Backyard Tracking

Took a short break from household tasks to go out and look at tracks in our backyard and the adjacent power lines this afternoon. Found whitetail deer and red fox in our yard: the deer walked straight through, fox(es) stayed to the brush line. Next door in a clearing under the power lines were deer, fox and eastern coyote (or coywolf, as Jon Way is appropriately calling them). Two sets of older coyote tracks and one newer - possibly from last night or this morning. One of the older coyote tracks intersected with a fresher red fox trail traveling along the far tree line. The red fox carefully stepped inside the old coyote tracks for a few paces before traveling on along the tree line again (not before urinating in the intersection, however).

Can't believe (well, alright I can - we have a infant at home) this was the first time I got out tracking this season. I definitely need to break out my snowshoes and get out down at our OE center this week...

Predators and an Overabundance of Whitetail Deer in MA

I'm giving a talk on predators tonight at the Y; in preparation I was thumbing through an old issue of Massachusetts Wildlife (Nov. 2006), as I had seen mentioned on the cover an article about whitetail deer over-population. After reading the article, I have to say I'm even more fired up for my talk. It did a good job discussing the history of whitetails in New England, their human-caused decline and re-growth, and talked about the challenges we face living with a large, abundant mammal so close to our civilization. Hunting, however was the only method mentioned as a means of restricting the deer population (discounting natural causes which would result in ecosystem destruction and disease and starvation for thousands of animals). The article discussed the pros and cons people feel about hunting (while mentioning that the author - Tovar Cerulli - is a hunter himself) and proposed it as the best viable solution to the deer problem.

I happen to think that hunting is an excellent form of population control for our out-of-control deer population (and agree with the author that it's our best solution right now). And I also happen to think that a healthy predator population (i.e. - wolves) is also a potential solution. Reintroduction of wolves is a very controversial topic - no doubt about it. But much to my frustration, the author didn't even MENTION the role predators naturally play in keeping ungulate populations healthy and stable, and that fact that our top level predators are missing here in New England - and that's a big problem. Regardless of how you feel about an issue like predator re-introduction, to not even mention it as an ecological issue drives me crazy. People can continue on their way with their misconceptions about predators big and small, ignorant of how imbalanced our forests are without the biggest ones present. I'm SO glad I'm running my program this evening. **Stepping off my soapbox**

As an aside, I will be leading a tracking program in the central MA region this Saturday, January 16th from 10 - 12:30. If you're interested in attending, send me an email and I'll get you the details.

Bear Tracking

My Grandmother passed away this Thursday - the day before Samhain, appropriately enough. It was a good opportunity to introduce R. to why we celebrate Samhain and what it means... even if it made for a more melancholy holiday weekend (and birthday, if you're born on Samhain).

As a result we've been traveling the past few days to spend time with my side of the family, and went to go see Dad who was up in the Catskills. They had gotten over a foot of snow last week, and a fair amount of it was (is) still around. This morning, Thelma mentioned to me that there were tracks on the side yard which she and Dad thought were bear - so of course I had to go look... even though they had been pretty fresh the day before, there is so much melting going on that there were hardly any details left to the tracks. But given the overall gist, combined with the general size and stride of the prints, there was no doubt that they were bear tracks. I took some pictures which Thelma will hopefully email along soon (didn't bring our camera with us) so I can post them - these are the first bear track photos I've gotten... we did some backtracking, but the prints disappeared (along with the snow) under some hemlocks at the front edge of the property and we could only follow them so far (and I was SO not dressed for tracking... we had only gone for the night, and left today for the Berkshires to see Aunt L. and Uncle W. today - which is where I'm writing this).

This reminds me that I was supposed to attend a tracking conference on Saturday, which I obviously missed due to family concerns. Bummer - I hope they'll have one next year... I'll have to be sure to attend a Walnut Hill program this winter; with any luck there will be one before my own tracking class down at the Y in February...