Scientist at Work Blog: When Snow Fleas Surface, Winter Study Comes to a Close

John Vucetich, a wildlife ecologist from Michigan Technological University, leads the wolf-moose Winter Study at Isle Royale National Park.

Saturday, March 3

Snow fleas by the hundreds have congregated on the surface of the snow. They belong to a group of creatures collectively known as collembola. They look like insects, but recent research suggests they may be as closely related to insects as mammals are to reptiles. They live in the soil, sustaining themselves on decomposing vegetation. Of the earth?s animals large enough to see with the unaided eye ? and collembola barely qualify ? these are reputed to be the most abundant. Usually they escape our attention almost entirely.

Then on certain warm days in late winter, some adventurous snow fleas crawl to the surface of the snow, where you can?t help but notice them. I wonder what the life of a snow flea is like. Is it itchy to molt your exoskeleton? Do their ?springtails? feel stiffer on cold days, when their bodies are soaked in glycine-rich proteins that work like antifreeze? Why do they come to the surface of the snow?

What we do know is that when the snow fleas congregate, the end of winter is not far off. Soon the snow will begin receding and exposing stumps, and south-facing exposures will see the sun again as the snow recedes. The chickadees will switch to their spring song. And the ice will begin to break up.

Our plan, should the weather cooperate, is to fly home three days from now. If today?s snow and wind continue as forecast, then the last research flight of Winter Study 2012 was yesterday. It?s as sad as the last day of summer.

Sunday, March 5

In preparation for our departure, I decommission the bone boiling pot. The bones are cleaned, tagged, inventoried. Later we?ll move them to a permanent storage facility, where they?ll join the ranks of skeletal remains of some 4,500 other moose, souvenirs of 54 years of effort and the subject of many scientific papers on topics ranging from the causes of arthritis to long-term trends in atmospheric deposition of mercury and lead.

For now, the bones we collected this winter will wait here in the bone shed. Two of the specimens catch my attention. One is what remained of a skull that belonged to an old cow moose. Wolves consumed most of the skull, leaving only the palate ? the roof of a mammal?s mouth ? and two rows of teeth. It is rare for wolves to consume so much of an adult moose?s skull. It?s an indication of how tough a time they had capturing food this winter.

The skull of another old cow moose shows severe periodontal disease. Rotting, fermenting twigs and needles are packed in a space between the roots of her teeth. I don?t imagine that a human could endure such a severe infection. Of all the moose we?ve ever collected, more than half have significant debilitation, like severe periodontal disease or arthritis.

The next two days will be a blur, and tonight is the last time until next year for the three of us to relax together. We stay up late to watch the ?Mollie B Polka Party.?

Monday, March 5

Tomorrow?s forecast is dicey. If we can fly off the island, there will only be a small window of opportunity in the morning. We?ll break down base camp today ? all manner of gear and equipment; boxes of canned goods to the root cellar; dry goods, dishes, pots and pans to the shed; seven weeks? worth of long underwear and winter socks in boxes; decommission the sauna, the water hole and the red dragon.

The Winter Study generates quite a few statistics about the wolves and moose. One of the most important is the kill rate ? how frequently wolves kill moose. Right now the Chippewa Harbor Pack?s kill rate stands at five moose killed, divided by the six wolves in that pack, divided by the 42 days that we?ve been able observing them. If we fly today, we might find another kill, but at least we can add a couple more days to the denominator.

No kill in the past few days. As soon as we land, with the sun setting, we strip the Flagship of her telemetry gear and survival equipment and decommission the pump used to refuel her.

Tuesday, March 6

At 10:30 a.m., we take off from the ice on Isle Royale?s Washington Harbor for the last time this winter. A warm, moist south wind blurs the boundary between Lake Superior and the sky. Before long, the island has faded into the haze.

This winter we observed the wolves of Isle Royale National Park experience one of their toughest years ever ? high mortality rates and low recruiting left relatively few wolves. The Middle Pack is gone. The Chippewa Harbor Pack may not have any females. The future of this population may well rest with the West-End Duo. They mated last week. If all goes well, within a day or two of April 26, the female will be nursing half a dozen pups, each a little larger than your fist.

Despite recent snowstorms, the moose haven?t experienced times this good in more than a decade. That is partly a result of declining wolf predation. Climate warming is adversely affecting many populations of moose living at the southern limit of their range. Isle Royale moose are one of the few moose populations that have been doing well in recent years. It?s important to observe the moose respond positively to reduced wolf predation. With climate warming, that response cannot be taken for granted.

Over the next few weeks, we?ll prepare an annual report summarizing and contextualizing what we learned this past year. Throughout the year, Rolf and I will write papers and visit universities, high schools, local communities and government agencies to share what the wolves and moose have taught us and what our observations mean.

The first lesson draws our attention away from ?What does it all mean?? The more important question is, ?From where does the meaning come?? The meaning comes from caring, and caring can be ignited by the simple act of paying attention. Pay attention to another creature from one day to the next, but understanding those observations may well require the context of observing from one year to the next, one generation to the next. Scientists can do this in a special way ? enlivened with theories and equations.

But the essential lesson of Isle Royale wolves and moose is for all of us. Meaning comes from paying attention to the life that surrounds us, life in all its varied forms.

We land in Duluth at noon, and drive for the rest of the afternoon around the western end of Lake Superior to Houghton, Mich. There we reunite with our sweeties. Every year it ends just the same. We leave in a hurry, and our lives change tremendously. Indoor plumbing and complete disregard for the weather are two of the biggest changes. But we?ll return to Isle Royale in just a couple of months to begin the summer field season, and then again next January for the 55th annual Winter Study. Don, our pilot, captures the spirit entirely with an old English proverb: ?It?s a long road that has no turning.?

?Fortunate Wilderness? is a documentary illustrating wolf and moose behavior in Isle Royale National Park over a four-year span. It was filmed by George Desort and had its premiere in the summer of 2008.

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0fc1e3b1e27b28cd81d4c1d292934e4e

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