Snakes, Mice, and Children

First of all, after speaking with Shelby, I have found out that what the Dove probably had was a bird pox. They have sent the bird off to be tested so we know for sure.

Secondly, also in an update type fashion, I caught another hispid pocket mouse in the same area on Wednesday morning. I did as I was asked to do last week and handed him (her?) over to Ron, but I wasn't very happy about it. I don't know what he's done with the little guy - he might already be in the Refrigerator of Death for all I know. The good thing is that Ron actually doesn't need more than the one so I can either help the circle of life along by giving them to Curtis or setting them free to get eaten without any assistance.

Before I gave up the mouse though, I took some pictures. I figured if he had to die, I could at least give him his 15 minutes of fame. He didn't really seem pacified though, as he did not do me the favor of posing. So just keep in mind that these mice are really very adorable.




In the last picture especially, you can see the distinguishing marks: The large nose, the orange(ish) color band of fur, and the 2 toned tail.

And on the Kangaroo Rat front: I have caught 2 Kangaroo rats this week. Actually I've caught one Kangaroo Rat twice this week. But if I'm really gonna be honest, I should tell you that I have caught this particular Kangaroo Rat 4 times now. Yep, either she is the stupidest K. rat ever, or she is a very misunderstood genius. You see, she may have figured out that by getting "caught" she actually gets shelter and security (no predator is going to get her in there!), and some free food. And since she didn't die the first couple of times she did this, there's really no reason to not continue doing this.

But if that were really the case, she shouldn't act so feisty whenever I'm trying to paint her toenails. So who knows? Another interesting fact is that I'm not catching her in the same traps. Every morning I find her in a different trap.

***Just talked to Curtis, and he said he's run into the same situation with a cotton rat that loved to get in the traps. They even moved it several miles away (they were tired of catching it) and about a week later they started catching it every morning again! Wily little creatures...***

So yesterday when I caught her we took some pictures. She seemed confused by this strange upset in our routine. Normally she gets caught and put in the sack. She tries to escape; I try to not get bitten. She squeaks; I paint her toenails. But yesterday before she went from the trap to the bag we took some pictures. She, like any attention loving diva, gave me all kinds of poses to choose from.


This morning I actually caught a snake in the south drift fence. After consulting my book, I determined that I caught another Great Plains Rat Snake (it was slightly lost, seeing how I found it in the woods...). It was a very young snake though, meaning that it was very small. He, like the last rat snake I caught, was very aggressive. The first time he struck out at me I yelped and dropped the trap. Sigh. I felt like such a girl. He followed me around with his head and did a fair imitation of rattling his tail. I really liked him - but not enough to play with him! You can see from the pictures that the rat snake actually looks a bit like the glossy snake (the mask across the eyes is similar for instance) - but there are some differences. For one, the ratsnake's skin is not glossy. For two, the glossy snake's scales are smooth and the rat snake's are slightly raised or "keeled". If you look closely enough at the pictures, the scales do look a little bumpy. For three, the belly of the rat snake is not plain, but striped. You can kind of see that in the picture where he is all the way at the end of the trap. And of course, as Curtis tells me, all rat snakes seem angry at the world, and the glossy snake is very laid back. When I let him go, he did not stick around for me to get lots of amazing pictures. I got two, both of which are posted, and then he was well on his way. I followed his path for as long as I could. It's really amazing how he just disappeared! One second I knew right where he was and in the next instant, I didn't even see grass moving. I'm assuming he just coiled up in the grass to wait for me to leave, but it was kinda eerie all the same.




And lastly, I have now done two environmental education programs. Yesterday I did a program with 9 kindergartners. It felt more like 30 kindergartners! They were a lot of fun, but man did they have some energy! The program was about how to use your senses (touch, smell, sound, and sight) to find/observe/describe animals. We listened to bird sounds and picked out the different birds we heard. For our sight exercise, one child would describe a picture of a bird to the rest of the class and they would try to figure out which one he was talking about. We also talked about how animals use their senses. For instance we played a game where the "mama bats" used their sense of smell and sound to find the "baby bats" (we gave each child a scented cottonball in a satchel and blindfolded the mama bats). The touch exercise was probably the most exciting. We passed around snake skins, different furs, turtle shells, armadillo armor, and a deer's antler around and talked about the differences and the uses of the furs/shells/antler. It was a lot of fun, but very overwhelming.

When we were describing pictures of different animals, one little boy would shout "And it dies!!" after every one. Heh. Kids say the darndest things...

Today I taught a 3rd grade class about why animals either live alone or together, about why animals might make sounds, and a little bit about the predator/prey relationships. I actually had more fun teaching them. They were very inquisitive and wanted to know everything I knew. They also wanted to tell me every single wildlife story they've heard or experienced. It was a lot of fun. Haha. One student asked me why a mother bird needed a mate to have babies. Oh man! Exciting stuff, there!

The game we played was really fun. We gave each student a noise maker (there were 5 types of noise makers that were distributed) and they spread out in the playground. When I gave the signal they would try to find someone else who had their type of noisemaker (therefore being of the same species). When they found a partner they came back to home base. Then we discussed some reasons animals might make sounds (to find each other, to warn of predators, to claim territory, etc.). Then we introduced predators into the mix. So some of the "animals" died and had to go to Emily - who was our Turkey Vulture for the game. This meant that not everybody had a mate - so that brought up all kinds of discussion points. What happens when an animal can't find a mate, for example. Then we made each noisemaker a specific animal. One was an armadillo who could roll into a ball and be safe from the predators. Another was a skunk and could spray the predator to get away. The others were a possum, a porcupine, and a turtle. Each could do their different defensive type move, and try to get away from the predator, but it didn't always work. Enter lots more discussion points.

I think maybe they learned some things. But in the end, they just had a great time playing the game.

I did too. :) I'm looking forward to next week when I'll be giving programs for kindergarten through 6th grade. We'll see how well I like these after I've done 7 of them!