9 March 2012

Even after all these years it still remains a thrill to go into the field and check the mongoose traps. I suspect it is the same feeling that people get from hunting and fishing. My 61-year old brother will trudge through a foot of snow on a frozen lake in northern New York pulling a sled with 50 pounds of ice fishing gear, sit on a bucket next to a hole in the ice for hours in temperatures approaching zero degrees Fahrenheit, and get excited when he catches a northern pike that he ultimately doesn't eat but gives away to his friend. The thrill has not waned for him either.

This morning we caught four males and three females: one male was originally captured and marked last summer. The new refuge road makes if less than a 15-minute drive to our traps from Cottages By The Sea so we bring all animals back to our make-shift lab (a table out of the tropical sun).

We caught two more males in the afternoon when we dropped off the first captures: one male had been marked last March. Those two animals were released closer to sunset. Forty-three percent trap success is not bad for the first day.