——————————————————————————
From the Northern Crew:
Hello All,
This week I assisted Brandon with bear trapping. We captured a young sow who would have been perfect to GPS collar if she was another year older. Unfortunately, she was only about 70lbs maximum and was too small to collar. There was a recapture as well, a bear cub nicknamed “Floppy” as one of his ears seemed to lack the proper cartilage necessary to keep it standing erect.
In addition we caught one wily raccoon. It appeared our masked bandit had been caught right before a large bear showed up. We surmised this because although the raccoon was in the trap the heavy bait rock that was placed in front of the trap was flipped over. There was also an extremely large pile of bear scat near the trap. [Poop doesn’t lie]
All in all, Brandon had a successful week in the Sproul resulting in eight bear captures. Not too much new in the Susquehannock State Forest; I performed telemetry twice this week and daily mortality runs.
PGC Deer and Elk Section
——————————————————————————
From the Southern Crew:
Hello all,
A very busy week, indeed! From bear trapping to barn owl banding to prepping for my vacation!
Monday, I accompanied Brandon and Quig in the Sproul to bear trap. We caught two previously tagged bears—one cub and one sow in two different traps. We released the cub but decided to dart and collar the sow. The young sow weighed in at a healthy 123 lbs and should be expecting a den of cubs this year! In the winter, the bear crew will locate her to confirm whether or not she has cubs and to tag them if she does!
Tuesday was the final day of bear trapping in the Southern Study Area. We ended up capturing a total of 5 bears. Three on Tuesday, alone. All three were males and the last was a 300 pounder!
Wednesday morning, I tagged along with Clay and Wyatt to help band barn owlets! It was a last minute thing, but I was glad I was able to accompany them. We obtained weight, feather measurements, estimated age, and banded the owlets.
Since, I’ll be away all of next week, I finished up auto reports and sent in my timesheet already. Maureen and Brandon are graciously traveling to the South to monitor the fawns while I am away. I put together some maps and constructed fawn monitor instructions for them in my absence.
See y’all in a week!
Field Crew Leader
If you would like to receive email alerts of new blog posts, subscribe here.
And Follow us on Twitter @WTDresearch
