adventures
**EDIT JULY 30, 2009: Recent comments (spring/summer 09) have made me realize that I did not clearly explain the importance of this research. I write this from my memory of facts from my internship in spring 2008, so my numbers are probably off.
For the past ~5-10 years, the number of bobcats in the area has plummeted, due to an outbreak in mange. Female bobcats are simply not bearing litters. The population is rapidly shrinking - aging bobcats are not being replaced. Adult bobcats are dying younger, often because of mange. National park biologists are trying to figure out why they are getting sick. Rodent poison is one potential suspect.
National Park biologists are tracking bobcats to determine their ranges and see how they interact with roads, development, and habitat fragmentation. Methods include radio telemetry, scat surveys (bobcat feces apparently has a distinctive lemony odor), and sometimes remote cameras, which are triggered by the presence of animals. Radio telemetry requires trapping bobcats to collar them. Collars can last up to ~3 years. Sometimes batteries die early, or the animal will ditch the collar. When they are being collared, biologists also record information about the animal's condition and characteristics (e.g. paw size) and take a blood sample to test for illness.
Additionally, each spring, biologists put particular attention to tracking the female bobcats. They want to figure out who is having kittens, where they are building their dens, and how well the kittens do after they are born. Kittens are susceptible to natural predation (by coyotes), and I would guess that in the heavily urbanized area where these bobcats live, roads present danger as well. However, kittens are too small to carry collars, so biologists perform field surgery to implant small transmitters that last for about a year. Experienced veterinarians volunteer to perform these surgeries.
When I was there in 2008, only one female they were tracking had kittens (there may have been another den found after I completed my internship two weeks after this); the year before, they found no dens.
Research like this is limited by funding plus the small number of parks located in so urbanized an area. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is the largest urban national park, I believe. Biologists compare animals within the NRA proper with individuals in the habitat islands to the north of the park, where the land is being developed at an alarming rate. END EDIT**
We located two bobcat kittens in a den, a male and a female. The feisty female got feistier after receiving an injection of sedative, then went under.
As with the adults, kitten sedative dosage depends on their weight.
To prepare for surgery, Joanne shaved the kittens' bellies.
A veterinarian volunteers her time to implant radio transmitters in the kittens so the biologists can track them for about a year, then hopefully recapture the cats when they are large enough to have a radio collar.
Surgery in the field can be dangerous, so the biologists have been preparing for weeks, and all went well.
The kittens lose their body heat quickly once they go under (unlike the adults, which tend to overheat), so after the surgery, Jeff warmed the female in a fleece hat filled with hand warmers.
This month old kitten will soon grow to about 15-20 pounds.
For the past ~5-10 years, the number of bobcats in the area has plummeted, due to an outbreak in mange. Female bobcats are simply not bearing litters. The population is rapidly shrinking - aging bobcats are not being replaced. Adult bobcats are dying younger, often because of mange. National park biologists are trying to figure out why they are getting sick. Rodent poison is one potential suspect.
National Park biologists are tracking bobcats to determine their ranges and see how they interact with roads, development, and habitat fragmentation. Methods include radio telemetry, scat surveys (bobcat feces apparently has a distinctive lemony odor), and sometimes remote cameras, which are triggered by the presence of animals. Radio telemetry requires trapping bobcats to collar them. Collars can last up to ~3 years. Sometimes batteries die early, or the animal will ditch the collar. When they are being collared, biologists also record information about the animal's condition and characteristics (e.g. paw size) and take a blood sample to test for illness.
Additionally, each spring, biologists put particular attention to tracking the female bobcats. They want to figure out who is having kittens, where they are building their dens, and how well the kittens do after they are born. Kittens are susceptible to natural predation (by coyotes), and I would guess that in the heavily urbanized area where these bobcats live, roads present danger as well. However, kittens are too small to carry collars, so biologists perform field surgery to implant small transmitters that last for about a year. Experienced veterinarians volunteer to perform these surgeries.
When I was there in 2008, only one female they were tracking had kittens (there may have been another den found after I completed my internship two weeks after this); the year before, they found no dens.
Research like this is limited by funding plus the small number of parks located in so urbanized an area. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is the largest urban national park, I believe. Biologists compare animals within the NRA proper with individuals in the habitat islands to the north of the park, where the land is being developed at an alarming rate. END EDIT**
We located two bobcat kittens in a den, a male and a female. The feisty female got feistier after receiving an injection of sedative, then went under.
As with the adults, kitten sedative dosage depends on their weight.
To prepare for surgery, Joanne shaved the kittens' bellies.
A veterinarian volunteers her time to implant radio transmitters in the kittens so the biologists can track them for about a year, then hopefully recapture the cats when they are large enough to have a radio collar.
Surgery in the field can be dangerous, so the biologists have been preparing for weeks, and all went well.
The kittens lose their body heat quickly once they go under (unlike the adults, which tend to overheat), so after the surgery, Jeff warmed the female in a fleece hat filled with hand warmers.
This month old kitten will soon grow to about 15-20 pounds.
