Never did I think my love of the game Mouse Trap would turn into reality…
When asked if I’d like to help Lindsey, the GSC’s VP of Conservation and Research, live trap small mammals, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to live out my favorite childhood game, Mouse Trap. Lindsey, along with other researchers, are studying the community composition of various taxa on a 100-acre tract of land in Guilford County. The land is slated to undergo restoration, enhancement or some alteration to the streams and wetlands. This work stems from an initiative associated with the Clean Water Act and it is managed by the NC Wildlife Resources Commission and the NC Dept. of Environmental Quality. They are entering their second field season, which is part of the pre-restoration data collection time-frame. They will continue to collect data over the next seven years or through the restoration and post-restoration to see how wildlife responds to these land alterations.
As I mentioned, they are looking at various taxa including reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals. While reptiles and amphibians are surveyed year-round, small mammals are surveyed during a defined field season. That season begins in March and ends in September. Once a month, Lindsey and her crew spend two days setting traps, live catching small mammals, recording data, ear tagging them, and releasing them back into the wild. The mouse pictured above is one of the many mammals we caught the morning I joined.
The traps that are used are completely humane and each trapped mammal is live trapped (don’t worry, they have snacks), surveyed, and released back into its habitat. The researchers begin checking traps early in the morning (during the hottest months, Lindsey says they start around 4:30 AM) and complete checking the traps and data entry before the day gets too hot. The traps are then closed so that no animals are trapped during the hottest part of the day and Lindsey and her team return later in the day to re-set the traps for the following morning. The researchers are looking to make sure that the species they’re surveying are the native species that are found in the area. Eventually, the researchers will be looking to see how the restoration process affects the native wildlife, both during and after.
“Why are mice scared of swimming in the water? Because of all the catfish in it!”
Sorry, I couldn’t write about mice without including at least one cheesy joke. All jokes aside though, Lindsey and the researchers work as like a well-oiled machine when out in the field. They have one person taking notes, one person checking traps, and another releasing captured animals. It was interesting to see how efficiently they worked, especially since the well-being of the ensnared mammal is the top priority.
In addition to these adorable mice and rats that were captured, we also managed to catch a few slugs and a wren (still not sure how the bird got trapped, but the team assured me it wasn’t the first). Also not pictured was a baby eastern meadow vole that Lindsey found hiding under one of the cover-boards.
Even though I’m a North Carolina native, I didn’t realize we had so many different types of small mammals! It was also interesting to see how they varied in the different habitats we traveled to. In the 100 acres we surveyed, we encountered at least 3 different ecosystems – wetlands, grasslands, and forest – each housing different fauna and flora.
In addition to collecting data on these reptiles, amphibians, and mammals, Lindsey also collects water samples from the area to test for things like nitrates, nitrites, ammonia, and chlorine back in the lab. On site, she uses a portable water quality machine, called a YSI. It records the water’s temperature, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and pH.
Lindsey and fellow researchers also study bats. We use bat detectors, which are recorders that capture ultrasonic sound. As bats fly past using their echolocation, the detector turns on and they record those calls. Using software, they can view the calls on a spectrogram and determine what species of bat made the call. Just like the small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians we trapped and surveyed, they are also looking at community composition throughout the mitigation. Many flying insects have aquatic larvae (mosquitos, dragonfly, damselfly, stonefly, caddisfly, etc) and in their flighted adult form they are a food source for bats. So, by studying bats they get information from a top riparian predator that indicates how things are going at the basal level of the food web. They then study frogs, birds, and other animals who also consume insects and collectively they get a snapshot of the community by sampling various taxa throughout the overall food web.
Restoration may be slated to take seven years, but it will be interesting to see how the various taxa are affected by this process. I’m even more excited to see how many changes are noted throughout just this season and year. While this may not have been quite the same as my favorite childhood game, it doesn’t mean I haven’t dusted it off after returning from the field. I want to give a special thanks to Lindsey and the team of researchers for allowing me to join, photograph, and ask too questions.
Photos and post by staff member, Bekah R.
Check out the gallery below to see more photos from the survey trip.
Greensboro Science Center 