Just before the storm!

In the yard, a rodent tunnel. A dead mole.

 Sunday morning, looking out the front window: friends! Three male turkeys; three deer, Momma, male and female yearlings. Amazing, JB said, how well herbivores can get along!

The feathers are just lovely! The one in the background has had a wonky leg for awhile.

I had to go out and get gas for the snowblower. Our friends were still here. The doe went left, later in the video, the yearling ran across my path, the doe was looking for the other yearling. 

frontyard from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

In the forest, a turkey. I think this trailcam is giving up the ghost. There have been lags in the videos. Also, it's not showing the correct temperatures.

In the dark: a skunk! It looked more interested in grubs than the pumpkin. skunk from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

We had our storm. The precipitation looked a bit wonky. I think it must be errors with the radar. 

I prepared by starting the snowblower. It took 3 tries, and I let it run until I finished sweeping leaves out of the garage. (JB was shopping, and the car was out.) Once I fetched more gas, I have to go and get my reading glasses to figure out how much of this to put in. It stabilises the gas if it isn't used up immediately. I wonder how much snow we'll get this year!

JB nipped out to Smiths Falls to get me a new timer for our lights. The ad worked!

Snow didn't begin until 2 p.m. It's really wet this morning, and it's heavy to shovel. sigh. It's above 0. Off I go! Winter, bring it on!

Aha! The Rodent mystery is solved (I think)

There have been a lot of tracks about in the powdery snow.

I've been deeply suspicious about some tracks. I know what mice tracks look like. Little toes, teeny feet. The deer mice tracks from step-to-step are about 2" apart.
I consulted my sources, various guides. Reviewed previous posts/photos: Tracks in the snow. These were different.

There was a dragging tail, which is typical of a mouse in snow, but the feet were larger than mice. I haven't see these tracks too often. Not until recently, with the terrible cold we've had: The Polar Vortex. It's been around under the bird feeder.

Rodentia

tracks with a tail
–much larger than
a mouse
The tracks are 8" apart.

We have a lot of rodents about. Rodents are characterized by constantly growing incisors. The single largest group of mammals >is Rodentia. Most non-flying mammals are rodents: there are about 1,500 living rodent species (out of about 4,000 living mammals overall).

This is a large and varied species: according to uBerkeley,

• the larger family includes common pets: guinea, muskrats, chinchillas, porcupines, lemmings, deermice, field mice, voles and packrats,  
• but excludes shrews, moles, hegehogs, rabbits (double incisors).

Most are herbivores.
Lots carry disease, like Hantavirus.
A lot of these are diurnal, we see deermice in the daytime all the time, but see evidence of their tracks from the night, and safety, of the dark.

Capybara - largest rodent

Vole (larger than deer mouse).

Shrew
Love the little toes!

The largest rodent, Capybara, I happen to have a photo of one, from the Lynwood Fun Fair. They can be 66 kilos!

Deermouse

Back to my critter, which is nocturnal.

Packrats or Woodrats

Woodrat - from Wiki

I've heard of packrats, vaguely. My mother always accused me of being one! And she was right. You never know when you need stuff for crafts!

After doing some research, there seems to be quite a few varieties of woodrats; Eastern Woodrat  ( Neotoma floridana >) a Key Largo Woodrat, Allegheny woodrat, Bushy-tailed woodrat, or Packrat. Bushy-tailed Woodrat - Neotoma cinerea, The Allegheny woodrat ( Neotoma magister ), is a species of " pack rat >" in the genus Neotoma . Once believed to be a subspecies of the eastern woodrat , extensive DNA analysis has proven it to be a distinct species. ^[2]

The rats that infest cities are called Norway rats. (Our soon-to-be D-I-L's cat caught and ate one a few years ago in Vancouver.)

woodrat Wiki

Woodrat house - used with permission
Kim Cabrera

Woodrats build really cool homes (see: Kim A. Cabrera's web page: out of sticks and shiny things. This is why they are called packrats!

I shall have to have a look out for this type of shelter in our forest/wetland, it's great habitat for them. The previous homeowners stacked brush in the forest to clear paths. They might be a house! They build bulky nests of stick, towers that can be 5' tall.

They are anywhere from 28cm - 45cm (11 - 18"), including the tail, near as I can figure.

The mystery of this critter is that something has been in the shed, gnawing and removing the garbage can lid. Several times now, I'd thought I'd forgotten to replace the lid.
I've checked for holes in the shed, but the snow is up around it and I needed snowshoes. I grabbed snowshoes, and couldn't see any entrance in.

Identifying tracks

There are lots of things to determine: the length of the track, size of the tracks, my hand span is 8", which would fit with a woodrat.

 

Lots of track aids. This one includes Eastern woodrats!
Beside my thumb: 4" - 6" from the top set of prints to the last paw. Yep.

Time to link up with Saturday's Critter party....  
and 

Camera Critters #310

Evidence in the shed

I've seen chew marks on the handles, and I'm now sure I put it on after I filled the bird feeder the other day.
I cannot imagine how a woodrat pried the lid off, but it must have!
There are tons of black sunflower seed hulls on the floor, and something has eaten a lot more than would fit into a mouse tummy!

Their scat is quite different, too.

just for comparison

This is not how I left this garbage can,
filled with yummy black sunflower seed!

sharp teeth!

Determined little twerps!

The key to the mystery is the scat.
The black, rice-like ones are mice.
The larger, beige ones have
to be a larger woodrat.

PART I: Cats as predators; we're meat eaters, too

Last night's prey

When I look at the field mouse tunnels on our lawn, I feel no grief! They tunnel under the snow, as this Red Fox video shows. Our shed has deermice (left) in what was a box that houses the electrical plug. I think the first owner ran an extension cord from the house to light the backyard shed. The next owner must have cut it off. The box remains as a nice little mouse den. Daisy told me there are mice in there! When I open the shed door to get some bird seed, they run and hide.

I often find mice eating the bird seed. Sometimes, they will hop into the garbage cans, in which I store the bird seed, and when I next go back to the cans they will have sat there overnight, happily devouring the seed.

Oliver caught red squirrels our first year here, but they've had babies, and came back with compensatory reproduction. Thankfully! I felt so guilty. The mice are plentiful, as well, and form the basis of our cats' outdoor activities. As a meat-eater, I cannot judge. They'll bring garter snakes to me, poor things just harvesting the frogs from the goldfish pond, which I release in the far-off meadow. I liken them to our wolf and coyotes, they prey on the weak,  slow to run, not-so-swift (chipmunks really are dumb as bricks - why built a home outside our back door) and keep the gene pool strong. The wild canines, as well as our domestic felines, eat more mice, voles, moles than we know. Bless their hearts.

Daisy, trying to catch the chickadees.
They're far too quick for her, sitting tweeting, and teasing her!

Birds are clever and visit various food sources throughout the day. Deer, not so much, and tend to exploit an area, then move on. Ours is their winter yard, where they congregate feeling safe in our meadow, unlike Bambi and his momma.

There are 'research studies' out there, proclaiming how many critters cats kill. The media has grabbed these stories and run with this poor science. Now, as with the deer that we feed, if you regularly feed the birds, you'll support the species. So long as you continue to feed them. If you live in a rural area, have access to a large acreage (1200 acres of land nearby), and feed them quality food, I'm happy to continue our feeding program begun by the previous owners.
They expect it, their meagre mouthful each day.

Caught it in the seeds!

This cat study [KittyCam] was a lesson in sloppy science on the part of National Geographic (media seeking readers), for a project seeking funding, with these conclusions. Perhaps Tree Hugger embraces the 'call to action' popular in the media, but the numbers of cats studied was too small, environmental conditions will vary from area to area, rural/urban, country-to-country, and there are too many variables to make it a valid study, susceptible to inflated numbers. Any extrapolation of the results from that small a collection of data to world-wide statistics, is criminal. You can conclude and extrapolate for Georgia, for a temperate climate, cannot compare to this climate.

Field mouse - they've been nipping my goldfish
pond liner.

Reputable studies need more than a study population of 60 cats, with 30% capturing prey. That said, only a minority of these cats hunted at all all the time. The prey recorded included Carolina Anoles (abundant lizards), voles (abundant) then unspecified invertebrates (probably abundant), and last of all birds. One cat refused cat food, which further changes predictive value of cats. As with all predators, they are most likely killing the sick, injured, and most commonly found birds, when they do get a bird. One has to put it in perspective. My field is filled with mice, judging by the mouse tunnels, yet they aren't caught all that often.

"You can be pretty sure they're not bringing down endangered American Eagles; and we don't have endangered birds in our forest." wrote one commenter. 

A GOOD scientist can not extrapolate that cats are killing 500 million birds a year from THIS study; "cats are likely killing more than 4 billion animals per year, including at least 500 million birds."

deer mouse

The American Bird Conservancy extrapolates this data from Athens, Georgia, to a 'slaughter of 4 Billion birds', yet it doesn't apply everywhere, especially to non-feral cats, like ours. Nor can you extrapolate to cats who live in cold regions, where they are indoors, out of the snow and cold, or barn cats.

And, yes, Kellie, we can point fingers at one another, but ultimately, naturalists must be realists. As with the 'End Poverty Now' campaigns, we aren't going to eliminate cat ownership. It is a fruitless endeavour, especially in rural Canada, to keep all barn cats and feral cats indoors! There is a purpose to their captures.

KittyCam Technology Reveals How Much Wildlife Is Killed by Outdoor Cats

The results of the study showed that of the 60 cats wearing the cameras, 30% captured and killed prey with an average of one kill for every 17 hours spent outside, or 2.1 kills per week. You can watch several select videos of cats' activity, like fighting off an opossum, making a new cat friend, and birdwatching.
We used Kitty Cams to investigate the activities of urban free-roaming cats in Athens, Georgia from Nov. 2010 -Oct. 2011

I had such a time with rude, abusive posts, wishing a zoonostic cat disease on me and my grandchildren, that I had to delete them. As with other invasive species, we must learn to live with cats. From a discussion, she went into rants. Very rude and disrespectful youngster.

She got me banned from a Facebook sight, as I wanted people to discuss this topic reasonably. It didn't happen. It skewed into cats as invasive species. 

Time to winterize the goldfish pond - I had helpers!

The pump removed, it is sadly silent.

As I write publish this post, we've had more than 25 mm of rain, high winds and a temperature of 16 C.
I usually prepare posts ahead of time. Sort of like a day book teachers write. Sometimes it was a day behind book, to quote a colleague of mine!

It was quite balmy last night. When I was doing this work, Tuesday, it was bitterly cold.

Geraldine was sitting on the side of the pond last night. She'd disappeared under the cold surface of the water when the temperatures dropped at the beginning of the week.

Geraldine - she's a big girl!

It is time to shut her down for the season. It looks so quiet. No more tinkling of water to soothe the soul.

Yes, I had helpers. Daisy found a mole. Dorah found a fieldmouse.

Wee mole

Daisy and her mole

I rinsed, scrubbed and soaked the pump in vinegar water.
It was bitterly cold, but the sun came out.
After I was done, I ran the lawn tractor over the catalpa leaves to mulch them. I spotted another mouse running away. At least the leopard frogs, fond as they are of the deep grass, have gone for the season!
Last look at the pond with the fountain.


Winterizing the goldfish pond from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Yes, it was time. It was -6 C. Monday night. The frogs are nowhere to be seen. This is the last look at the pond pump for the season.

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome found in Yosemite

And a new virus, borne by rodents: Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (Wiki). 

[PDF] Hantavirus factsheet 06

www.gov.mb.ca/health/publichealth/cdc/fs/Hantavirusfs.pdf

4 more cases of hantavirus confirmed among Yosemite visitors - CNN

www.cnn.com/2012/08/30/...yosemite-hantavirus/index.html

Around 1700 people who visited Yosemite National Park from mid-June to August are being advised to seek medical attention if they exhibit 

Flying Squirrel

Formerly known as Korean Hemorrhagic Fever, it is now called Hantavirus.

It sounds much like Q-fever:
Laurentian University issued a press release to say that this bacterium was found in 6/7 species of wild rodents in Algonquin Park. 

Here is a good place for research. How does this affect people and how do we react to the bacteria?

Rodents in the park include red squirrels, flying squirrels and deer mice. It was also found in flying squirrels in the Peterborough area, indicating that the bacteria may be widespread among these animal populations in Ontario.  This is an important reason to keep clean, to not feed rodents, and seal those cracks! 

Q-Fever In The Netherlands - Avian Flu Diary
They think we might get it from inhaling air-borne feces. In 2007 this happened in the Netherlands, where more than 2,000 people were infected. 

Black Squirrel

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) website states, “In Ontario, Q-fever has occasionally been diagnosed as a cause of abortion in sheep and goats. Reported human cases have been associated with exposure to abortions in sheep and goats, and drinking unpasteurised goat's milk. Exposure to placenta and contaminated materials from cats has been a common source of human Q fever infection in Nova Scotia.

Like Lyme Disease, Treatment, according to OMAFRA, is antibiotics for animals, but some humans experience chronic conditions. Education and awareness is important. 



From Medscape:

Sadie and her mouse

C burnetii infects various hosts, including humans, ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats), and pets—and, in rare cases, reptiles, birds, and ticks. This bacterium is excreted in urine, milk, feces, and birth products. These products, especially the latter, contain large numbers of bacteria that become aerosolized after drying. C burnetii is highly infectious, and only a few organisms can cause disease.



Our cats are doing their part.



Infected rodents widespread

Researchers are now trying to determine how the bacteria is maintained and spread in the natural environment. C. Burnetii is usually found on farms and infection of humans generally occurs through contact with sheep, goats or cattle.


Farm virus

Deer mouse

 A team of Laurentian University biology researchers, led by Canada Research Chair Dr. Albrecht Schulte-Hostedde have found evidence of the spread of the zoonotic bacterium Coxiella bernetii in wildlife in the park and say their findings suggest that some visitors to the park could be at risk of infection. 

Caitlin and a chipmunk

somebody caught a mole

Red Squirrel

Sadie and her prey

Felix and his first mole

Chipmunk