29 May 2014 Squirrel baiting

Team Squirrel (us) spent the day on the tundra near Atigan Pass in the Brooks Range with our namesake-the arctic ground squirrels. We set out 40 wire cage live traps baited with carrot sticks. Yum. The squirrels can't seem to resist these treats as we caught some of them a couple of times in the same day. They just kept coming back for more! After several hours of baiting the traps and letting them sit for an hour or so, we caught about six squirrels.

Once captured, we tagged their ear with a color coded tag, then took measurements of weight and size to monitor their health condition. Today's squirrels were then all released. Later, we hope to catch several male squirrels for our experiment to better understand how the 24 hours of daylight here effect their daily cycles of activity and rest.

While waiting for the squirrels to take the bait, we had a chance to explore the surrounding Atigan river and Galbraith lake. Along the way we saw lots of bird life and some large wolf tracks in the sand.