Mount Rainier National Park, Washington
The summer of 2021 I ventured to Mount Rainier National Park. I worked on the wildlife crew with the main focus of conducting demographic surveys of Northern Spotted Owls. The park has been monitoring these endangered owls for decades by searching old growth forests. I also worked on bat telemetry, wolverine monitoring and pika surveys.
Wildlife Surveys
- Demographic Surveys: Searching through old growth forest forest and likely Northern Spotted Owl Territory is crucial in censusing the remaining population. Call points are performed and hooting responses from all owl species are recorded. We lured, captured and banded spotted owls for identification.
- Passive Acoustic Monitoring: Deployed autonomous recording units for passive acoustic monitoring. These devices logged the forest’s soundscape to identify owls by their acoustic signature.
- Bat Telemetry: Performed radio telemetry on bat species to locate winter hibernacula and captured bats for White-Nose Syndrome surveillance
- Wolverines, Fisher and Cascade Red Fox: Monitored for the presence of rare carnivores in collaboration with the Cascade Carnivore Project
- Pika: Conducted transect surveys in alpine scree environments for American Pika
More Information
For more information, visit the Mount Rainier National Park website.