Bear in camp, thoughts on bears

Sloth Bear, Sri Lanka

Last night we had a bear visit camp. Ryan spotted the bear from his tent as it approached camp. When it got close to camp he woke the rest of us up. I was actually listening to the Ting Tings in my headphones when Ryan opens up my tent door and alerts me to the bear. Thank god I wasn't doing anything more intimate! I didn't respond to Ryan's yells, so he had to take a more direct approach. I arrived at the cabin and saw Brandt and Tom outside with shotgun and rifle at the ready, and Ryan with his bear spray. I joined the search party and we jumped in the mud motor, which is a very load weedless boat engine and went down the shore of the lake a hundred meters to where the bear was last seen. Brandt revved the engine to move the bear away. The marsh blue top grass that grows here is about chin high so only Tom standing on the bench was able to see the bear's ears and top of head as it bounded it away. Ryan thinks it was a cinnamon phase black bear a sit was small. However Ryan has no field experience with grizzlies and the Alaska Fish and Game guys, who study pike in the area, saw a small grizzly a few miles away last week. After a little while we returned to bed. We sleep with bear spray and some of us firearms and we keep food and toiletries out of our tens, so we have little to worry about. Although interior Alaska has it's share of bears, we are in the middle of a mosaic of lakes, rivers, bogs, marsh and patches of boreal forest and therefore the bear population is very low.

I was disappointed I didn't see the bear. I've never seen a grizzly or brown bear (same species) and am am really hoping to see one while in Alaska. I've seen polar, black and sloth bears in the wild but as of yet no grizzly. I included a picture of sloth bear I saw in Sri Lanka, as I had no picture of our camp's visitor.

I visited Sri Lanka during my band's second tour of Asia in 2006. We didn't play in Sri Lanks, we just visited there for a week. I arranged a two day safari for the band to Yala National Park. I'll post more about this later... but Yala is an amazing wildlife spectacle. It's on the dry side of Sri Lanka in acacia scrub. It is famous for its leopards and elephants. We had a fantastic trip, seeing 100 species of birds, elephants, sambar and axis deer, wild boar, mongoose, and jackals, after we spotted the slot bear on the side of the road our guide turned around and said, "I have nothing left to show you".

I've seen 3 of the 8 species of bear. Grizzly will put me half way there. Although I doubt I'll ever see the last four. Asiatic Black and Sun bear are hard enough, but from what I understand Panda and Spectacled Bear are almost impossible. I wonder who in the world, if any has seen all eight?

Mew Gull Lunch

Sorry, could not get a photo of this. While boating on "Wacky Duck" lake we heard the mew gulls all up in a commotion. I scanned the sky looking for the raven or bald eagle that usually evokes this response. I was excited to see a juvenile peregrine falcon was the culprit. I've only seen one other peregrine the whole time I've been up here. The only birds of prey we see are harriers, bald eagles and short-eared owls. I'm surprised I haven't seen more raptors. When I glassed the falcon I could see a gull chick struggling in it's talons. I know it's a bit morose, but I love seeing predation in the field.

What's funny is that when a predator takes eggs from a nest it is termed "depredation", then why aren't predators called "depredators"?

Web Tagging

When we find a nest with hatching ducklings or when we catch ducklings by driving them into a net or with a dip net we will "web-tag" them. A web tag is a small monel metal tag with a four digit number that is attached through the webbing of a ducklings foot. We do this because ducklings under a certain age cannot be banded yet. We gain valuable data about these ducks movements and for our research survival relative to avian influenza infection. It's pretty awesome to get to handle these unbelievable cute duckings, but it can be stressful because of trying not to injure them. It's also a bit unnerving and messy when you web tag a hatching ducking just breaking out of the egg. When a ducking begins to hatch it it referred to as "pipping". Let me tell you, pipping ain't easy.

Moose in Camp

We have moose in camp regularly. Despite their huge size, they often slip by unnoticed in our sleep and all we see of them is their poop in the morning. It is pretty cool when we have a moose, always cows so far, come through camp. One knocked down Tom's clothesline. Another moose woke Brandt up in his tent, when he looked outside the moose was right up against his tent platform facing away, he reported that all he could see was a giant moose vagina filling his entire field of view. We've had at least two different momma moose in camp one with a single calf and another with twins. The twins were licking our solar panel support beams. I've named the most regular moose, a calf-less female, Jolene. She's a real beauty despite not having auburn hair nor eyes of emerald green.

"Spooner Face"

Nest Trapping

After we discover a nest and determine that it is of sufficient age and depending on if we have a fecal sample etc, we will put a trap on the nest. This is called a "Weller" trap after that famous waterfowl biologist who invested the trap. The trap consists of a welded wire cylinder with a top that sits over the nest, the hen trips a treadle entering the nest that depresses a trigger rod holding up a trap door. The trap is staked down. This way the hen can incubate the eggs until she is processed and released.

Upon capturing the hen we band the bird, do an oral and cloaca swab for avian influenza, weigh her,and measure the wing chord, tarsus and head.

This was the first time I was able to handle a northern shoveler as we didn't have any hens to use during decoy trapping. Apparently it is very difficult to keep shovelers in captivity and especially hard to keep the hens healthy as use as decoy birds. Shovelers have a difficult diet to replicate. They use that amazing bill to sift through mud and water for small organisms. Check out that amazing bill!