Well, it was a tale of four transects today. More specifically, it was the tale of one good transect, and three disappointing transects. Transect One was spectacular. We collected porcupine, deer, moose, and two unidentified scats within the first twenty minutes. At the base of the "porcupine tree," we found three different scats! Needless to say, we were on a bit of a high. Unfortunately, the rest of the day was less successful.
After a much needed lunch break, we set out into Transect Two. Our diligent search led us to only an old pile of deer scat (dutifully collected) and a single rabbit pellet on a game trail near the far end of the transect. We packed our bags and headed towards the beaver pond, but not before collecting a relatively fresh coyote scat that was on our path back to the logging road.
Much as we had feared, Transects 3 and 4 yielded a big, whopping zero scats. The earlier joy we had experienced was now tempered by frustration and exhaustion. On Thursday, we will hit the beaver pond transects first and finish with a bang in the woods later. Tomorrow, we'll be heading to Cape Neddick, ME to meet with Dan Gardoqui. I'm happy that we'll have plenty of samples to share with him.
Perhaps the highlight of the day was discovering that there has been a study that successfully determined chemical contamination from animal scat. The study in question was performed in Yellowstone National Park and involved determining whether large animals were ingesting toxic chemicals produced by the mineral pools at the Park. So there is precedent for what we're attempting. However, they used scientific analytical methods that will not be available to us. But it's exciting to know that it's possible!
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