Ah, the sun on your face, crisp mountain air in your nostrils — and a northern flying squirrel jumping at your head.
What could be a more invigorating volunteer experience?
“One flew out at me — it was an escapee, actually,” said Dottie Brown, a Candler resident who has volunteered for years with local wildlife surveys. “The specimen got away, and I felt really bad, but on the other hand, I got to see this creature make these unbelievable leaps from tree from tree. It’s amazing.”
Brown was helping the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission with a survey of the northern flying squirrel, one of numerous surveys the commission conducts every year with volunteer help. Several surveys are under way or coming up, and the commission is always looking for hardy souls who like the outdoors and monitoring threatened wildlife.
“When you’re doing this kind of cold work, you don’t always get longtime volunteers,” said Chris Kelly, a mountain wildlife diversity biologist with the commission and the northern flying squirrel project leader. “But a lot of people really get into it.”
Last year the commission and its volunteers checked 933 northern flying squirrel boxes to gauge the population size and overall health. The animals, which are only found above 4,500 feet, are cold-hardy critters that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed as endangered because their fir habitat has been severely damaged by the balsam wooly adelgid.
For the record, the squirrels can’t actually fly, but they do have a furred membrane between their front and rear legs that allows them to spread out and soar 30 meters. The biologists check the boxes, measure the rodents and put ear tags on the ones they haven’t caught before.
Brown has helped keep tabs on the critters, and peregrine falcons, for two years. She loves being outdoors and helping with conservation, but she really likes all the wildlife you
stumble across in the mountains, including the occasional bear.
“We were checking a box, and part of a landslide had ended up at the base of the box,” said Brown, 50. “At the bottom of that there was an entrance to a den, and Mr. Bear — a very handsome bear — he stuck his little head out, checked us out and decided he didn’t like us. He came out of den and took off, so Chris and I had the delight of climbing into a warm bear den.”
If squirrels — and the occasional bear encounter — aren’t your style, how about bats?
“Last year in the Cranberry iron mine we had around 1,000 bats,” said Scott Bosworth, another mountain wildlife diversity biologist with the WRC.
He’s talking about the former Cranberry mine in Avery County, where several species of bats hibernate. The mine is gated and not accessible to the public.
As with the flying squirrels, biologists monitor the animals to keep tabs on their population and health.
Not surprisingly, bats don’t give Bosworth the willies, a key trait he’s looking for in volunteers.
“No, it gets me excited, seeing those bats,” he said. “This is a very big mine — you could drive a truck into it — and there are bats hanging all over the walls. It’s really neat.”
While you may be pumped up about delving into some caves and mines, control yourself — Bosworth says normally they don’t take volunteers below ground because of the risk of injury and excessive disturbance of the bats. But you can help with bat counts in the summer when they trap bats with nets, a program that runs from May 15 through July 15.
“Volunteers can come out, but they can’t handle the bats, because they can carry rabies,” he said. “But they can help with the equipment, the type of measurements we take and learn about the different species of bats.”
Brown, who has volunteered with the National Park Service and even international agencies on animal surveys, says the benefits far outweigh any inconveniences. A student at UNC Asheville and a small retailer, Brown averages four or five days a month outdoors on the surveys.
“You never know what you’re going to see,” she said, mentioning the courtship rituals of peregrine falcons and the thrill of seeing the chick emerge for the very first time. “To see one of the chicks come out of the nest entrance after watching it so long is absolutely thrilling.”
Interested in surveying flying squirrels, bats, voles, frogs or other animals?
Scott Bosworth, a N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission mountain wildlife diversity biologist, coordinates surveys for bats and numerous small mammals. If you’re interested in assisting, contact Bosworth at 665-9608 or bosworthsc@
earthlink.net
Chris Kelly, a mountain wildlife diversity biologist with the WRC, coordinates surveys for northern flying squirrels, songbirds and peregrine
falcons. Contact her at 230-1320 or kellych@earthlink.net
The WRC also is looking for volunteers to help monitor frog and toad
populations statewide through the N.C. Calling Amphibian Survey Program. Volunteers adopt a route, which they agree to drive three nights out of the year while listening for frogs and toads. Surveys will be conducted Jan. 15-Feb. 28; March 15-April 30; May 15-June 30. Free training workshops will be held
periodically.
For more information, contact wildlife technician Kendrick Weeks at kendrick.weeks@earthlink.net or (919) 609-7605.
Dog Supplies at Everyday Low Prices
Reference:citizen-times
No comments:
Post a Comment