Behavioral Ecology Blog

I’ve been all over the central Californian coast, looking for a nice place to trap mice. I’ve seen some pretty nice places, and see some cool things.. Here are some photos from:
 
Coyote at the Marino Reserve
 

Peromyscus californicus at the Marino Reserve. Check out all those ticks

This is the researcher housing at the Marino Reserve.. Pretty [...]

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Here are a few pics from my last research trip. I was at the Landels Big Creek Reserve. It’s 20 miles south of Big Sur, CA. A pretty amazing field site yes??? I was pretty successful, catching all 4 Central California Peromyscus species (P. maniculatus, californicus, truei, boylii). This is a photo taken from my [...]

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Partly motivated by my desire to get out of the city, part interested in seeing what it all looks like after the devastating Southern California wild fires, and partly wanting to see how Peromyscus populations are doing after this years record drought- we decided to spend a few days in the desert! Our plan [...]

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I’m sure that some of you have been thinking about how the SoCal fires have affected my field work. I have several sites in San Diego County- most of which are either threatened or already burned. Here is the map. The areas marker by “red plus signs” are locations where I trapped last summer.
Bummer!!! [...]

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It’s been along time since I did a research update- so for the one or two of you that care- here are the highlights (and lowlights)….
Field WorkField Work is largely on hold until the fall rains (that is- assuming it rains). Right now, it is 110F and dry as hell.. The populations sizes [...]

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There might be some of you that are interested in reading a short piece in a magazine about me and my research.. The article (PDF page 14), is published in The Transect, which is a magazine that covers the University of California Natural Reserve Systems, which:
“…is a gateway to the 35 reserves that encompass approximately [...]

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Just a pretty picture. This animal- Neotoma lepida, was caught in the Santa Ana Mts at 1900ft elevation. Near Upper San Juan campground on May 9th, 2007.

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So another week (or 2) has passed… I have been to several locations- some pretty cool. I am however, sad to report to that the mice continue to be illusive. Every place I go, there are mice, but not very many. The probability that I fond a population of breeding mice decreases with time..
Last [...]

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So as many of you know, I have been having significant problems this spring with the mice. Basically, my dissertation depends on my being able to find breeding mice. This has been difficult… I work in the Sonoran Desert in Southern California, specifically Riverside county. Now California is in the middle [...]

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What is this? Seen this evening. Palm Desert Area (Sonoran Desert). Riverside County California. I’d like to call him a Crotaphytus, but I don’t see anything like this one in Stebbins.
SV=6-8 inches..
EDIT: It has a name: Crotaphytus vestigium

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