September 14, 2008
Living in Ohio I really didn’t think I’d have to worry about hurricanes… I did hear on the weather that they said it might get windy when the remnants of hurricane Ike passed by -and for once at least, I think they were right.
We were pounded with strong wind all afternoon today stripping branches from the trees and knocking out power to… well my apartment and the streetlight down the road at least. Gusts over 66 mph were recorded at the Columbus airport and other places say more -let me tell you it they weren’t kidding when they said windy.
The city looks like it just had a decent size ice storm blow through… only it wasn’t wet or cold. Branches are laying everywhere and there is some damage to buildings. With no power in the apartment I decided to take a little hike down the road to experience the blow. It was a little humorous watching the porta-jons being pushed all over the parking lot like a puck on an air-hockey table. I doubt the guy with the tree on his car is getting quite so much enjoyment out of it; neither is the maintenance guy when he shows up in the morning.
**I’m back now. I was in the middle of writing this post and then it started getting dark and I started getting hungry so I thought I would go get something to eat -big mistake. Everyone else also had the same idea about then as well. There are some places with power… but they are scattered about randomly and the restaurants that are open have lines like you wouldn’t believe. I just looked it up online; there are 236,000 + people without power… in this county!
I’m writing this post on my laptop with my big UPS keeping my router and cable modem alive -nothing like technology when you need it… sure wish I had a candle right now…
I’ve been planning for weeks what I have to do tomorrow… it’s the last final piece of field data for the season. I have to go out to my fragile dead roost trees and… collect vegetation data…! Maybe there’s something left -that’s research.
[Update 9-22-08: The aftermath of Ike and the millions that lost power because of the storm is probably old news now but I thought I would put this post up anyway. Originally it was cued to go up a week ago from my laptop with the power out... but I had issue with the image files and wasn't able to get it up until today. I hope someone enjoys it anyway.]
Tags: weather
Posted at 23:36 EDT in Everything-else, Research.
August 20, 2008
I really haven’t forgotten about this blog; it’s all the fault of the keeled calcar below. (Just to the right of the foot below there is a small bulge in the membrane.)
That small bulge identifies this bat as the endangered Indiana Bat. She has been keeping us very busy the last week or two as we have been trying to keep up with where she’s been roosting, foraging, and how many bats are living with her. We attached a tiny (0.38g) radio telemetry transmitter which lets us follow her movements by radio (you can see a bit of the antenna in the picture). She has been a big help in getting this study off to a good start and hopefully we will have many more bats with transmitters out there soon.
She has been living here in this dead tree along with 8-15 other bats but there’s no telling when she will decide to switch to a different location. I actually found her snoozing under a bridge in the middle of the night on Friday. She left before I was able to snap a picture but there was another bat hanging out just barely visible in the picture below.
Finally, here is a picture of her face so you can see that bats aren’t really all that scary after all and how we should really be thankful for having them rid our world of tons of excess bugs while we sleep.
Tags: bats, habitat, identification, Indiana bats, telemetry
Posted at 16:05 EDT in Biology, Research.
July 31, 2008
“Hello, my name is __”… Those crazy annoying stickers that we’ve all had to wear at one time or another. Whether those stickers are worth the trouble or not is debatable, but they do bring to light an idea that’s not so strange -keeping track. We could complain about the growing trend of being treated as a number, (you know, that unfortunately long one that you’re supposed to be able to recite perfectly on every conceivable occasion) but just remember we could go back to the stickers…
Names, numbers, stickers -whatever, they all do the keeping track thing and it can be important especially when it comes time to get your paycheck or medicine. The same holds true when your working with animals -determining who’s who is sometimes very critical information. It’s not so hard you think… ever seen a cow with an ear tag?… But what if the animal you’re working with weighs 6 grams? or 2 grams? What if it’s federally endangered and you want to be especially sure that the animal’s behavior or health is not affected? These are questions researchers face all the time and a new way to keep track of individuals can be a huge step forward.
How do you keep track of 2 gram slimy little salamanders? Well you can give them florescent tattoos. No really, I’ve given hundreds the little marks. Just mix up a little bit of elastomer and inject it just under the skin with insulin syringes… Oh, and make sure you get the right color in the right place. It’s definitely an art.
This is number 229… just after injection (sitting on a piece of Plexiglas). The marks are permanent and they have no effect on growth or reproduction (Bailey 2004). They also fluoresce under UV light -the tiniest mark glows brightly if you shine a portable UV light on it.
What about the bats? They get a tiny arm band. The band is engraved with numbers and letters and fits loosely on the arm allowing for growth and movement.
The above picture shows the band size for Indiana and other small bats.
If you ever find dead animal with a tag or mark of some kind report it to your local Fish and Wildlife department. The information may be very useful to someone who’s trying to keep track.
Bailey, L. L. 2004. Evaluating elastomer marking and photo identification methods for terrestrial salamanders: marking effects and observer bias. Herpetological Review 35:38-41.
Tags: amphibians, bats, identification, Indiana bats, mammals, marking, salamanders
Posted at 19:09 EDT in Biology, Research.
July 12, 2008
Over the last week I’ve been digging through maps, reports, and emails and running up the minutes on my cell phone trying to find areas where it may be possible to capture the endangered Indiana Bat. I received the basics along with the project protocol -a report noting the capture points of two Indiana bats last year, a small map with the bats’ capture location and small access road noted, and an address with two phone numbers.
I don’t know how people went about things in the past… but there are a few things that have helped me tremendously in securing the permission of several landowners to work in what looks like some really great areas. I thought I would post them here.
- www.maps.live.com - Ok, so on the surface it just looks like Microsoft is trying to keep up with Google… but try the “birds eye view” around a major US city… it’s a little scary… but very helpful if your looking good bat hangouts.
- www.whitepages.com - How do you look in a phone book you’ll never have in a place you’ll never live for people you’ve never heard of before…? Thank goodness for this web service… The reverse phone # look-up works too… it’s occasionally even correct.
- water.usgs.gov - Did you know you can get real-time data on stream/lake/river levels… maybe it doesn’t make much difference to you… but it’s pretty helpful if you plan on standing in the middle of one.
- maps.yahoo.com - I know everyone knows about online directions already -but they can be incredibly helpful if your constantly heading to places you’ve never heard of before. The reason yahoo is my personal choice at the moment is their maps seem to load much faster than others and I like the way you can just click and drag to adjust the desired path of travel. But a word of caution here -trying to follow online generated directions through a major downtown area can leave you a little turned around… use with adequate backup (sometimes called a paper map).
Tags: bats, habitat, Indiana bats, links
Posted at 22:59 EDT in Research, Technology.
