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Just a quick pic of a small, cute bat. Small-footed bats only run about 5 grams in weight, or roughly the weight of two pennies. Really! Quite agile flyers, but we still catch them in the nets if they are around. And as always the rubber gloves seen in the background are to protect the bats from getting something from us, not the other way around.  Eastern small-footed bat (Myotis leibii) caught and released in West Virginia
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Where I was camping and working in Pennsylvania we had more than our share of bears. Pretty much saw one or more every day, and sometimes quite close. These were seen while a couple of us were walking along a trail about 200 feet from our camp. Mom wasn't super happy when she saw us, but no real danger as they are more interested in going the other direction when we bump into each other. Admittedly, bumping into this pair only 40 feet away was maybe as close as one would like for such a wildlife encounter. They posed just a moment like this, I snapped a quick photo, and they were outta there.  Black bear mom and cub in Carbon County, Pennsylvania Sorry about the near total lack of blog posts this summer!!! The places I have been working have been pretty deep in the mountains without any internet connectivity. I am briefly in town so wanted to get out at least something. Regular postings will start again in the middle of August after I finish my last travel project. Here is an eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) in hand from the Monongahela National Forest. We catch a fair number of these beautiful bats, and so far they don't seem to be affected by White Nose Syndrome as they do not hibernate in caves or apparently in large clusters. This is a male, which is really more orange than red, while the females are somewhat more reddish although I would have called it the orange bat not the red bat. The background is the bluish purple examination glove, something we wear when handling animals to help prevent us from spreading any disease to them. It is not to prevent them from giving us anything, quite the opposite, but makes for an odd background for a bat photo.  Eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) in hand caught on the Monongahela National Forest. Cute little guy! Fawns were really common this year in the Monongahela National Forest. We saw a lot of them. In general, when they are this small they can't run away from anything so their sole defense is to remain motionless and hope not to be spotted (get it, spotted like they are). Anyway, if you do see one you can just walk up to it and take its picture. But I don't like to disturb them too much and they are usually down in the brush so the photos only come out so-so. This one was under a downed tree in an area that had been burned off near a pond. So kinda under some stuff but also kinda right out in the open and pretty easy to see.  White-tailed deer fawn on the Monongahela National Forest Today we went over to the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. They are amazing with rehab animals. They get in hurt animals or confiscated pet trade animals or well anything that isn't suitable for just tossing back in the forest. We got to see the veterinary clinic there and it is top notch, with capabilities to do everything from disease testing to literally putting in metal pins to set broken bones. Every animal they get goes through a very rigorous process to fix it up and get it back to rights and then release it back into the wild in an appropriate area and in an appropriate way. And this process is way too complicated to cover here, but they currently have some pretty neat animals so wanted to put up some photos.  A variety of parrots and macaws end up at the sancutary Monkeys are notoriously hard to release, as they are tribal and a new arrival may not be accepted. This spider monkey is probably at the sanctuary for the rest of its life.  Spider monkey at Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary This female white-faced capuchin has a chance at a wild release, which would be fantastic.  White-faced capuchin with a maybe chance of release One amazing couple the sanctuary is this brocket deer and an agouti. There is a story behind that includes the poaching of the deer's mom and then the baby deer being confiscated by the authorities and taken to the sanctuary. The agouti was a young one as well and bonded on the deer. Now they are inseparable. When we walked by the agouti was sleeping on the back of the deer but they woke up. Totally cute couple in a very odd relationship.  A bonded pair of a brocket deer and an agouti. Probably an easy release for either of them but they are inseparable so complicated Another ball of cuteness they had was a collared peccary only about a month old.  Collared peccary waiting to get old enough for a release There is a really nice resort situated at Alturas, and got a chance to check out the view from the tourist area and pool. Would certainly not be a bad place to take some vacation time. http://villasalturas.com/  View from Villas Alturas Well time for a bunch of cutie photos, and I'll start with another photo of a variegated squirrel. This animal showed up this morning and we have no idea how it got here. But you just walk by it as it sits on the porch and it will jump on you and climb up to your shoulder and ride around. Seriously. And it is a slightly different color than the ones we have on the FCRE property so we can only guess where it came from. Very tame pet squirrel that someone did a midnight drop off here? I have no clue, but this is an attractive animal and we are happy to see him but we do not keep wild animal pets here. Maybe he moves on and gets back to being a wild animal or not. Time will tell.  Sophie Boerboom showed up at the Program House this morning to start her work and quickly met the tame variegated squirrel Just an update on Max. We found him one day about 50 meters from the release tree and haven't seen him since then. Just too darn hard to find in the forest, but here he was out in the sorta open on some small branches. Sloths are really common animals here, yet we don't see them all that often as they are mostly high up and oh so camouflaged.  Last known sighting of Max the Sloth The howlers are seeming to work their way back north after a die off, and we saw them at the beach. I heard them from the FCRE last year but so far they haven't returned (you can hear them a long way off). Terrible lighting for the ones we saw but here is a photo of one.  Mantled howler monkey at the beach Warren Roberts is one of the best at spotting wildlife in the canopy. Well this time we were walking off trail through the brush and he calls me over says, "there's a tail coming out from that tree." It took me a while to find it but sure enough, there was a kinkajou tail sticking out of a tree cavity. The animals are up there and sometimes you just have to have Warren around to see them.  Kinkajou tail poking out of a hole in a tree Here is the photo of the super cute agouti that should have been in the last post. I should clarify that my web software is working fine, but it is internet linked and the internet is working extremely poorly here right now.  Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) sitting under a...black palm at the FCRE |
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September 2021
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