Mr. Tshudy's Expedition Journal

Mr. Tshudy's Expedition Journal

April 20	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 23
May 24

Date: April 20, 2006

Posted by: Dean Tshudy

Re: Preparations

I can’t believe that everything is falling into place. I really didn’t think that I was going to get an expedition assignment. Then I receive an e-mail asking me if I would be willing to participate in a “Live from the Field” in Oxford , England- during the school year. I got the approval from my school administration and began preparing. Seven weeks is not a lot of time to prepare for an expedition- especially with a live from the field aspect to it. Fortunately I had already sent in for a renewal of my passport (although it still hasn’t arrived yet). I immediately began to research the expedition briefing online and rushed to get my plane ticket. Airfare was going up quickly. In fact from the time I researched airfare at the end of the school day until I made my reservation that night the fare increased $50.00! I exchanged a few e-mails with my partner teacher- Barbara Rhealt from Mullica Twp. in Atlantic County , NJ- and we got to know a little more about each other. We were fortunate to have a conference call with Meg and Anna from Earthwatch to discuss the aspects of the live from the field- extremely helpful. I bought a few clothes for the trip and began to work on the web page for the expedition and live from the field. I am able to add to it a little each day. I began to line up participating teachers in my school and worked with our tech specialist to make sure that we have a backup plan for everything. I spoke a little with my substitute teacher to plan activities for the week with my students and began to work on the project that the students will do from home as their part of the expedition. Still a lot of work to do, but we’re getting there. Four weeks to go.

Date: May 19, 2006

Time: 0840 London Time

Re: Arrival

Hello from London. I am sitting in Heathrow Airport waiting for Mrs. Rheault's flight to arrive. A lot of standing in line so far. It took quite a while to get through security at Newark Airport. The flight was very nice and smooth although I only was able to sleep for an hour. Remember the 5 hour time difference. Although it is 8:40 AM here in London, my body is still on USA time. Therefore it is 3:40 AM according to my body, I'm just starting my day, and I've slept for about an hour. This is what they call jet lag. My flight arrived a little early, but there was a long line for Passport clearance. I just finished a nice traditional English breakfast of fried egg, back bacon, a huge sausage, baked beans, tomato, and toast.

As soon as Mrs. Rheault arrives, we will take the train up to Oxford. That should take a little over an hour. As we begin our journey we can identify one of the tools that scientists use- the computer. As we continue our work, you will be able to see a number of different uses for the computer, but now the computer is being used primarily for recording information- specifically in a journal. The computer is also being used for communication- as a way to get information out to different people. I haven't been able to get a wireless connection here at Heathrow Terminal 4 so I will have to upload this entry later.

Date: May 19, 2006

Time: 1515 Oxford Time

Re: Here in Oxford

We made it to Oxford and have settled in our rooms. Trying to get a little rest to get over the jet lag. We have our orientation meeting this evening at 1800 hours and will get out in the field early tomorrow morning. I have included a picture of the outside of the Youth Hostel (although they really aren't just for youth any more thankfully for me) and a picture of the room that I will be sharing with other male members of the team.

Date: Saturday, May 20, 2006

Time: 1400 Oxford Time

Woke up this morning after a great sleep, but too short. The van picked us up at 900, and we went to the field research station where we had an orientation to the different mammals found in Wytham and a brief history of the area. We learned the ways that different species are affecting the ecology of other species and the purpose for this project. We then went to the center of the site and visited “The Chalet” The Chalet is the home of our principle investigators and one of our bases for the study. We examined antlers and horns of the three species of deer found here, differentiated between antlers and horns, and identified their uses. We then began to take a walk through the woods. We examined a huge scaffold structure which enabled researchers to study caterpillars, moths, and changes to the environment at the very upper level of the forest. We also examined a badger latrine. This is pretty much exactly what it seems. By studying the badger latrine and its location, we can determine the territory boundaries of different badger setts (groups of badgers and their home) as well as their main diet source. The primary diet of badgers in Wytham is worms. We also examined a badger sett and discussed the ways that badgers relate to each other, how the holes and tunnels are constructed, how they sleep, and many other characteristics. It is now lunch time. After lunch we will go out and set our traps. The weather is quite chilly with intermittent rain.

Time:1630 Oxford Time or GMT (Can anyone figure out what GMT stands for?)

Just returned to the research station after setting our small mammal traps for mice and voles. The traps were set in a protected fenced in area. This area is designed to keep out the deer that eat the underbrush. In this area the underbrush is extremely thick. This provides cover for the small mammals so that they are not caught and eaten by fox or other predators. It also will allow us to compare these results with results from areas with little underbrush. The humane small mammal traps are called Longworth traps (picture on the right) named after the area where they are made. Each trap cost around 40 pounds. The money exchange rate now is approximately $2.00=1 pound. The traps have 2 sections, a tunnel section and a nesting section. The small mammals enter the tunnel, trip a switch to close the door behind them, and then can stay in the nesting section. The nesting section contains nesting material and food so that they can survive for a period of time. They must be tilted downward so that the water from rain drains out and the mammals stay warm and dry. We placed 100 traps in the enclosed area. We will check them twice tomorrow to see what we have caught.

Time:2220 GMT

Just returned from badger watching. Saw about 7 or 8 badger. They pop up out of their holes and eat the peanuts that we layed out for them. They are very skittish. We needed to be extremely still and quiet. Trying to upload everything now from the Internet store in downtown Oxford so will be brief. They close in 1/2 hour.

May 21, 2006

Time: 1305

Ah, the English weather! It is cold, rainy, wet, and mud everywhere. This morning we checked out small mammal traps. Out of 100 traps set, we captured 6 mammals- 3 field mice and 3 bank voles. This, we are told, is a pretty good result for this time of the year. We carefully removed the mammals from their traps. To do this we put the traps in a large plastic bag and then removed all of the bedding and the mouse or vole. We then picked up the mammal by the back of the neck, cut off a bit of the outer fur with scissors so that we could tell if we caught it again, checked for gender, and weighed using a spring scale. Most of our catches were around 20 grams. We then placed the traps back in their location and will check again this afternoon.

Following this we were to do a hare survey, but the rain caused us to postpone this and we did a deer survey instead. Using survey poles we marked out a 10m x 10m grid and then walked in a line to check for deer droppings. When we found them, they were identified as to muntjac, fallow, or roe deer. This is done by the shape of the droppings. We moved to a number of different areas and conducted a number of different surveys. The data from our surveys can be extrapolated (find the definition for that word) to determine the number of deer found in the area.

More on badgers- We did see one badger sett that had tubes going down into the ground. The scientists fitted the badgers with radio collars to track their movement. They then located the badgers in their underground chambers, drilled a hole down into the chamber, and inserted a small video camera to monitor badger behavior. We did see a short video resulting from one of these cameras.

This afternoon, the rain was quite steady so we took a break and stayed inside for an informational program on badgers. Extremely informative. I know much more now so have some questions ready. We will check our traps again later tonight and then probably call it a night.

Date: May 23, 2006

Time: 1250 GMT

We will see if we get time to get this journal posted by today. We have been extremely busy often working 13 hour days in the field. Yesterday we checked traps, walked transects, did badger watching and tested the bat monitor- most of the information regarding that I posted on the blog yesterday. We were able to see some of the badgers with a closer view last evening with the use of binoculars.

Today we checked traps again in the morning and had a catch of 5 voles and 1 mouse. All except one were recaptures. We did have an interesting find in that the mouse had actually given birth inside the trap. We replaced the mouse and the baby in the trap because it was the environment where the birth occurred. We did leave the door open so that the mother could get in and out as needed. We also moved the other traps away from that location so that the mother wouldn’t accidentally get caught in another trap.

We then did another field transect in a different location. Since the weather was much nicer (hooray) and the sun was out the mud was beginning to dry. We were able to see some fantastic prints from deer and badger . We also found other badger setts, fox holes (picture), and one of the most massive badger latrines that I have seen. We counted over 20 different spots where badger had gone. Funny how some things excite you in the field.

We also found a bone and hazelnuts eaten by mouse, vole, and squirrel. You can tell which animal ate it by the way the nut is opened. The mouse makes a very neat round hole, the vole a rougher shaped hole, and the squirrel splits the nut into two halves.

After lunch we went to Tubney (picture left) which is the new home of Wild CRU. Unfortunately the place is also infested with rabbits. We conducted rabbit surveys in a similar fashion to the deer surveys. We marked out quadrants in 1 meter squares, collected all of the rabbit poop in each meter and recorded the weight. We did this for about 60 quatrants total for the group. This is done in the hope that they can find some way to manage the severe problem with the rabbit population. Tubney is a beautiful estate that was given to Oxford University. The grounds are beautiful (just filled with rabbit holes). When we returned from Tubney we checked the mouse and vole traps again. Only one this time and a recapture. We often don't get as many in the afternoon and only voles since mice are nocturnal and won't be out during the day. We had a barbecue for the team tonight for dinner and met with the Earthwatch representative for the UK and spoke with her a little. Made an attempt at the teleconference but the weather wasn't cooperating. A huge thanks to all fo the students participating. Your patience was so appreciated. After dinner we went to another badger sett and saw some cubs this time. That was quite exciting. The picture here is a larger view of a badger sett. They really spread out of quite a distance with holes all over the place. Finally went back to the hostel very late and answered questions on the blog.

Date: May 24, 2006

Time: 1520

This is our final day. We just finished with the expedition in the afternoon and spent the next few hours in the Internet store updating journals, the picture gallery, added a picture of the team, etc. This morning we returned to check our small mammal traps for the last time. It almost seems as if these little critters have become our friends. We caught quite a few this morning, both mice and voles, but all were recaptures. We then collected all of the traps so that they can be used next week by a different group in a different location. We headed down to the field station to compile evaluate all of the data that we collected. It was a bit crazy today at both the chalet and field station because the British Minister of the Environment was visiting Wytham Woods today and people, cars, TV cameras and the like were all over the place. The Minister of the Environment is the same as a member of the President's cabinet in our country.

To help tie everything together, we reviewed the definition of ecology. Ecology is the study of the factors which determine the distribution and abundance of a species. Many factors can contribute to the distribution and abundance of a species. These can be climate, food, predation, habitat, competition, etc. In order to effectively study the impact on a species you need to know where they are and how many there are. That has been the focus of our study with small mammals. The distribution and abundance can be measured by mammal monitoring. We trapped the mice and voles to determine their abundance. Using a mathematical formula and the results from our data we were able to determine that in our area of 25 meters x 50 meters there were 4 voles and 6 mice. It really seemed like so many more, but most were recaptures. These numbers are a bit low, but it is early in the season and many of the female captures were pregnant. It was encouraging to see that number of voles because outside of the protected area there are extremely few voles.

Our deer monitoring with the quadrants helps to determine the number of deer in the area. This involves a more elaborate formula to do the extrapolation. It involves factors such as the number of times a day the deer poops per hectare (fallow deer- 25), the fact that our quadrants were only about 1/100 of a hectare, deer poop can last in the woods for a number of days, etc. By putting all of our data into an equation we determined that there were around 40 fallow deer in Wytham Woods. According to other estimates by the British Deer Society and others, that is almost right on the mark. The results of course become more accurate as more surveys are done in many different habitats. (That will be a job for another team). The transect surveys were not designed to find the abundance but rather the distribution. Did we see any signs that indicate that a certain species of animal lives in that area? We found evidence of roe deer, fallow deer, muntjac deer, fox, rabbits, hares, wood mice, bank voles, bats, squirrels, moles, and badger.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to London for a few days. I should be able to check the blog- so if you have any more questions keep sending them in, and I'll try to take a look at them.

This has been a wonderful experience for me and hope that you all found it interesting as well. It provided us all with a truly unique opportunity to learn about ecology in England and the way scientists work. My thanks goes out to all of our Earthwatch team for the assistance and support that made this expedition so enjoyable, to Drs. Newman and Buesching for sharing their knowledge and expertise in such an enjoyable and patient manner, and especially to all of the students involved because your interest, questions, and involvement is what made everything worthwhile. See you all soon.