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11 March 2011

It's another beautiful day in Paradise! It started with some heavy rain at about 7:00 am but then turned into a day of mixed clouds and sun. We caught 14 mongoose in the 27 traps we had set yesterday. Something, probably mongoose, removed chicken feet from three of the traps without being captured. Three of the animals were recaptures from previous trips and one male was less than 6 months old. After processing the animals at Cottages we returned them to the Refuge around 4:30 pm.


Mongoose in a trap.

Field crew returning with a trapped mongoose.

Four of the animals were dusted with fluorescent powder and two of those trails were tracked with the GPS this evening. Despite the thorns and cacti Brad and I manged to follow each trail for about an hour before we lost them. There are several things that glow in long wave UV in addition to the powder falling from the mongoose. There is some sort of mold or fungus that glows orange on the leaves of one plant that we have yet to identify. There appear to be several species of lichen on dead sticks that have a whitish glow. But most fascinating of all were the scorpions we observed under the leaf litter. They were fluorescent yellowish-green and were approximately 1 cm in length. We will try to capture one and study it more closely. So, all the scrapes and scratches were worth it!


Scorpion (captured with a Nikon D60)

Scorpion illuminated with a UV light (captured with a Nikon D60)