Going wolf

Today was all about ecology of the big carnivores. We were searching for signs of wolves, lynx and brown bears.

What we expected:

source: http://www.crownofmaine.com/paulcyr/stories/canada-lynx-monitoring/

How it really went:

Total of 10 cars in a row.

Sadly we didn't find the whole caracass, but only a few remaining bones and one hoof. We knew the kill was made by 1.5 year old female Lynx who has 3 one month cubs (2 boys, 1 girl). The kill was approximately 12 days old (usually kills are checked sooner, but as this female has cubs she needs lots of calories and disturbing the site might have caused other predators to find it). Female is called Maja and this is her first litter. We hope the cubs make it, but usually only 50% of litter survives and since Maja is still inexperienced if only one survives that will be a success too:)
This year the increase in numbers of rodents has been noted as Beech trees had a record yield last year (apparently it happens every 20 years). So hopefully she will have enough food to feed her young (though they do hunt young deer too!).
We were hoping to locate her approximate location by radio collar. Sadly she must have been in den with her cubs as we didn't get any signal.

The remains of a Lynx kill (probably 1 year old deer).

We also saw that brown bear has gotten to the caracass as we found a plastic box near that has been chewed on. Apparently they like to play after meal:)
The region we were in has the highest bear population per 100km2 (thats a square with 10km x 10km sides) probably in the world, with 12 adults in that small area.

We also wanted to check one wolf lair, but sadly didn't get that chance. Nor did we see any wolf droppings. But the surrounding area is stunning! The lair is located near the top of the smaller mountain covered with trees and higher altitude flora with a drop on one side.

Wolves in this region don't have much problems with humans as the grassland farming with sheep isn't really spread and they have enough natural game to hunt. Sadly in many other regions it is not so. People fear wolves even though there hasn't been any known attacks and wolves actually fear and run away from people (people trying to track them can tell that they have a hard time seing them, mostly they just find droppings).

We didn't get to see any wolves but we did see these:

Sadly you can't see the drop. Let me just say it was a long way down.

Cute caterpillar.

Cute caterpillar again.

Jumping spider.

I believe this is Horvath's rock lizard.

Sadly our assistant that organised the whole field day made a mistake of not limiting the number of students that can take part, so 40 students signed up (out of a class of 60). This field day was mandatory for biology students and we were only given two dates on which we can attend. Sadly most of the class has statistics exam (Oh joy!) on the other date so we had to come today.
Let me just say, its hard to keep quiet or even just walk quietly when there are 40 people walking through the forest, no matter how much they try.

And just because I couldn't resist:)

Living fossils

Not many species can claim this title but Triops certainly are one of them. They resemble Horseshoe crabs, but are much smaller. I first heard of them during a Invertebrate Zoology class and have been hooked ever since:)

Can you see three eyes;)

They live in shallow pools that dry out sometime during the season. Most species reproduce sexually (meaning you need both males and females if you want to breed them), but some species only have females that reproduce with parthenogenesis (females will lay eggs from which only females will hatch), so they don't actually need males (those do occur, but rarely). Another thing that is special about them is that their eggs are capable of surviving the dry period - diapause (when water evaporates, they stay in the sand and wait for water to fill the pond again). Scientists were able to hatch eggs that were dry for a decade (and older!).
Triops use their back legs (which work as gills) to get oxygen from the water and first pairs of legs to dig in the substrate in search of food. They also grow their entire life so they need to mould (shed their skin once it becomes too tight). This happens very often when they are small, but becomes infrequent when they age.

Triops mould

I ordered my first eggs from ebay 2 years ago (you can also buy a Trios kit in your store, but usually buying from breeders is better since you get way more hatchlings) and with that my trials started. For a creature that lives in muddy pools they can certainly be a handful! You have to watch this and that and they still won't hatch! It drives you mad:) In fact the more your try the less success you will have.
I found an awesome website www.thetriopsforum.com which offers great advice for beginners and more experience breeders. It really helps when your friends and familly are fed up with your constant whining how they just dont want to hatch:)

Can you see the eggsacks? 

Another think that happens quite often when you start buying eggs online is that you'll get a virus which will result in you buying eggs from multiple species even though you only have one aquarium. Those eggs will then wait in your drawer untill you grow bored of the current species you have and start a new one. I currently have eggs from four different species, but only keep the green aussie in my aquarium:)

Triops feeding on a piece of plant

I saved the best for last - most species of Triops only live for 1-3 months:) Comes really handy for students that would like to have an aquarium on campus but don't want to haul home the full one. You simply dry out the sand and try again when you are ready or have some spare time:)

Start of something new

I've been wanting for some time to start a new blog, but its always been ... I don't have anything to say/I don't have time ...
Today I finally decided to go ahead and start it:) The fact that I'm in the middle of the exam month might have something to do with it too;) I'd think I learned by now, but every time when I should be studying for exams I find many other more interesting things to do. In fact I download more movies during examination period than the entire time in between them. I already learned to stay away from Facebook during this time, since by some unknown magic time just flies and I lose an hour before I even manage to blink.


Hopefully I'll post new things regulary and won't quit after only few weeks.