What’s a funny/frustrating thing your study species does?
Ask A Biologist Monday 3/14/22
Answers from Biologists:
Melanophyrniscus toads perform unken reflex for defense but it’s so cute!
Hawaiian monk seals sleep against our tents in the field and snore and fart all night long.
Common mergansers regurgitate fish in the banding box.
Dragonfly larvae spit water at you.
Bats chew straight through your mist net and escape.
Old world warblers. They exist and are a pain to ID in the field.
Raccoons will mess with any and all traps.
Marbled salamander skin slime makes nitrile gloves stick together like super glue.
When aquatic turtles rip into the mesh bait bag, shredding it and making it useless.
Snapping turtles swim up to hoop nets and will last minute decide they don’t want to go in.
Turtles bask on the side of flotation traps rather than the doors that will catch them.
Green turtles can get themselves out of tangle nets and are shockingly good out outmaneuvering boats.
Pippistrellis bats adjusting their sonar to sound exactly like a grasshopper.
Every purple martin nestling I band poops like clockwork when I remove them from a gourd.
When you put up protective netting for LETE and they nest right outside of it.
Some animals really like being trapped or learn to get peanut butter out without being trapped.
Meadowlarks will sing from the top of mist nets we are trying to catch them with.
I have been slapped in the face by a rhesus macaque.
Prairie dogs will flip traps to get the bait without getting trapped.
Canada geese have innate aim for sensitive areas when they bite.
Rabbits will sit on top of traps and poop on them an not even go into them.
Sage grouse males will try to mate with cow pies…
For fecal pellet samples. collection day tends to be the one time tuco-tucos don’t poop.
Shy sharks curl up like a donut, which makes it impossible to measure them.
Wolf licked a flower and got stung by a bee when I was nearby. Hated me from then on.
Collared pika will spend hours on top of the traps we’re trying to catch them in.
Commercial bumblebees will put their trash in the areas of the nest designed for food delivery.
Green sea turtles will slap sand in your face if they notice you when digging a nest.
Parasites get damaged so easily when collecting, literally losing their heads.
Skunk kits may not spray but they make up for it in attitude. Only wildlife I’ve been chased by.
Downy woodpeckers can crawl upside down in weighing tubes.
Peromyscus species move incessantly in the bag which makes them hard to weigh.
In our effort to band, owls perch on top of the nests set up to capture them.
Goshawks love to dive bomb when you approach their nest site. It’s hilarious but terrifying.
Sometimes saw whet owls will toot along with the audio lure but not actually get in the net.
Least tern nestlings will cry and squirm just at the moment you squeeze shut the banding pliers.
Snowy plovers will brood their chicks without considering their surroundings.
Coyotes will walk in a “C” around my camera to perfectly avoid it. And eat my straps.
Western screech owls sound just like the rivers they sing over.
Florida scrub jays will beg for peanuts instead of building their nests.
Male turtles will often stick their penis out when held.
Fawns get the zoomies in front of trail cameras.
Deer like to have just their butts, ears, nose, or feet in the frames so you can’t ID them.
American kestrel chicks constantly scream before, during, and after banding.
Trying to find breeding tree frogs who are piercingly loud, but when right near them, silent.
Asian elephants can hear you coming through their feet.
Blanding’s turtles can shut off blood flow to their tails when I’m taking blood samples.
