Winter tracking: Red Fox

This winter has been marked by a large amount of snow and long periods of below freezing temperatures. Although the temperature was only about 24F it was sunny and I strapped on the cross

Red fox
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

country skis to retrieve one of my camera traps. Turns out there has been a lot of fox activity at that site, both red and gray. At right, a red fox noses under the snow for food.











Next, a gray fox appears after a fresh snow:

Gray fox
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

Red fox leaving a trail in the snow
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

I have been looking at animal tracks in the snow for years. Tracks and trails in the snow are often easy to identify. Up until recently, I have been focusing exclusively on the track itself. This winter, I have paid attention to the changes to the snow below the track. The weight of the animal compresses the snow, packs it down and makes it harder. If you find a trail that has fresh snow on top of it, you could try to gently brush away the new snow and uncover the harder lumps left behind. you could confirm track size, gait and perhaps even direction of travel.
What I found today was a bit different. Instead of fresh snow covering an old trail, I discovered an

Two red fox trails
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

old trail that had been scoured by strong winds. The hard compressed snow at the bottom of each track remained while all the other snow was whisked away. In the photo at right, the new trail is towards the bottom of the screen and the older trail is above that. Both foxes are travelling to the left. You can see the shadow of my head in the photo for some scale.

Old fox tracks that have been scoured by wind
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

Here is the same scene but a bit closer. I know that photos of tracks can sometimes produce an optical illusion and it is difficult to see what is depressed and what is raised. In this photo as in the one above, the upper most trail is raised and the lower trail is the fresh trail with impressions in the snow. If you look closely at the upper tracks, you can see that they are almost an inch above the rest of the snow.

Here is another view. What is amazing here is that for three steps, this fox matched the old trail perfectly. There is a good chance that this is actually the very same fox taking the very same trail maybe a week apart. I have added some shadow here to provide some depth to the photo. Can you tell the direction of travel? I can.

Compare a fresh and old red fox track in the snow.
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

There are two pieces of evidence that I can see in the photo that tell me the old trail is heading towards the top of the image. First, if you look closely you can see the faint impressions of the toe pads as well as the palm pad. They are faint, but they are there. Secondly, notice that there is a slight uptick to the hard pack at one end. That is the back of the track. It is literally the spot where the leg itself bore some of the weight of the animal as it stepped in the snow

Red fox track
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/15)

I scooped the track up and held it in my hand. I smiled thinking that I was probably the only person in the world that was holding a fox track at that very moment. I turned it in the bright sunlight to catch the shadows along the surface. I scraped off all the excess snow until I was left with the hardened lump. I was pleased with myself. It had been a good walk. I felt the cold track in my bare hand and thought of the animal that had made it. It was time to head home. On an impulse, I took a big bite out of the fox track and dropped the rest. A perfect ending to my lesson in the snow.

Woodchuck action through the lens of a Reconyx

Last year at this time I was playing with a new Cuddeback Attack and its video feature. I wrote

Woodchuck

several blog entries you can check out via the label "woodchuck" at this blog. This year, I decided to put out our new Reconyx camera at the same location and compare the results.
The Reconyx model we have does not take video, but it does take a burst of three photos in a row and then almost immediately is ready to take another burst of three. So I have been playing around with turning those still photos into a video. I am pleased with the results so far.
Two behaviors have emerged this week worth blogging about: Biting and the gathering of nesting material. 

Most, if not all squirrel species bite in order to leave scent behind. The glands are located in the cheek region and the actual bite may serve to anchor the face to the branch or serve as a visual marker or release aromatic chemicals from the wood or....??? :)

Regardless, my woodchuck has been active again this year at the small trunk at the entrance to its burrow. I have captured several nice images of it in action:

Woodchuck biting

Woodchuck biting and scent marking sapling

 

Several species have been captured investigating the entrance including raccoon, feral cat, striped skunk and this red fox. Red foxes will often take old woodchuck dens as their own and I wonder of this one had designs on housing or dinner...

Red fox at the woodchuck hole

Red fox sniffing a woodchuck's scent mark

That was five days ago and the fox has not appeared since.

The behavior I wanted to show is the gathering of nesting material. I only have images of this from a single day, but it happened twice.

I am not sure exactly where we are within the breeding process. Is this a precursor to mating or is this a sign that babies are nearly upon us? Is this a female? And is this even a natal nest being created? Why can't this just be a woodchuck cozying up the place without any expectation that the stork will be making any deliveries? Regardless, the Reconyx takes so many photos that they are of near video quality. I took all the photos associated with this event and put them in Movie Maker. Each still is up for .33 seconds. Have a look:

There are more stories to be told from this camera set. Stay tuned!

Mangy red foxes

I have not one but two sad looking red foxes on the camera traps lately. I am certain they are different foxes as one has retained a poodle-like puff at the end of its tail. I do not know much about mange other than it is caused by mites. The firs photo is from a Cuddeback Capture and the second a Reconyx...


Red fox with mange
(Seneca Falls, NY 3/13)



Red fox with mange
(Seneca Falls, NY 3/13)



One more photo. Last summer, a Cornell University graduate student placed a hair snare on my Father's property with the intention of collecting black bear hairs for genetic analysis. This is one of several photos fromt hat set. It was suggested to me that this bear had mange or some other parasite issue. It certainly looks like a thin coat on the back- compared to the front-half of this bruin. And I can say no other bear showed this pattern, so perhaps this does indicate a problem of some degree.

Black bear with thin coat
(Fremont, NY 8/12)

FLCC Conservation Field Camp 2012

Team WILDLIFE
(l to r: Madie, Clinton, John, Alyssa)

Last week was spent at our residential field course CON 190: Conservation Field Camp. The course is required for our Conservation, Conservation Law and Environmental Studies majors. It is one week of looooong days at Camp Cutler Scout Camp in Bristol, NY (Resulting in a loooonng post here). The students rotate among different disciplines throughout the week. For faculty, this means repeating the same day over and over with different students. I spent the week with co-instructor Clinton Krager and our two Technicians Madie and Alyssa. Activities included small mammal trapping, Breeding Bird Atlas protocol, GPS, tracking, and of course camera trapping.
Here are some highlights --

Lactating Peromyscus
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Small mammal trapping was a huge success. Clinton runs the trap lines and had 60 Sherman traps set out in brushy and grass habitats. We captured four species this year with the big miss being meadow vole. Many of the critters were in breeding condition as indicated by swollen mammaries. Students took turns taking animals from the traps, handling them safely and applying ear tags.

Notice the swollen mammaries between the hind legs of this Peromyscus sp. Once animals were processed, they were returned to the spot they were captured.

An additional 12 traps were set specifically to target flying squirrels. They were set in a hardwood forest at about five feet off the ground. Traps are attached to the trees using surveyors flagging. Each day we caught two or three flying squirrels and they were a huge hit with the students. Although flying squirrels are common in our area, they are not commonly seen. We have both northern and southern flyers and sometimes catch both species.

Clinton and Madie affixing a flying squirrel trap
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

We have found that putting the critters in a glass jar helps to calm them down. In most cases, the animals will almost immediately calm down and even groom themselves. It also helps the students to see the animal at leasiure. Below is a flying squirrel:

Flying squirrel
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Flying squirrel patagium
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

We did not ear tag any of the squirrels so I am not sure how many individuals we captured. We would release the squirrels and watch as they climbed a tree. Often, the squirrel would then launch itself to another tree to the delight of all. I have yet to capture a photo of that though so you will have to settle for a picture of the crowd in rapt anticipation.

The results of our camera trapping were equally exciting. We placed 12 cameras out a week before the class and then pulled SD cards from some each day. We tallied 12 species of mammal and five species of birds. Here are some of the better ones:

Mammal species captured:

-White-tailed deer
-Red fox
-Raccoon
-Opossum
-Striped skunk
-Weasel sp. ***
-Woodchuck
-Gray squirrel
-Red squirrel
-Eastern chipmunk
-Flying squirrel sp.
-White-footed mouse sp.

 We had no shortage of raccoon photos. One in particular looked like a young coon. Note the color on this photo. This is the Cuddeback Attack with infrared and I believe that this color occurs when there is some ambient light but the flash still triggers.

Young raccoon
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

This same location also produced an adult coon. Check out the bin int he background. That is an inverted tote with one side cut out so animals can enter. Inside is some bait at the far end of a home made track board (wish I had a photo for you). The bait is at the raf end of the board. At the near end of the board is a piece of felt saturated with "ink" (mineral oil and food coloring). In the center of the board is contact paper, sticky side up. When an animal leaves its tracks on the contact paper, a piece of white paper can be stuck to it so they can keep the prints without getting smudged.

Raccoon
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

 We inspected the logs and found very clear coon tracks. I only had my cell phone so the photo is not the best. See if you can find any of the distinct five-toed tracks....

Raccoon tracks
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

I am always anxious to show students size comparisons between different animals. The results from the Field Camp cameras allowed me to create a few spliced images that show two species "together" in order to directly compare their sizes. First up, gray squirrel size compared to red squirrel.


Composite image of gray and red squirrel
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

The spliced together photo was created using Paint. I am pretty much a novice in this area and welcome any and all comments and suggestions.

This next image is a gray squirrel comared to an Eastern chipmunk in size.

Composite image of gray squirrel and Eastern chipmunk
(South Bristol, 5/12)

The two rarest images of the week were an owl and a weasel. First, the Mustelid! I so rarely capture weasel images that I cherish each one. This one is very nice as it shows a nice image of the weasel in action. This was an Attack camera and set to record video as well. The video is too short to be worth much.

Weasel at Camp Cutler
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

Now the owl.... I have never camera trapped an owl so this was exciting for me. My first reaction was to call this a barn owl, but is just isn't big enough (compare to gray squirrel above). I am going with Eastern screech-owl. Thoughts?

Last year I trapped int his same area and last year we also captured images of red fox pups. I made no attempt to find the den.

Red fox pup
(South Bristol, NY 5/12)

 We set out one of the Cuddeback Attacks on a downed tree and got some fun video of raccoons and red fox (not together). Here is the best of the red fox (only need to watch the first half):

Red Fox dinner

Eastern cottontail
(Seneca Falls, NY 3/12)

Pulled both of my cameras today. One had dead batteries and the other one was frozen shut! The camera in the back field continues to produce nice results. Eastern cottontails are common on our property, partly due to our efforts to create habitat. Any limbs that fall in the yard are collected and made into brush piles. Succession is turning old farm fields into shrublands. And the rabbits (among other species) have responded. Danika, my daughter, is particularly pleased since rabbits are one of her favorite animals.
Besides a few cottontail photos, I captured images of opossum, raccoon, gray squirrel and red fox.


Note the time stamp on this photo. It's a nice pic but nothing too special...

Red fox
(Seneca Falls, NY 3/12)

Apparently, it was a good night of hunting. I am assuming that the photo below is the same fox, 36 minutes later. What a great photo!!! ...unless you are a rabbit or a rabbit-lover (sorry Danika)

Red fox carrying eastern cottontail
(Seneca Falls, NY 3/12)

Suet as camera trap bait

We were in the Dollar Store last week and I saw suet cakes for sale. On an impulse, I bought two -- one was a berry blend and the other nuts. I figured the price was right (FYI: I subsequently learned that the same suet cakes are 97 cents at Walmart -- six cent fail!) and it would make for interesting results. On Sunday I crumbled up half of the berry suet and put the pieces in front of the camera I have set in the back scrubby area. Today I checked and rebaited. All the suet was gone. I did not get many photos bit a nice diversity.

Species 1: Striped skunk (compare to the skunks in this post. Is it a new or known skunk?)

Striped skunk
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

Species 2: Blue Jay. There are three in this photo. I obtained five photos of Blue Jays; one contained a Red-bellied Woodpecker as well.

Blue Jays
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

Species 4 (remember the Red-bellied not shown): Opossum

Opossum foraging
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

Species 5: Red fox

Red fox
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

Species 6: Gray Squirrel. I expected more squirrel photos

Gray squirrel
(Seneca Falls, NY 2/12)

A fun two days of results. I found it unusual that each mammal species appeared only once -- and each individual stayed only long enough to be photographed once. Only the Blue Jays stayed long enough for multiple photos.

I rebaited so I should have more results in a few days....

Misty Night Red Fox

This past week has brought a new character to the camera trap at the pond in our backyard. Since April 3rd, I have gotten nine red fox photos. That camera has been on the dike for a month now and these are the first fox photos. I am unsure if there is more than one fox but I do know the travel pattern is bidirectional. Why does that matter? I am not sure. But it does tell me that this spot is on his/her/their routine both coming and going. I hope the old den is in use again this year. Yesterday was a very foggy night but I still like the photo that resulted.

Red fox in the mist (Seneca Falls, NY 4/11)

I have to go all the way back to January to find a decent red fox photo this year. And I still have no photos of a gray fox. That is unusual for me.

The photos below are both from the same night and are an excellent example of size comparison between the red fox and the eastern coyote. Note how the two animals are following the exact same path (not surprising as they were both trying to keep their feet as dry as possible). If they are not the same distance from the camera, the size comparison can be misleading.

Red fox (Seneca Falls, NY 1/11)

Eastern coyote (Seneca Falls, NY 1/11)

The coyote is much larger than the fox. This is helpful information when trying to determine who left those canid tracks in the snow (or mud). The stride and straddle should both be helpful in telling the two apart. I do not think the fox was walking with his tail up, rather I think we caught him as he was carefully picking his way through this wet area and perhaps swinging the tail for balance. The photos are about 21 hours apart...

Eastern Cougar extinct

After completing a five year study, the USFWS has declared that the Eastern cougar, a subspecies of the cougar (or mountain lion or puma or panther or one of several other names) extinct. They point out in their study that most of the tiny number of documented mountain lions in the east have proven to be from Western or South American origin. They found very little physical evidence for mountain lions of any heritage to be in the east.

Captive mountain lion (2003)

If you know me, you know this is a topic of great interest for me. I have a professional interest in this subject and believe it is the perfect way to teach students about critical thinking, the role of science, what counts as evidence and how to discern good sources of information from bad.

So I have been following news stories and have taken the time to read many comments posted by readers and found very little new. Same story: I saw one. My neighbor saw one. I saw a picture of one..... you know the drill...

Last night I found an article that caught my eye because of the title. Posted on Yahoo News, this author based his belief in east mountain lions partly on some photos that were emailed to him of a mountain lion from a town in Connecticut. It only took me 30 seconds to find the history of those photos ( a new hoax for me, by the way) and they were debunked over a year ago. I sent the author the link to that previous article, gave him a little background on my history and asked if there was any way to correct the misinformation in the article.

I should pause here and say that when I contact people about misinformation, one of three things happens. Sometimes I never hear from them. A few times, I have gotten rude replies, but some of that might be my fault too. It is hard to tell someone they are wrong tactfully, especially when it is someone you have no history with. Often, they contact me with more questions and I get an apology or a retraction (I got Channel 8 News in Rochester to retract a story on air this fall). Brad, the author of the story in question, was in this last group. He sent me a very nice email and got his editor to add a paragraph to the story (see link below). Even though I had no classes to teach today, I felt as if I was an educator.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110304/tr_ac/7987914_mountain_lions_still_prowl_new_england_forests_despite_report

Many people assume that since there are so many sightings of mountain lions (John Lutz, founder of the Eastern Puma Research Network boasts of collecting of over 11,000 mountain lion sightings through his organization). The theory is that all of these people cannot be wrong. But the paradox of the situation is that the more sightings, the more lions there must be. And the more lions, the more physical evidence. See, if there were only a few sightings spread over a large area over many years, no one could say for sure that the sightings were not legitimate. But we have many sightings in many locations for many years and still no "smoking gun". No physical evidence.

So some people spend a great deal of effort documenting many stories when in fact they are only undermining their case in the process. Many cats means much physical evidence and that is not the case. If 99% of Lutz's stories were misidentifications, that would still leave 110 actual cougar sightings. That doesn't mean there are 110 mountain lions, as one individual cat would be seen multiple times, but it still would represent dozens of individual cats. And if there had been dozens of cats in the east, at least some (or one) of them would be hit by cars, captured on trail cameras, get treed by hounds, shot by hunters, produce scat, tracks, kills and other physical evidence, etc. The TRUE amount of misidentification in this story is probably closer to 99.99%. Here is one of my favorite misidentifications, although it does not involve a mountain lion :)

Red fox (Mt. Washington, NH 1999)

In 1999, Bruce Gilman and I took students on an environmental course to Newfoundland. On the first day, we drove to New Hampshire to take the cog railroad to the top of Mount Washington. It is a fun trip and really gives the students a sense of the various ecosystems we will encounter. There was a fox den near the parking lot and one adult and several pups were poking around on that rainy afternoon. One pup was fairly close so I grabbed my camera and stood perfectly still as he came out of the brush. Another visitor, not from our group, joined me and we stood elbow to elbow snapping photos as the pup emerged, shook off the rain and loped into the brush about 45 feet away. I turned to the man and smiled. He smiled back and from under his Red Sox hat he said "Bobcat, right?" ... I was momentarily speechless. I was not expecting that at all. Did he not just see that long bushy tail get shaken? How about a dozen other characteristics that differentiate a dog (red fox) from a feline (bobcat)? I am sure some of that confusion was visible on my face, but I managed to only say "Oh...no, red fox." But what do you expect from a Red Sox fan?