Animal Tracking in the Preserve—January 12, 2019

On Saturday, January 12 David Drake from Forest and Wildlife Ecology led a group of about 20 participants on a tour about the winter wildlife in the Preserve. Due to the lack of snow, we weren't able to view animal tracks, but David described the birds and mammals that resided here in winter. He also showed us his trapping site for the Urban Canid project he has been leading. They are using road-killed deer as bait for trapping coyotes and foxes to be radio-collared and tracked for the study. One particularly interesting result so far has been that in open areas, coyotes will drive away foxes to reduce competition for food, but in our urban area the two species co-exist. This seems to be because there are plenty of resources for both. Another result has been that foxes tend to have less incidence of heartworm and Lyme disease, which are transmitted by mosquitoes and ticks. Foxes are usually in closer association with human habitation (often tracked in people's yards) and apparently benefit from human attempts to kill mosquitoes and ticks. Report and photo by Friends host Steve Sentoff