Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Tag

This morning, the FRC Intro to Wildlife class captured a deer and outfitted her with a GPS/VHF collar. (She now has other pretty jewelry too – two ear tags). They are working with the California Department of Fish and Game to learn how to capture, handle, and collar deer in order to investigate how far our campus deer stray from the hay barn. :-J

It was a great experience for students who set up drive nets, waited until a deer wandered into the area, then chased her into the nets where she became temporarily entangled. They ‘mugged’ her (wrestled her down, blindfolded and hobbled her), then took blood samples, body measurements, vital signs, sampled the insects on her body (mostly ticks), collected hair samples, ear-tagged, and collared her. If you see a deer with a big fancy necklace, you’ll know why! Another capture attempt is planned in a couple of weeks.


Credit:
Darla S. DeRuiter, Ph.D.
Environmental Studies & Outdoor Recreation Leadership
Feather River College
570 Golden Eagle Drive
Quincy, CA 95971

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