Tracking in Rocky Mountain National Park

I had the opportunity to visit Rocky Mountain National Park (RMNP) around a business meeting I attended in Denver. When I arrived, the weather was sunny and 65F. On my final day, it was 5F and

Balmy November day at RMNP
Estes Park, CO (11/14)

had snowed during the night. My goal - dream really - was to get into the park early and drive the roads slowly to find a set of mountain lion tracks that cut the road. This is a common technique for finding tracks (and the cats themselves) but the fresh snow was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, anything I found would be absolutely recent (the nearest I could tell the snow had stopped around midnight), but on the other hand it meant that I would ONLY be finding tracks made in the last eight hours. That was going to make my task a long shot. Spoiler alert: I found no cat tracks. But I did have some interesting tracking experiences. Let me share two:

Rocky Mountain National Park
Estes Park, CO (11/14)

I wasn't the first to make it into the park today, I was the third. I followed two sets of tire tracks from the park entrance and slowly made my way through the snowy winterland. A pair of coyote trails followed the road for a while and I kept one eye on the distinctive side trot pattern and the other eye on the fresh snow looking for other tracks (that leaves no eyes for the road for those of you counting...). Despite my scrutiny of the road shoulders, it was a scene in a field that caught my eye. As you can see in the photo, everything was covered in a fine powder so when I saw something that WASN'T white, it stood out immediately.


These elk trails in the grass were so obvious to me but I wonder how many similar scenes I had missed over the years when I was less attuned to wildlife sign. I pulled the rental car over and snapped a few photos:

Elk trails in the snow
RMNP (11/14)

The tracks were easy to find as they crossed the road. I took a tracking class a few years ago and David Moskowitz was one of the instructors. He is the author of Wildlife of the Pacific Northwest and describes elk tracks as hamburger buns. As a long time burger-eater, I concur:

Fresh elk tracks
RMNP (11/14)

Here is a photo of the trail:

One even scatted for me:

So I had the trails coming towards me and I had the fresh tracks on the road in front of me. All that was left was for me to look at the direction the traveled. Sure enough, I only had to lift my head to see elk.

Elk
RMNP 11/14)

Elk
RMNP, (11/14)

There were far more elk above me than the tracks indicated. I looked ahead on the road and found more tracks and more trails. The story was complete.

Elk trails in fresh snow
RMNP, (11/14)

There was something very satisfying about this whole encounter. Reading sign that in this case, was verified by the individuals themselves. It was a simple story of a common animal, but I relished it nonetheless.:)

My second tracking story is more of a mystery. After driving the roads I layered up against the cold and started on a hike up Deer Mountain. The summit was a mere 3.1 miles away with a vertical gain of 1,080 feet. I was the only car parked at the trailhead. I brought the small lens instead of the telephoto as I was going to primarily take photos of wildlife tracks and sign. I spotted a nice variety of tracks including long-tailed weasel, elk, mule deer, snowshoe hare, mountain cottontail, chipmunk sp, red squirrel and perhaps one or two others that I have forgotten.

Here is a nice mule deer track to compare to the elk tracks above Not only are they smaller in size, but they are a different shape. Gone is the hamburger bun, replaced by a heart.

Mule deer track
RMNP, (11/14)

I enjoyed the solitude and the view. The trail switchbacked up into a sparse pine forest.

Deer Mountain Trail
RMNP (11/14)

Selfie
RMNP, (11/14)

As I neared the summit, I saw a snow-covered shape in the trail. My first thought was "That rock looks just like a rabbit." My second thought: "That is a rabbit."

Dead mountain or Nuttall's cottontail
RMNP, (11/14)

I cautiously brushed off some snow and saw that it had been killed by a wound to the throat. Weasels are known for that type of kill. Some of the flesh was eaten, but i will save you from the gruesome photos.

RMNP, (11/14)

Cause of death was a bite to the throat
RMNP, (11/14)

One member of the weasel family that could be a suspect here is the marten (Martes americanus). Here is a video I found of a marten killing a rabbit. But I had not seen any marten tracks. I HAD found long-tailed weasel tracks. Twice along this trail. The lack of blood would also be indicative of this weasel as they are known to lick up the blood from a kill. I am not certain the l-t weasel was the culprit, but since the snow had covered up the evidence, I was free to speculate and move on. So I did. And I only took a few steps when I noticed that the snow had not erased ALL the evidence. Look here:

This is a terrible photo looking back towards the dead rabbit. I wasn't paying attention to proper exposure, tricky when taking photos of snow. But if you look down the center of the photo, you can see that there is a trough under the snow. A furrow that had been snowed over, as if the rabbit had been dragged to its present location. Still can't see it? It runs the length of the photo, pretty much in the center. Let me try to darken the photo and see if that helps...

Well, on my monitor I can see the drag mark now. Here is another that I had to darken as well:

Here you can see rabbit tracks emerging from the left side of the photo and the start of the drag on the right side leading to the bottom right corner. I believe this is where the rabbit was killed. Could a long-tailed weasel drag a mountain cottontail 20 yards? Maybe. It was dragged downhill and there was a coating of snow present to help reduce friction. The fresh snow made it impossible to tell the whole story. But I enjoyed trying to puzzle it out. I left the rabbit where I found it. I wonder what the next hiker will find.

Eastern cottontail tracks and trails...

The deep snow continues here and our cottontails have been leaving some interesting tracks marking their efforts to negotiate the fluff. Typical rabbit tracks are portrayed in a bounding pattern (meaning that the two hind tracks land simultaneously) with the front feet landing behind the rears and at an angle. In the photo at right, you can see the four feet of the Eastern cottontail in the typical bounding pattern I just described. In this case, the rabbit is moving towards the top of the photograph. This guy had his (or her) toes somewhat splayed to deal with the snow as evidenced by the individual toes that are visible despite some blown-in snow.
But rabbit tracks don't always look like this. If the critter is traveling slower or in deeper snow it will have to adjust its gait Below are some examples:

At left is a rabbit negotiating some very deep snow. To compensate, it is moving very slowly (making the tracks not only close to one another but landing in an atypical pattern) and it has all of its toes splayed out (to provide traction and a wider surface to distrubute its weight). I mean, look at how pronounced each toe is. Often, rabbit tracks appear to be just oblong shapes. It would be easy to mistake these tracks for showshoe hare. Next, have a look at the specific placement of the front feet in relation to the rears. This is a rabbit making very slow and deliberate progress. Note the lightly placed pair of front tracks -- almost a tentative testing of the snow depth before this animal rocked his weight back before bounding forward.  Let's take a closer look at the front feet of a rabbit:

 Here is a rabbit moving towards the top of the photo. I want to specifically look at the shape and arrangement of toes. There are actually five toes on the front foot of our Eastern cottontail although one of the toes often doesn't register. The four strong toes form a "J". The hook of the J points tot he fifth toe. Can you make it out or even just the nail of the fifth toe?

 

 

 

 Here is a closer look at the right front foot:

 

I THINK I see the fifth toe, or rather the nail print at least. At the bottom left corner of the track is a tiny dot.







 

One final photo shows two front feet but one is very very faint. The photo doesn't do this scene justice. But my point remains: Following a track can provide a lot of variation in both the pattern of footfalls, the detail in any single print and the shape of the track itself.



Feral cat on the camera trap

Here is an interesting sequence from my south hedgerow recently. We have three feral cats that regularly show up on my cameras and I have to say I am not happy. I have a real bias towards native animals and that makes the cats unwelcome additions to our property. I have nothing against predation (see my previous post for example) but I feel that every animal taken by one of these cats is one less that a fox or coyote has available. I do very little small game hunting myself, so this is not a case of me wanting the critters all for myself. And I feel that feral cats in many ways represent irresponsible behavior on the part of humans. Owning an indoor "fixed" cat is one thing; feeding semi-wild neighborhood cats is another. But before I say too much and get myself into trouble, let's just have a look at some amazing photos.

Eastern cottontails
(612 Seneca Falls, NY)

Regular readers of my blog (are there any???) might recognize the location in the accompanying photos. I call this my south hedgerow set. It is a nice shady spot in some overcrowded silver maples. There is a nice mowed trail that I keep here and I have obtained some nice photos here. Check out the time and date on this first photo of two eastern cottontails. I like this photo. It is full of energy and composed nicely. It is a real study in how rabbits move, too. Look at the one closest to the camera and focus on the front feet. Now look at the one in the back and see how it is springing up from its rear feet.

This next photo captures just the tail end of one of the regularly occurring feral cats on the property.

Feral cat
(6/12 Seneca Falls, NY)

It wasn't long before this cat was back. I do not know how common it is for a cat to kill a rabbit this large, but in my years of camera trapping, this is my only photo.

Feral cat with eastern cottontail
(6/12 Seneca Falls, NY)

I wanted to post the entire photo so you could see the time and date stamp. Here is a magnified view:

Feral cat with eastern cottontail
(6/12 Seneca Falls, NY)

An eastern cottontail should weigh 2-3 pounds I am guessing. This cat was either very good or very lucky. Is this a female with young that need feeding? I am not sure. But two days later, I got this photo:

Feral cat with eastern chipmunk
(6/12 Seneca Falls, NY)

What makes me angry is the idea that this cat may not even BE feral. There is a very real possibility that it is owned and fed by someone that wants an outdoor pet. And these carcasses are being brought home and left on the front porch as "gifts" or whatever to the owner.

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)

Reflections on a wet spring

It has been a wet and cold spring. I cannot cite facts and figures to back this up, but I can tell you that it sure feels that way. I have a favorite spot on the property for a camera trap. I like it because it is a thick brushy spot in our hedgerow that leads from one neighboring woodlot to another. It is traditionally a wet area anyway, and this spring it has been something to see...

Eastern cottontail (Seneca Falls, NY 4/11)

April 12: Here is a photo from one week ago. Since then, we have received rain. Cold rain. Stiff winds. And today, even a few snowflakes.

Eastern cottontail (Seneca Falls, NY 4/11)

April 13: Much wetter! Almost 24 hours from the previous photo yet so much more of the ground is flooded. The rabbit here is trying for the shortest distance over the water. Is this rabbit really so set in his pattern that he passes this spot at the same time each night? And who is that mystery creature with the glowing eye on the far left?

Eastern cottontail (Seneca Falls, NY 4/11)

April 17: The narrow spot is now flooded as well. There are no dry feet this morning. Perhaps they will remain lucky none the less.

Virginia opossum (Seneca Falls, NY 13148)

Rabbits aren't the only ones navigating the high water. Here is an opossum making its way past the camera. Note the blunt tail. The tip has been lost to frost bite. I like his reflection.

In the final photo, a raccoon seems a bit more at home in the water than the other critters in today's entry. He seems to like his reflection too.

Raccoon with reflection (Seneca Falls, NY 4/11)

Tick Tock! It's Rabbit Time...

In "Alice in Wonderland" the only ticks came from the pocket watch that the White Rabbit carried. Unfortunately, that is not always the case in the wild.... I have been talking about rabbits and hares in class this week and thought I would share three rabbits with you...

1. Snowshoe Hare: This snowshoe hare is simply covered in ticks. Ticks are parasites that take a meal of blood without killing their host. Specifically, they are called "ectoparasites" because they are found on the outside.

Snowshoe hare with ticks (Newfoundland, 7/04)


Poor guy just looks miserable! Parasites can be deadly as well as uncomfortable. And that goes for the researchers as well as the wildlife. I am lucky enough to live in an area where ticks are not thick in numbers. When we lived in Utah, we would have them on us often.



Young eastern cottontail (Seneca Falls, NY)

 2. Eastern Cottontail: Well, I better give you something nice and cute to look at because the last pics are not going to be pretty. This is a young eastern cottontail that was on the edge of our driveway a few years ago. He is big enough to be out of the nest but small enough to still have that white spot between the ears.

If this spring is any indication, it should be a banner year for cottontails on our property...






Cooper's hawk on feral rabbit (University of Victoria, BC 7/10)

 3. Domestic Rabbit: We spent a week in British Columbia this past summer and took part of a day to visit the University of Victoria. We had heard about the large population of feral rabbits there which apparently started with a few unwanted pets being released. I am not exaggerating when I say there were rabbits in every direction we looked. They came in all colors and sizes. Danika was in heaven as she just loves rabbits. I tried to point out places where the rabbits were causign damage to the landscaping, but she had none of that. It wasn't until we returned to the rental car that she saw the down side to releasing these animals to the wild. As we approached the car, we saw a figure inthe shadow of a tree and asumed it was yet another rabbit. But the more I looked, the more the shape just wasn't right. What we found was a Cooper's hawk sitting atop a rabbit that it had killed. To say Danika was distressed is an understatement and she refused to watch any of the proceedings. The hawk started eating the rabbit by removing the ears and swallowing them whole. I took several photos and finally got a little too close and the hawk took off. The rabbit was a bit too heavy and was only carried for a few feet.



Cooper's hawk on feral rabbit (University of Victoria, 7/10)


According to their website, the rabbits have all been removed. You can see for yourself at:

http://communications.uvic.ca/rabbits/

I am sure there was controversy stirred up around that decision.

Cooper's hawk carries feral rabbit (Unviersity of Victoria, 7/10)

Seeing red

In "January" of A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold writes: "... where the rabbits have packed down the snow with their tracks, and mottled it with pinkish urinations." I confess that when I first read that line, my brain tried to turn the phrasing into 'pink carnations'. I think my students are just as puzzled.

Well, it turns out that Leopold was being literal. Rabbits CAN have pink and even red colored urine. A simple Google search of "red rabbit urine" reveals numerous concerned pet owners assuming they are seeing blood in their bunny's urine. But it seems the color change is caused by dietary conditions.

Reddish Eastern cottontail urine (Seneca Falls, 2/11)

I was reminded of all this today when I found four different rabbit urines in the back yard (we have a HUGE Eastern cottontail population this year). One was yellow and three were bright red. Unfortunately, the red really doesn't show in the photo. Get out there and look for this phenomenon yourself before the snow is all gone!