As the longest night of the year has come and gone and so has our ability to track our skunks. This is the third government shutdown during my time at Oregon State University and the HJ Andrews. Because the facilities at the HJA are US Forest Service facilities and because our vehicles are federal vehicles, we are going to lose our ability to access our housing starting December 26th and have not been able to use our field vehicles since Friday, December 21st. While spending $5.7 billion on building a wall between the US and Mexico is outrageous, the government shutdown prevents us from collecting important data on the western spotted skunks.
Winter appears to be a really important time for the survival of western spotted skunks. So far, the only skunk mortalities we have recorded have been in the winter. The radio-collars we use actively monitor whether the collar has moved within the last 12 hours. If the collar does not move within 12 hours, the signal switches to one that is twice as fast as the normal signal. So, instead of "beep ----- beep ----- beep ----- beep" the signal sounds more frantic like "beep-beep-beep-beep." Last year, 2 of the 7 skunks we were tracking died during the winter. This year, we have already tallied 4 possible skunk moralities within the last month. Two of these event occurred right after a huge storm that brought down many trees and branched in the Willamette. Usually, our streams and creeks are clear and blue, but this was what Blue River looked like after the storm.
Of the four, we are fairly certain that 2 were predation events, one is a possible predation event, and the last we believe is a slipped collar. See if you can figure out which ones are which and what the possible predator was.
Images from 382 (SG-016) mortality site:
Images from 422 (SG-021) mortality site:
Images from 772 (SG-007) mortality signal:
Until next time, Merry Xmas Eve!