14 March 2011

Our Skype session originally scheduled for 1:00 pm on Friday 11 March was rescheduled for this morning at 10:00 am due to the inclement weather in Westfield. This morning's video conference went very well as expected. We showed them mongoose, a hermit crab, a scorpion, and a dried anole. In the future we need to collect more live creatures to display such as millipedes, ground geckos, anoles, etc.

Jonathan holding an anesthetized mongoose.

Jonathan displaying the teeth of an anesthetized mongoose.

This morning we captured 14 mongoose in 29 traps including nine recaptures. My distinct impression is that the mongoose population is greater than it has been for sometime. The trail camera captured 16 five-minute video clips of mongoose visiting the feeding station we established at trap station #27. Some of the video clips clearly show mongoose activity at night. The light from the camera reflects from the tapetum lucidulum (eye-shine phenomenon present in mammals that are active at night) clearly indicating that mongoose are active at night as well as during the daylight hours. So much for the stories of mongoose being diurnal! However, it is interesting to note that I have never seen them crossing the road at night. Maybe they are only active at night when they know a food source such as a pile of chicken feet is available. It was also interesting to note that all the animals recorded at night were very large and the fur on their tails was erected giving them the appearance of being larger than they actually are.

This afternoon we toured the Cruzan Rum Distillery and there is one event that I must comment upon. Near the end of the tour there is a set of stairs everyone must climb. Justin noticed that the elderly couple had fallen behind after the rest of the group climbed the stairs. He went back and helped the elderly woman ascend the stairs. She informed me at the end of the tour that she was very impressed and that our WSU students are not typical college students. Of course I agreed with her and thanked her for her kind words.

And so ends another beautiful day in paradise!