Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Mountain beaver
In Seattle, we have studied the response of mammals to urbanization
more systematically. Roarke Donnelly and I enlisted two undergraduates,
Amy Jennings and Karin Hof man, to help us survey the mammals in thirty-
i ve of our bird study sites. We worked from the urban core to the Cascade
wilds in woody patches ranging in size from one to several thousands of
acres. In each we established a grid of small live traps, aluminum boxes
baited with oats that caught mice, voles, rats, and weasels alive. We also set
out track plates, a pair of sooted aluminum squares that captured footprints
of medium-sized animals attracted to a can of cat food we placed between
the two, and camera traps, motion-sensitive cameras that recorded sneaky
animals attracted to a treat of meat and i sh scraps. We trapped small mam-
mals for three nights and monitored the track plates and cameras for six
days. Our ef orts coni rmed the presence of two dozen mammal species,
