The animals are on their way
Post by 2022 student Kira Meier
I was really looking forward to this wildlife section because it is more animal based. We were actively looking for animals which is more my speed. The drift fences, bird surveys, and exclosures were fun to put up and collect data for.
I was excited to pull the camera footage from the drift fences and see all the different animals we got on camera. We got quite a few deer, mice, and squirrels on almost every camera. A couple times we got images of the cows and horses grazing. Most excitingly we got a couple images of a yellow bird and a bobcat. The bird was too blurry to make out exactly what kind, but it was bright yellow all over. The bobcat was cool because it looked directly at the camera. The exclosures were put up more for us to see how the vegetation changes without animal interaction, but we also put up some game cameras and are hoping to see some cool animal activity.
I like bird watching from my porch, so I was looking forward to the nest cavity surveys. When we first started, I was confident in my ability to identify a red headed woodpecker, but that’s as far as my confidence would go. However, the more surveys we did, the more comfortable I was at identifying flickers, downy woodpeckers, and wrens. I found out real quick that nest cavity surveys had a lot more work to it than bird watching from a porch. We were hiking up steep hills, stopping every once in a while, to look through the binoculars and search the trees. However, all the work was worth it when we found active nests. It was amazing to see the birds fly in and out and hear the fledglings call out for food.
During our visit to Wyoming and Yellowstone, we met up with Tony Mong a biologist for that area of Wyoming. He monitors large migrating mammals like mule deer and elk, but he also does quite a bit with grizzly bears. He was telling us about his trips out to the back country. He’ll go out with just himself and his horses, sometimes another person, but most of the time he is alone. He goes out there for days at a time, trying to see what wildlife he can find and to make sure his data is being presented accurately. This is a small section of his job. The other part of his job is to advise property owners on wildlife habits and how best to get the results the landowner wants while not disturbing the wildlife. Sadly, property owners are not obligated to take his advice, but he does his best to educate the public and ensure that the people understand the importance of conservation of wildlife.
We also talked to Rebecca a biologist for Montana. Her expertise is with birds. When we went around our plots with her, she was able to point out different birds to us and correct one of our bird species. We have been saying that rock wrens were nesting in the cavities, but it was house wrens. It was interesting to talk to her because I am thinking about a similar career path and it was great to hear how she got to her position.
Overall, this wildlife section has been awesome. It was great to see the diversity of wildlife that was present on the ranch even after the fire. I believe, based on stories from Terry and Goz, that there is still so much more wildlife that needs to make it’s way back to the ranch before it can be as it was before. But the animals are on their way.
