Spring and Summer '12

The first phase of the Michigan Predator-Prey Project (http://fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/predatorprey/) is now complete, leaving myself and the two doctoral students to summarize and publish our findings. However, this does not mean field work is over! I have accepted a PhD position on the second phase of the study, and this past summer we have begun field work to prepare for phase 2.

The second phase of the study is located north of the Michigamme Reservoir near Crystal Falls, MI. The snowfall here is about 50% greater than that of Escanaba, MI (Phase 1). We are looking into the effects of the local predator guild (black bear, bobcat, coyote, and wolf), habitat, and winter weather on white-tailed deer adult and fawn survival.

We will be estimating annual abundance of all species of interest, and to prepare for this we have set out hair snares and cameras to estimate abundance of black bear and deer, respectively. We have also captured 22 black bear and collared 20 adults (8 male, 12 female) with VHF radio-collars. We will be changing these collars out for GPS-collars in their dens this winter. Then come spring we will be able to better identify what these bears are consuming, and the possible effects they ay have on white-tailed deer fawns. We will also be collaring bobcats, coyotes, and wolves with GPS-collars as well. This winter, we will begin deer trapping adult doe to monitor pregnancy rates, survival, and collar their young to monitor fawn survival.

For more information on this project, including quarterly reports please visit our website (http://fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/predatorprey/), we would love to hear from you!

- Tyler

Spring and Summer '11

It is now late summer, I head down to Mississippi next week and won''t return until winter bear den checks. This spring and summer field season have been great. This is the 3rd and final year for this phase of the study, We had 10 technicians work on the project this summer and just hired 2 more for this fall. This spring we captured 5 more coyotes, 3 wolves, 1 bobcat, and 5 bear (including 1 bear recapture that we couldn't get this winter!). We also caught a fisher in a foothold, first one I have seen (Pictured top left). During fawning we captured 49 fawns and collared them currently 20 mortality's have occurred due to predation or abandonment.

Howling surveys are going well and will continue into September. Average response rates for coyotes have been approx. 24% to both the coyote group-yip call and the lone wolf call. I have been going through sonograms (See Below) for analysis and hope to start my modeling for the population estimate shortly. I also have been washing and sorting collected coyote and wolf scat to look for occurrence of white-tailed deer adult and fawn hair as well as cattle hair. This fall camera surveys to estimate deer abundance will start as well as small mammal track tube surveys. I will post again in late fall and give an update on population estimates and fawn predation. If you would like more information please visit our website found in the 'links' section.


- Tyler


Below is an Image of a chorus howl by 4 wolves and you are able to see each individual howling by the dark black lines called fundamental frequencies.

Winter Research '10-'11

This winter I was back up in the U.P. to continue research. My focus was on estimating the 2 wolf pack sizes in our study area via wolf track surveys. I conducted 12 wolf track surveys, traversing 523.5 km. I also recorded wolf and other carnivore tracks opportunistically. I detected wolf tracks on 45 occasions. I also observed 193 sets of coyote tracks and 8 sets of bobcat tracks during track surveys. Low snowfall during late January and February prevented more surveys from being completed. From the surveys I estimated the Hayward Lake pack to contain 6 individuals and the 7-mile Marsh pack to contain 5 individuals.
We were also busy during this time capturing white-tailed deer. We collared and applied a VIT tag to 38 adult pregnant female doe. In total we captured 112 deer including bucks and fawns.
During February we focused on black bear den checks to change out collars with new batteries and also asses number of cubs and last years cubs, now yearlings, survival. Three of the females had yearlings, and two of the females had cubs. One mother had four cubs this year! The most we have seen on the project so far.
Starting in March we began coyote snaring in effort to have some collared before spring. We were able to catch 5 coyotes but lost one to a hunter and another to collar failure. Spring has now started and the beginning of May will bring a new summer crew of technicians. In the next week or so we will begin foot-hold trapping, hopefully we will get our carnivore quota!

- Tyler

Summer and Fall Research '10

It has been a while since my last post, I thought I would give a recap on summer and fall research. Currently I have started, and am almost finished with, my first semester at Mississippi State University as a Graduate student. Despite my absence, a lot of work goes on every fall up north. This summer ended with 3 wolves, 2 bobcats, 7 coyotes, and 18 bear with collars. We also had captured 44 fawns with collars. To date 14 fawn mortalities have occurred. In June-September wolf and coyote howl surveys were conducted with pretty good response from the wolves, but response was lower from coyotes than last year. In October deer camera surveys were conducted to estimate a population size within the study area. GPS collars are also starting to blow-off and are being collected to be re-furbished to be used again next year. As the snow is starting to fall up north bear dens are also being located, and their entrances marked, so we are better to able access them in a month when there is heavy snow on them.
Currently we are getting geared up for winter deer trapping, bear den checks, as well as carnivore capture which we are going to try during mid-winter this year rather than spring.
I head up north December 8th and we will start male bear den checks shortly after that, as well as deer trapping. If you ever want more information please visit http://fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/predatorprey/index.asp, this is the official project website.

- Tyler

Spring Research '10

Now that summer is here I thought I would post some of the events of spring. I graduated from Northern Michigan University on May 1st and although I officially started my graduate research assistantship May 16th, I started working on the project May 2nd. The crew is bigger this year, we have a total of 16 people 5 dogs and a cat. We had to rent a second house to fit everyone, so currently 12 people are in the "Big House" and 4 are in the "Lake House Shack".
Carnivore trapping started off right away with a bang, 2 wolves within the first week, 5 coyotes, and 2 bobcats. Bear trapping started up at the beginning of June as foothold trapping began to tapper off. We already had 7 bear collared from winter and have caught 8 this spring. Currently collared we have 3 wolves, 7 coyotes, 3 bobcats, and 15 bear.
Fawn captures and VIT tag searches went great this spring as well, starting in late May fawns started dropping and the tagged pregnant doe we caught this past winter provided ~60% success in finding their fawns. To date we have caught and collared 46 fawns this spring, we have not caught one for about a week now as they can outrun us on roughly 99% of encounters.
My howl survey research has been going well, currently I am eliciting howling from the collared individuals, the 7-mile marsh wolf pack is proving to be very responsive this year, and I have gotten one response from the Hayward Lake wolf pack as well. Responses have been slow from coyotes compared to last August but with whelping coming to a close things will hopefully be picking up for the July howl survey.
Spring has been great and Summer is looking quite fantastic as well, bear trapping will continue through August as well as Howling surveys through September. If anyone would like to know more feel free to e-mail me a tpetroel@gmail.com

- Tyler

Winter Research '09-'10

Winter has come and gone quickly, a very light snowfall for Michigan's Upper Peninsula this year. Although I did not spend all my time down in the study area because of classes and my thesis proposal, I was lucky enough to go down during some weekends.
Most of the field work has been deer trapping using clover traps, but because of low snowfall totals food has been more abundant and the deer haven't been "yarding" as nicely this winter but the deer trapping crew did well despite that and has caught and collared 20 doe. Currently they are rocket netting for deer but I have not been down to experience that.
Track surveys were also conducted but the snow failed to cooperate with getting many completed. The bobcat hair snares seemed to work well, and it is great to get out in the woods and bait for bobcat with roadkill deer.
The bear that we captured and collared this summer needed the GPS batteries changed out as well as checking on cubs of the year from females, den checks went quite well. Both females I worked on had 3 cubs each and a third female had 3 yearlings.
Spring is fast approaching and soon carnivore trapping will start, can't wait to catch some coyotes and wolves again! I will be graduating May 1st and starting my graduate research assistant position soon after. Talk to you all this summer.

- Tyler

Summer and Fall Research '09

This past summer I was lucky enough to get involved with a predator-prey study in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The study's focus on white tailed deer fawn survival and winter servarity provides an in depth look at the effects of the local predator suite (black bears, bobcat, wolves, and coyotes).

The people I work with are all very enthusiastic about wildlife research and I am very excited to have the opportunity to continue my education toward a M.S. on this project.

My research will be focusing on population estimation techniques for gray wolves and coyotes, I hope to improve sampling and estimate techniques for these species. This summer I set up a protocol for howl surveys and ran my first two samples this fall. This winter we will begin track surveys, if it ever snows, for estimates of wolf, coyote, and bobcat abundance.

Although my focus is on coyote and wolf research; catching fawns, black bear, bobcat, and building telemetry trucks doesn't make for a half bad day either.

- Tyler