Michael Durham, who happens to be one gifted wildlife photographer -- recently clicked some crystal clear images of red tree voles.
Read about his project here, and feast your eyes on these special rodents of our great Douglas fire forests.
It's also good to know these little canopy crawlers are subjects of ongoing scientific research.
About Me
- Camera Trap Codger
- Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of four. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.
Showing posts with label Red tree vole. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Red tree vole. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
The lofty realm of the tree vole
“’It was a hard climb.’ Bailey wrote in his field report, ‘but
the large flat nest at once showed fresh signs and I dug in with great care.’”
It was 1914 and Vernon Bailey was at Spencer Butte, Oregon,
perched in the lofty realm of the red tree vole 80 feet above ground.
A few moments later a vole appeared on the limb and started
its escape.
“With increasing anxiety, he watched the little vole make
its way along the branches, deliberately, slowly, seemingly dazed by the bright
light of daytime.
“Conflicting feelings tugged at Bailey, his paradox
realized: he never before had seen a living specimen of a red tree vole and
wished to observe as much of its habits as he could; at the same time he did
not want to lose his opportunity to collect the specimen.
“’I could take no chances of losing so precious a specimen’,
he later wrote. With the tree vole about twenty feet from him, he drew his
collecting pistol, aimed slightly to one side so as not to damage the fur, and
knocked the animal to the ground.
As George Jobanek wrote in his excellent historical
chronicle of naturalists pursuing tree voles from which I have quoted, the Biological Survey’s
Bailey finally collected the elusive red tree vole a day before his 50th
birthday.
If the codger is lucky, he’ll "bag" the rodent in pixels before
the year is out.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to climb 80 feet, and I was armed
with a camera trap rather than a shooting iron.
Reference
Jobanek, G.A. 1988. Searching for the tree vole: an episode
in the 1914 Biological Survey of Oregon. Oregon Historical Quarterly,
89(4):369-400.
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| Looking up from the nest. |
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| The camera ready to go (the rope came down with the climber) |
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