Natural History in Kelly

Since the weather has slowly been warming up, the sun is shining, and the snow is melting, we have been seeing Kelly Campus get a little more active and frequented by many visitors!  

A Ground Squirrel Meeting Me on My Cabin Porch

The first visitor is a small little furball that only stays out in the open for 3-months out of the entire year - the Ground Squirrel.  Although, they may look cute, these little rascals like to make residency under many cabins and scurry and squeak all night long!  Including under my cabin...yes, not fun when you do not get much sleep and need to teach from 9am - 5pm!  Also, they are quite fearless.  You can get pretty close to them before you scare them and they scurry off!

Wolf Scat!

Wolves have not been sighted on Kelly Campus, however, evidence tells us that they do get pretty close.  Like back over spring break, I found the tracks on one of our back trails.  While in Bradley Taggart this past week, my students and I discovered some large scat.  Tapered at both ends with visible fat and protein in the droppings in large segments clearly defined that this scat was from a large canine - a wolf!  So exciting!

Driving home, herds of hundreds of elk have been migrating from the National Elk Refuge back to the higher elevations in the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks.  So it has been really awesome to see the huge camel/horse-like animals cross roads and on the sage flats in Kelly.  However, they are very skiddish and can be really a dangerous situation to drive around on the roads with since they are unpredictable when crossing highways.  Also, when not crossing, they will pick their heads up and just stare at your car - almost looking as if they were judging you!

On Wednesday, my students and I visited the Gros Ventre Slide area - including Slide Lake, Kelly Warm Springs, and the Wedding Tree.  While conducting water quality tests on Slide Lake, we came across a crazy find - a full elk carcass!  It was really cool.  Examining the whole skeleton, including the jaw and skull area was really interesting because those body parts are able to give us clear evidence on identifying the animal.  If you examine the skull and notice there are no upper incisors, that is a key factor, as well as the interesting canines that this herbivore has!  The Elk is one of the only ungulates and herbivores that have canines!  In fact, Ivory Canines!  After teaching, Joe, Hazel, and I went back to the carcass and removed the canines to clean for earrings!  I also took the lower jaw to use as a teaching tool - at the moment it is still soaking in a hydrogen peroxide bath to clean off left over tissue and dirt.  Picture of the elk canine earring and lower jaw bone - TBA!  

PS. Since this carcass was in the National Forest, the specimens were okay to take!  Do not worry, I did not take anything from the National Park!

Full Elk Carcass Skeleton

Elk Skull - Lower Jaw Bone was the Only Part Salvageable for Teaching Tools

Notice No Top Incisors and the Canines on the Elk Skull!

Ok, back to Kelly campus...so, lately with all the ground squirrels emerging out from hibernation, we have had another visitor.  Francis the Fox loves to eat ground squirrels.  Francis is a Kelly Campus local and can be seen from time to time around.  Very used to humans, Francis is known to get close to the residents and visitors of the KC, however, she never begs for food or poses any issue of human endangerment.  

Francis the Fox

So adorable!

This afternoon, I went on a hike around the Kelly Campus trails in search of Aspen Markings for an Aspen Community lesson.  Looking for 'Butterfly Tracks' are evidence of Elk Browsing - when grasses are limited in the winter, elk will resort to nutritional aspen bark.  Since they do not have upper incisors, they are known to scrape from the bottom up to feed on the aspen.  As a result, the tree will attempt to heal itself and cause a butterfly-shaped scar on the trunk.

Elk 'Butterfly' Aspen Markings

The last Aspen marking I was in search of was the drilled holes from the Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker.  These are a lot harder to find, but along the road, I found an old one as well as a fresh one! - even with sap still coming out of it!  This type of woodpecker will bore holes into the tree to consume the sticky, sweet sap.  The evidence is displayed on the trees in horizontal and grid-like holes.  If over-consumption occurs on a single tree, the sapsucker can totally girdle a tree and result preventing water from traveling up the tree and suffocating/killing the tree.

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker Bore Holes

I hope you enjoyed the Kelly Campus Natural History!

Do not worry, there will be more to come!

TheChristyBel