Future Maine & Nova Scotia Trip: Trapping/Location Assistance Wanted
Hello all! Long time user of this wonderful resource, first time poster.
My goal like many of you here is to see/photograph as many mammal species as possible in my lifetime. Most of my work has been done with captive animals but I’ve also been lucky enough to visit some exotic wildernesses across the globe. My combined captive/wild total is currently at 1162 from 37 countries and 43 US States.
At the end of August into early September I’ll be driving through Maine (mostly near the coast) and Nova Scotia. My goal is to to do whale/dolphin watching in Boothbay Harbor & Bar Harbor, ME as well as Cape Breton Island, NS. While in these areas I was hoping anyone may have suggestions for small mammal watching/trapping (or for any other must visit whale watch destinations.). I don’t have any of my own trapping equipment, but would greatly appreciate the assistance of anyone that was capable and willing. Many species of shrews, moles, bats, voles or mice could all possibly be lifers for me.
Thanks in advance for any and all help!!
2 Comments
-
Jon Hall
Thanks Sara. That is a great offer. I am pretty keen to try to get up there myself in fact for a weekend for some of those shrews and a Northern Flying Squirrel. Could you send me an email jon@mammalwatching.com so we can talk a bit more.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Sara Boone
Hello!
We are graduate students working on small mammals/foraging/behavior/forest ecology at the University of Maine. We are currently in the middle of our field season and are always open to having visitors tag along in our small mammal trapping endevours. We will be starting our trapping for the September session on the 1st and ending around the 19(ish), during which we will be rotating our trapping efforts through six different grids for three nights each. Our field site is a short drive from the UMaine in Orono, ME.
I will say it had been a lower capture year (following a masting event two years ago, and a population boom last year), but the species we commonly see are Myodes gapperi (red-backed voles), Peromyscus maniculatus (deer mouse), Sorex (dispar, gapperi, and probably hoyi), Blarina brevicauda (short-tailed shrew). We sometimes capture Napaeozapus insignis (woodland jumping mouse), Glaucomys sabrinus (occasionally volans) (northern and southern flying squirrels). Most years, we capture Tamiasciurus hudsonicus (N. american red squirrel) but this year, they are snubbing our peanut butter traps.
As mentioned, the populations are only just starting to pick up from the plummet this last winter, so we can’t guarantee any of the above species. Normally, voles and mice are common, and shrews depend on the grid we are currently trapping in. If this interests you, we can get into contact with more details. Good luck!