Journal

Today was another long day of trapping.

Trapping squirrels
Here are a few of the traps we set for Arctic ground squirrels today. Each of the white spots that you see is a trap.

We set about 75 traps or so and ended up bringing 11 squirrels back to the lab with us.

Arctic ground squirrel
One of the Arctic ground squirrels that we see often. He did not come back to the lab with us today.

Arctic caterpillar
I caught this caterpillar in one of the squirrel traps today. Apparently Caterpillars like carrots, too!

We finished working with them at about 7:30PM, then headed back out to the research site to release them. A snowstorm is rolling in and there was lots of fog, visibility on the 20 minute drive to the Atigun River was very poor.

Fog
View through the windshield on our drive to release squirrels.

I was glad that I wasn't driving this time! (I did drive the truck to our site this morning. Since I have driven a truck on the Dalton highway, does that make me an ice road trucker?)

It’s snowing right now. I’m interested to see what tomorrow will look like for Team Squirrel if we don’t go out into the field to trap squirrels. Rumor has it that data entry and cleaning might be in my future...

Details
Author
Alicia Gillean
Date
Location
Toolik Field Station
Expedition
Arctic Ground Squirrel Studies
Weather Summary
Sunny and clear
Temperature
49

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