The very lucky safari family or "Not a good day to be a porcupine."

I wanted to write something special for my 100^th post and have had my heart set on telling our African porcupine saga. It isn’t that I have any shortage of things to write about. We have just finished our Conservation Field Camp and I have more I can post from that. The Cuddeback Attack in out half-hedgerow has been getting some nice displaying woodcock video. And I am currently writing this entry while in the Chicago airport waiting to meet family in Yellowstone National Park. But all of that will have to wait…

M'tanganika (center) our guide in Tanzania
(8/11, Tanzania)

Last August, our family vacation was a photo safari to Kenya and Tanzania. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we travelled through African Servalcat Safari and have nothing but great things to say about their service. Every detail was arranged for us. Our guide in Kenya was William and over the course of the ten days we spent with him he became a part of our extended family. So it was an emotional departure at the border between Kenya and Tanzania. William handed us over to M’tanganika with a handshake and some instructions. “John likes to look at the birds and Laura wants to see a leopard in a tree.” M’tanganika said he would do his best!
Guides from Kenya are not allowed to work in Tanzania (and vice versa) so we spent our final leg of the safari with M’tanganika with Leopard Tours. I am not sure if ALL the guides in this part of the world are as capable and friendly as our two were or if we were just lucky. Our experience in Tanzania was every bit as flawless as our time in Kenya. And it was in Serengeti National Park that we had our most dramatic encounter. Four species of mammal and two species of birds played a role in the drama that unfolded. In addition, the entire story occured with no other visitors present! In the midst of one of the busiest national parks in the world, we found solitude. And that made the experience all the more enjoyable.

I can still hear M’tanganika’s voice in my head as I remember him telling us how the day would unfold. With our agreement, we would load into the Land Rover with our camera gear, binoculars and boxed lunches, turn off the radio and “disappear into the bush”. This style of searching for wildlife was a point of pride for him. He made a point to tell us more than once that there were many guides out there that would merely listen to the CB radio chatter among the guides in order to find game. We would have our own adventure and feel that sense of accomplishment that comes with earning your rewards. We all liked that idea. So much so that Danika took to calling the other guides “vultures” for feeding on the information left-overs…

Crested porcupine
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

The rules of the Park say that vehicles must stay on the existing tire tracks  worn into the ground. There were plenty of those tracks to choose from. And it seemed everywhere we went, there was wildlife. We found a pride of lionesses and cubs that totaled 21 in all. We saw all three species of jackal. We saw a leopard – in a tree of course. And we saw birds. We were all having a fantastic time. As we rounded a bend I saw a shape ahead of us that my mind kept telling me was a bear cub . I knew I was wrong and convinced myself that I was SO wrong that it wasn't even an animal at all. But as we got closer it moved and I knew what it was: a crested porcupine.  This is a vastly different species than the porcupine of North America. For more info on "our" porcupine, view this entry from Bearly Alyssa

Hyena and crested porcupine
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

We were so excited to see this animal out and about in daylight. Our guide said this was only the third one he had ever seen in his entire life and the other two had each been dawn sightings. We were so excited by our find that we never thought to ask "Why?" -- as in "Why WAS this porcupine out of bed in the middle of the day. We snapped a few photos and continued on our way. We progressed about 10 minutes down the road when M'tanganika suggested we turn around and try another route. That suggestion made all the difference in our safari! As we reapproached the porcupine, I could see that it had retreated into the bushes and a spotted hyena was very close by. I assumed the hyena was harassing the porcupine but as we got closer, I could see the hyena was eating something.

Spotted hyena eating crested porcupine
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

At first, we thought the hyena was eating young porcupines. I did not know that more than one porcupine adult would be found in a den, so it was a logical (if incorrect) conclusion. In addition, the size of the item the hyena was eating was small.  In the photo to the right you can see a few quills sticking out of the hyena's mouth.

Spotted hyena trying to remove porcupine
quills (8/11, Serengeti National Park)

The story was beginning to unfold. We knew that the hyena had killed a porcupine (still thinking it was a juvenile) but we had yet to meet all of the players. As I was taking photos, my daughter Danika was taking video. This first clip is about two minutes long and shows some interesting behavior. In the photo on the left you can see the hyena trying to work some quills loose from its mouth. In the video, I call this tool use and I stand by that assessment here. Using a woody branch or forb to remove quills from its mouth, the hyena was utilizing an object in a novel way. There is no one definition of "tool" so there is no consensus on what constitutes tool use. This hyena never modified the vegetation so that it performed the required task better, so perhaps this is akin to an animal rubbing against a tree to relieve an itch. Comments welcomed!





Here is the first segment of video shot by my daughter Danika Van Niel:

The bat in the video turned out to be an Egyptian slit-faced bat. They are known to live in porcupine burrows and as this video shows, that includes active ones. There turned out to be two bats present and we watched them fly in and out of the den several times. I have one nice photo of a bat here:

Egyptian slit-faced bat
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

In addition to this photo of a perched bat, Danika was able to snap a picture of one in flight:

Egyptian slit-faced bat in flight
Photo credit: Danika Van Niel
(8/11, Serengati National Park)

Spotted hyena carries crested porcupine carcass
(8/11: Serengeti National Park)

But back to the hyena.... At the end of the video clip, the hyena was cleaning its mouth of quills. Apparently, it had gleaned all the meat it could from that meal and was ready for more. We watched as it entered the porcupine den and since we were still under the impression that it had killed a young porcupine, we thought it was going for another. After a few short minutes, the hyena reemerged with its actual kill, the mate of the live porcupine. What a sight! The hyena could barely lift its head high enough to keep the carcass from dragging on the ground. Our guide kept telling us that we were a very lucky safari family to be seeing such sights. We agreed.

It is easy to cast the hyena in the roll of the villian. It is creepy looking. It laughs in an almost maniacal way. And we often have a soft spot for the underdog. But as the events unfolded, we began to feel sorry for the hyena too...

With the carcass removed, the remaining porcupine immediately headed for the protection of the burrow. Check out that foot in the second photo.

Watch another clip from Danika's video. It is a little over two minutes long and you get to hear the "laugh" of the hyena as it echoes from underground as well as our genuine reactions of suprise and amazement as the hyena emerges with the porcupine kill. As the video ends, we notice several other hyenas coming in to try for a bit of food.

I have some really graphic photos of the hyena tearing apart its meal, but I will leave those for class. Here, let me post one that is only sort of gross :)

Spotted hyena eating crested porcupine
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

Within two minutes of this hyena bringing its kill to the surface, other scavengers took notice. First, it was a handful of hyenas. Our original hyena stood its ground!

Spotted hyena defending its kill
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

In the end, the hyena had to relinquish some of his kill. He kept the biggest chunk for himself but lost out on some of the smaller pieces. It may be a better idea to loose a little to keep a lot and stay safe rather than try to have it all. Then the vultures arrived. I will have to consult my journal (not with me at the moment) to determine the species, but I do remember that there were two kinds. Here is a nice shot of the vultures soaring in. They never did get any of the meal...

At one point, Laura prophetically comments that it would be awesome if a lion came in and stole the kill. Well, a lioness saw the vultures decend and knew what that meant. M'tanganika was the first to spot her charging across the plains towards the scene laid out before us. In the photo below, you can make out a small dot in the upper center -- that is her.

African lion approaches hyena with kill
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

As the hyenas notice the lion, they scatter. As she rushes into the scene, she is unable to locate the food. She trots from one hyena to the next trying to locate the food. When she didn't find anything, she went to see if the vultures had the food. That gave the hyenas the opportunity they needed. Two of them rushed to the carcass and each managed a small chunk of food before the lion rushed them and claimed the "lion's share" for herself.

The first thing the lion did was to lick the kill. I am not sure why. Maybe she had previous experience with porcupines and knew to smooth out the quills. Maybe she was licking off blood and getting some nutrition. Perhaps it was a way of replacing the hyena scent with her own. Maybe it was none of these. But it did make for a nice photo.

African lion claims crested porcupine carcass
(8/11, Serengeti National Park)

After only a few bites, she picked up her carcass and headed back in the direction she came. A few hyenas followed, hoping for some scraps. We watched her depart knowing that we had just witnessed something truly amazing. If I had to select a single photo from the entire African safari as my favorite, it would be the one below.

Notice the position of her ears. She is looking ahead but listening behind. The reason is evident in this photo:

African lion with trailing hyenas
(8/11, Serengati National Park)

An hour had passed since we started. We were hungry, hot and drained. Only one hyena remained; THE hyena, the one that started it all and made the original kill. It did not follow the other hyenas. He watched as the vultures flew off. When he was alone, he turned and headed to the porcupine burrow to procure another meal...

EPILOGUE: We waited for another hour. We had no idea what was happening underground -- whether the hyena would be able to repeat his feat or not. We waited. We decided to eat our box lunches. The smell of our food wafted into the porcupine burrow and out popped the hyena, seeing if he could get an easier meal. We of course, did not feed him. But as he stared at us intently, we could see the evidence that below our feet was a fight for life. Once the hyena concluded we were not a source of food, it headed back into the burrow. We left before the final chapter was written.

My First Bat Photo

Bat in flight
(Richmond, NY 9/2011)

At our Muller Field Station, we have a storage building that has bats roosting in the seems between the boards. So I set up a camera trap by clamping a 2x4 scab to the eave of the overhang. Well, after two weeks I managed a single bat photo! This was not the first time I tried to get a photo of a bat. I read somewhere that researchers used an eraser suspended from a wire to draw bats to the camera. However, that attempt (written about here) produced no bat photos. I mention all of this because I am sure by now you have seen the photo I am so excited about and are a bit underwhelmed..... But I was excited to see the results. One wing is better than none! :)

Mist netting for bats!!! PART II

Tanner DeWolf erects bat mist net
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

Our second night of mist netting for bats was as exciting as our first (see previous post). Again, the nets were placed in the woodlot along the main pathway. This provided a clear area for the nets themselves with a canopy overhead. Apparently, this is an ideal situation to capture many bat species. I know from mist netting birds that a net placed in the open is often spotted and avoided. I could only imagine that the canopy cover provided a barricade of sorts funneling the bats into the nets rather than around them. As I mentioned in my last post, we used three nets stacked on top of each other. This requires some very tall and light poles. Micheal and Tanner had a rig that consisted of four aluminum poles that fit together via tapered ends. At the top of the end pole was a pulley so the net could be raised and lowered like a flagpole. At the bottom of the first pole was a cleat to wrap the pull rope around. Each net also had two guide lines from the top that got tied off at angles to help secure the pole.

Even more interesting than the pole was the rig used to attach the nets. As you may have seen in my posts regarding mist netting birds, the elastic loops of the net are simply wrapped around the pole and if I need to lower the net, I simply tug on it until it slides down. However I am not stacking three nets on top of each other (the top of the highest net rises to about 25 feet off the ground). For the bat nets, a simple but ingenious series of PVC pipe slices and carabiners  is used to attach the nets. These PVC cookies are attached to a rope that can raise and lower the series. It worked very well and kept the nets properly spaced to boot.

Tanner assists John Van Niel in attaching mist nets
(Photo by: Elaina Burns)

As with the first night, we set the nets at sunset and noted the time. We were to check the nets every ten minutes. On the very first net check, we watched a bat actually fly right into the net. And to our surprise and delight found it was a red bat! First off, this was a new species for us. Secondly, it was really striking. That reddish color was amazing. Finally, Micheal had told us that we were far more likely to catch "cave bats" rather than "tree bats" as the tree bats tended to fly higher, above the tree canopy. And the red bat is one of the three species of tree bats in NY State. Tree bats roost singly, often under the bark of trees while cave bats roost colonially, often in caves. But common names can be deceiving. If I found a group of little brown bats roosting in a hollow tree, they would still be cave bats :)

Removing red bat from mist net
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

Here is a photo of Clinton Krager taking the bat out of the net. Notice the sharp fold at the tip of the wing on this species. At first, I assumed the wing was damaged! But that is normal for this species. That fold is literally the last joint of a finger bone. Bats are in the Order Chiroptera which translates to "hand wing" and that is a good description of their anatomy. The bones you see that form the support for the wing membrane are finger bones. Note that the thumb has remained small and usually has a sharp nail to aid in climbing. By the way, most of the bats we removed from the nets squawked and showed their teeth. This bat was not in pain but clearly he was not happy.

Dorsal side of a red bat showing the furred tail
and wing membrane
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

We brought the bat to Micheal to confirm the identification and he showed us a few other key characteristics of tree bats. He had mentioned that they were hairier than the cave bats during our Friday lecture, but I wasn't sure what he meant. Here he shows us the fully furred rear of the tail as well as the partially furred back of the wing. I wonder if these are adaptations to retain heat for a species that roosts alone rather than in a group.

Measuring the forearm of a red bat
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

There are some standard measurements taken on all bat species. In the last entry, I talked about measuring the tragus (inside the ear). Here is a photo of Micheal measuring the forearm of the red bat. He told us that it is standard to take all measurements on the right side of the animal and that forearm measurements are unique to bats. There would be little use in taking that metric in other types of mammals.

Inspecting the nipple of a red bat
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

While taking measurements, Micheal determined that this bat was pregnant. He pointed out the somewhat obvious bulge and remarked that the weight of the pup (or two in some species) is a considerable load for the mother and impacts her ability to fly and specifically on her ability to take off. Micheal gently blew on the hairs of the bat (much as I do on the feathers of a bird when I look for a brood patch) in order to expose the nipples. Since her nipples were hairless, that indicated that she had been a successful breeder in the past. Apparently, once a pup nurses, the hairs on the nipple are worn off and are never replaced. It is not possible to tell how long ago she had young or how many of them she produced. But it is a good measurement that shows she HAS been successful in the past. I am willing to bet that most people have never thought of bat milk before! :)

Mist netting for bats!!! PART I

Big brown bat in mist net
(6/11, Canandaigua, NY)

I just got my first taste of mist netting for bats and I am hooked! I have been catching birds for almost 15 years but have no experience with bats. Thanks to a grant from the NSF, several of us have been able to participate in training to increase our field research skills. Clinton Krager from the Science Department wanted to start a project on bats and I asked to tag along for the training he would need to receive.

Step one in the process was to find someone willing to conduct the training. I suggested Micheal Fishman, whom I first met through our mutual volunteerism at the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge about a decade ago. Micheal readily agreed and a date was settled for early June.

Step two was to get our rabies pre-exposure vaccinations. This was a series of three shots, over about a month and is the same as what one would receive AFTER a bite.

Clinton Krager (center) and Micheal Fishman (right)
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

The evening started with all participants (faculty, staff, students and alums of FLCC) enjoying a very informative presentation by Micheal while we scarfed down pizza and soda and peppered him with questions. We learned what to look for in identifying the nine species of bats in NY while in the hand as well as a fair amount of anatomy and physiology. The lecture concluded with a discussion of rabies and of course, white nose syndrome (WNS). For those of you not familiar with WNS, let me refer you to the NYS DEC website for more information.

Micheal uses a triple stacked net rig. On this day, we erected three sets, each six meters wide and 2.6 meters high. Each handler was required to wear leather gloves with rubber gloves over them. The rubber gloves were thrown out before a new bat was handled to reduce the chances of transferring anything (such as fungus or rabies virus) from one bat to another.

Our catch for the night:
Seven big brown bats
One little brown bat
Since we did not mark the bats, we cannot confirm (but suspected one) any recaptures. We got to see males and females (one pregnant) and Micheal taught us how to evaluate the nipple to determine if the females had been successful breeders in the past.

Tanner DeWolf removes bat from mist net
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

I found the process of removing the bats from the mist net similar but not identical to removing birds. For example, birds do not bite through nets as the bats seemed to do. In addition, the wings on a bat are just shaped so differently from bird wings that I had some difficulty working the net over them at first. When I first started netting birds, I always carried a small Swiss army knife so I had scissors and a toothpick handy. The scissors are a last resort, but the toothpick worked great to tease the net off a toe or over the alula feathers. Micheal and his assistant Tanner used mechanical pencils to help them get the net strands off the bats and it worked like a charm.

John Van Niel removing bat from mist net
(Photo by Elaina Burns)

We only caught one little brown bat, but I got to take it out of the net. To tell you the truth, I wasn't sure of the identity of the species until Micheal confirmed it for us at the processing station. As I get to handle more bats, I am sure that I will get better at identifying them in the hand.

Measuring the tragus on a
little brown bat

Bat bands
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

We did not band the bats but Micheal showed us the bands. On a bird, you band just above the toes. On a bat, you place the band on the wing. Further, a bird band is closed completely around the bird's "leg" (actually the foot... for some discussion and photos about bird banding see this post ) while a bat band is pinched onto an arm bone (sort of like an ear cuff is placed on a person's ear).






The final two photos of this entry show photos of back lit wings of two different big brown bats (they were pretty imaginative when they names these species weren't they??). The back lighting shows any necrotic tissue present that may be from WNS. This first photo does not show much damage. You are looking for small white spots...

In this next photo, the damage is more extensive.

Photographing wing to show necrotic tissue
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)

And this was all on Friday! I still have Saturday to write about....

Clinton Krager
(6/11, Canandaigua NY)