling fences grow the relics of what once was Illinois: the prairie." Leopold goes on to recount the conversations of his fellow passengers and what they see and fail to see on the drive. I smile at the familiar words and wonder what Leopold would make of the conversations surrounding me now.
The drive seems long and I am getting cranky. I had skipped breakfast and assumed I was just misjudging the time. But as we rounded a curve and were faced with an overpass with a clearance of only 12 feet, it was clear that we had taken a wrong turn. The driver apologized and protested that he had only done what the GPS had told him to do. I tried to remain philosophical and knew the perfect passage to read to maintain my patience:
"Then came the gadgeteer, otherwise known as the sporting-goods dealer. He has draped the American outdoorsman with an infinity of contraptions, all offered as aids to self-reliance, hardihood, woodcraft, or marksmanship, but too often functioning as substitutes for them. Gadgets fill the pockets, they dangle from neck and belt. The overflow fills the auto-trunk, and also the trailer. Each item of outdoor equipment grows lighter and often better, but the aggregate poundage becomes tonnage." Wildlife in American Culture
As I sit reading, the bus backs up farther and farther. I would guess we backtracked over a mile on that road until finding a suitable space to turn around. I remarked to the passengers "I feel like Leopold sawing through the Good Oak and traveling backward in time." The comment was met with only a few chuckles.
When we arrived at the new Leopold Center, we were nearly an hour over due. Our guide got to it

quickly and explained that he would do his best to show us both sites, the Center and the Shack in the time allotted. The Center is fascinating. Until recently, it was the greenest building in the world. Some of that distinction comes from the use of local materials in the construction. Highlights for me:






The stone wall that holds the rain run-off from the roof and sends it to the native plantings is made from an old Civilian Conservation Corps building that had been torn down and saved. Our guide explained that a check of records revealed that Aldo had once lectured inside that very building. You can see some old cement adhering to the stones.

Much of the wood harvested to construct the buildings came from the original Leopold property with white pines having been planted by the Leopold's themselves. Here is a shot of the ceiling with red maple boards serving as material between the joists

But I was distracted. I was so close to the Shack! I wanted to maximize our time there. We boarded the bus for the very short trip to the shack and all exited. After a quick warning about the poison ivy, our guide told us of Aldo's purchase and the family's less than enthusiastic reaction at the condition of the Shack. We started down the path, the Shack obscured by trees that were not alive 80 years ago when Aldo purchased the property. And then, around a curve, it came into view.

We got closer and all stood in a semi-circle facing the Shack and learned of a few pieces of history. The Leopold's built an addition (left side of photo) for sleeping quarters. The chimney had to be rebuilt several times. Aldo was a bad cook.

Leopold's Shack

The first group went inside and the rest of us were encouraged to pick an apple or two. I didn't need to be told twice.
"These things I ponder as the kettle sings, and the good oak burns to red coals on white ashes. Those

ashes, come spring, I will return to the orchard at the foot of the sandhill. They will come back to me again, perhaps as red apples, or perhaps as a spirit of enterprise in some fat October squirrel, who, for reasons unknown to himself, is bent on planting acorns." Good Oak






I spent considerable time looking for bur oak acorns. Leopold writes about bur oaks several times and I really wanted to try to plant a few on my property. But those fat October squirrels (and other pilgrims to the Shack) beat me to them. I grabbed instead a handful of red oak acorns and chuckling, turned to the following: "I had a bird dog named Gus. When Gus couldn't find pheasants he worked up an enthusiasm for Sora rails and meadowlarks. This whipped-up zeal for unsatisfactory substitutes masked his failure to find the real thing. it assuaged his inner frustration." The Round River. If any of my acorns take root, I will think of Gus.

When it was our turn to enter the shack I sat at Aldo's table and listened intently. I was most curios about the artifacts on the walls, including Aldo's shovel:

"Why is the shovel regarded as a symbol of drudgery? Perhaps because most shovels are dull. Certainly all drudges have dull shovels, but I am uncertain which of these two facts is cause and which effect. I only know that a good file, vigorously wielded, makes my shovel sing as it slices the mellow loam." Pines Above the Snow






Aldo's saw:

"We let the dead veteran season for a year in the sun it could no longer use, and then on a crisp winter's day we laid a newly filed saw to its bastioned base. Fragrant little chips of history spewed from the saw cut and accumulated on the snow before each kneeling sawyer. We sensed that these two piles of sawdust were something more than wood: that they were the integrated transect of a century; that our saw was biting its way, stroke by stroke, decade by decade, into the chronology of a lifetime, written in concentric annual rings of good oak." Good Oak

Two saws were found in the Shack. The other is displayed in the Leopold Center. One of them is undoubtedly the saw used to process the Good Oak:

 Look closer at the photo above. That is Estella, The Leopold's youngest (and now only surviving)

child. I heard Estella speak in 2005 at the Wildlife Society conference in Madison, Wisconsin. And now I have another connection to Estella. Last year, I taught a brand new class called Wildlife Field Techniques. We worked hard as a group to create a class that was both educational and meaningful. No other group of students will be pioneers in the sense that these were. It was a great experience for us all and in appreciation, the students of that class arranged a gift for me. So on the last day of class the students presented me with the gift and I was genuinely surprised and appreciative. I opened the bag and found a copy of Sand County Almanac. I must confess that I was a bit confused. Surely these students knew I had a copy of this book and, seeing its disrepair thought I could use a new one. But just as surely they must know I would never give up my first copy. All confusion disappeared as I opened the book and found it pesonally inscribed to me from Estella. What an amazingly thoughtful gift!

I posed in front of the Shack on a Leopold bench with that very edition in my hands. And it was that book that I sat with and read Great Possessions while at the "holy land" itself. 

Gone now were the worries of late buses, missed meals and unfound acorns. There was only genuine happiness at my place in the sun. 

Land of the Giants: The Pantanal

Giant otter, Brazil (8/13)

The Pantanal of Brazil truly is home to giants. The tallest bird in South America (Greater Rhea), massive reptiles like the anaconda and caiman and the largest rodent in the world (capybara) all roam the Pantanal. There are even three species of mammal with the moniker "giant": an armadillo, an anteater and an otter. This post is about the latter.

We were fortunate enough to see TWO species of otters on our trip to the Pantanal. Both sightings, about 24 hours apart, were from boats while on the Paraguay River. It was our second day on the river when our boatman spotted this family of giant otters. There were seven in total, but I never did manage a photo of them all together. We had another john boat with us and I thought for sure our time with the otters would be brief. I mean, look at their reactions above. By the time we got the boat stopped and I took my first photo, two of the otters (adults??) had already bolted for the safety of the water. The rest sure looked ready to follow. But as the anchors were deployed and the engines turned off, the otters seemed to quickly forget about us. We spent about 45 minutes watching their antics. Here are some of my favorite photos:

Giant otters at den site, Pantanal Brazil (8/13)

Here is a photo I took without too much magnification. It gives you a better idea of what the scene looked like without the benefit of a telephoto lens. A massive tree had blown over and the otters were loafing on the sandy spot left behind.  I believe the actual den entrance is to the left of the screen under the upturned root mass. There are several spots that look like holes directly under the otters, but no one ever went in them. You can also clearly see the slide in this photo.

I said our boatman Mota spotted these otters, and he did. We were cruising along at a good clip when suddenly the boat slowed. As it did, Danika turned her head and saw the animals on shore and screamed "SEALS!". She quickly recognized her error (no seals in the interior of Brazil...) but as we watched the giant otters, I could see how her initial impression was formed. Below is the seal-like face a giant otter makes when a sibling crawls over its back just after it had gotten comfortable:

Giant otters, Pantanal of Brazil

Curious giant otters

Giant otters are social animals, staying in family units that may exceed a dozen animals. So our group of seven wasn't unusual and may have been a mated pair and five young (either all the same age or from different litters). The otter to the left has a particularly young looking face to me. I don't have any scientific reason for saying that, but I think you will agree. And those chest markings! What beautiful animals. They were a bit curious about us, but as you will see, they seemed unconcerned.
Several sources list the giant otter as reaching lengths of over 6 feet, making it the longest otter species in the world. Only sea otters are heavier and that is due to the need for thick layers of insulating fat. Still, a 70 pound giant otter is a sight to behold.








You can get some sense of their size in the photo below.

Giant otter exiting the water

Here is that same individual giving us a look before settling in for a snooze with the other otters. Notice a few things: first, that is a classic mustelid pose.Otters are members of the weasel family and that otter on the left is showing you the typical elongated body of most weasels. Second, have a look at the shape of the tail. It looked more like a blade or rudder than the thick rounded tail I am used to seeing on our North American river otters here in New York. Finally, the throat patch revealed that this was one of the otters that scattered as the boats approached. Soon, the comings and goings of the otters became too confusing to monitor effectively and I gave up trying to keep track of who was who :)

Thick fur of giant otter

This otter found a place to sit and immediately started to groom itself. In the photo below, you can see the MASSIVE hind foot rising to scratch at the fur near the animal's side. Each toe and the heel pad are covered in sand, giving them stark relief from the dark wet fur. Note that this otter still has its eyes firmly glued on us:

Giant otter grooming its fur

Perhaps my favorite of all the photos is the action shot below. One of the names given to otters is "lobo de rio" or "river wolf". This probably refers to the fact that the otter is a top predator in the water like the wolf is on land. But when this otter was done scratching it shook itself in a completely dog-like fashion, just like a river wolf should:

Giant otter shaking off water

Giant otter climbing river bank

Next to arrive was the second (adult?) otter that had slipped away at our approach. Look at that tail! And look how easily this otter navigates the slide. The younger otters were smaller and not as well muscled and their struggles getting up the slide showed it. I wondered how they managed when they were younger...














Now that the family was reunited, it was time for some serious sleeping. I believe it was about 9 am when these photos were taken and the sun was not too high in the sky yet. As the otters snuggled in to their rests, I could never get a photo of all seven visible at one time. And I quickly learned that these brothers and sisters just couldn't quite get comfortable:

Sleeping giant otters

Young giant otters

This one needs a new spot, but it simply must crawl over everyone else to get there. Notice the long tail practically being dragged over the head of an unlucky sibling. And that's a hind foot sticking out as this short-legged creature ventures over the back of not one but two resting otters.







And it is too bad for you if you happen to try to use your brother's tail as a pillow and he decides that his neck is just too itchy to go unattended. A great look at the massive hind foot of a giant otter:

Scratching giant otter

"OK, I'm up, I'm up." Although those look like testicles, I think they are scent glands. Any opinions out there?

This is another favorite shot. I call this one "gato de rio" :)

 Here is my best look at a front foot of the giant otter. There are five toes on the front and rear feet and they are fully webbed. These guys look like powerful swimmers.

Front foot of giant otter

Several yawns and stretches signified that nap time was over. Although this is merely a harmless yawn, I couldn't help but be impressed by the dentition AND the size of the opening. One can also get a sense for how well-muscled those jaws are by how thick and full the cheek bulges are.

Giant otter yawning

Napping (and yawning) over, it was time for the otters to head into the water. At first this was an orderly affair. Each otter took a turn going down the slide, slipped underwater and emerged in the vegetation somewhere to the right or left of the slide. This kept me busy and soon otter heads were periscoping all over the place. I confess to have missed more shots than I got, but managed to enjoy the show nonetheless.

Giant otter emerging from the vegetation

 I wonder if the dip in the river was to regulate temperature or for grooming or both. It surely didn't seem to be about fishing, as the otters did not spend very much time in the water. Down one would go and up would come another. Once back up at the loafing spot, the otter would roll in the sand:

A few even appeared to groom each other

"Pardon me!"

Soon all was bedlam, with otters coming and going so quickly that I didn't even notice that there were fewer and fewer until suddenly they were gone. I am guessing there was an underwater entrance to that den (the dry season had just begun, so the river would drop substantially as the months progressed) as is common with our otters. Seven otters X 45 minutes = 287 photos. In all that time, no one in either boat spoke above a whisper. We passed that den site three more times on our journeys and never saw a single otter. It was a classic "right place/right time" situation and I am glad the photos came out as well as they did.

You can imagine that we were feeling a bit spoiled at this point. It is hard to quantify: Giant otters are endangered and pretty rare but they are seen regularly enough in protected areas that many tour groups get to see them. But not all views are as leisurely as ours was. In fact, the Van Niel family saw giant otters once before (in Peru), but they swam past us without as much as a greeting. So although these were not "lifers" the experience was a highlight of the trip. At the time, though, we didn't realize that our otter adventures were only half over....
Twenty-four hours after our giant otter adventure, we found ourselves in a different stretch of the Paraguay River looking for the elusive jaguar. Instead, we found the Pantanal's other otter, the neotropical otter.

Neotropic otter, Pantanal of Brazil

Laura gets the credit for spotting this one (as well as immediately recognizing that it was different than the otters we had seen the day before). At left is a good approximation of what it looked like without the aid of a telephoto lens. This otter was alone (as is typical for this species) and using a natural cave exposed in the clay by the receding water levels of the dry season. I took my first photo at 8:47 AM and the otter was just finishing off a fish...


Smaller (only about 4.5 feet long) and much lighter, the neotropic otter more closely resembles the North American river otter I am used to. This individual seemed completely unconcerned by our presence. I do not even remember him lifting his head from the grisly task of eating that fish.

Neotropical otter eating fish

As he worked the fish over, I was able to get a good look at its teeth. Sharp canines in the front and slicing carnassial molars on the side...

He left the head behind and took a long drink of water before entering the river to continue fishing. Notice the blood on its right front foot. I think that is all fish blood, but at the time I wasn't so sure. But notice that when we see him again, the paw is clean.

Below is one of my favorite photos of this guy. I just like the contrast of the green vegetation.

Neotropical otter, Pantanal Brazil

Whereas the giant otters were playful and almost lazy, this guy was all business. No sooner would he enter the water than he would emerge again with a fish! We saw him catch four fish (plus the one he was eating when we arrived) in the 23 minutes we watched him. I don't know if the fishing is always that easy, but it was on this day.

Neotropical otter with fish on the Paraguay River

Now, as otter pictures go, the one below is not all that special. But it is the only one that clearly shows the head of the fish he caught. Add the leftover head from the previous fish and I wonder if any of you gill heads out there can help me identify them.

He got to work on the new fish tail-first. We slowly maneuvered the boat so I could get a clearer view.

I am pretty pleased with the telephoto lens on that Nikon!

and

Neotropic otter eating fish in the Pantanal

 No leftovers this time...

 He paused again to take a drink, but I missed it. Still, an interesting shot of him headed into the water.

When he came up with his next fish, he chose a decidedly more secluded location. We sat and watched as he ate, marveling at our luck. Two species of otter in two days. According to Karen our guide, sightings of this otter are rarer than the giant otter.

Neotropic otter in the wild

Our experiences with Pantanal Ecoexplorer were exceptional. Our guide and boatman took the time to explain what we were seeing and allowed us to view the animals from a distance that did not disturb their natural behavior. We left the Pantanal knowing that we had been blessed with good weather, good people and great wildlife sightings.

Sunset on the Paraguay River, Brazil