Well the 2005 field season has now come to a close. We have packed up camp and everyone has returned back to their home universities. The 2005 season was a very successful one that saw many changes. This was the first year of the pilot food supplementation experiment on Agnes that went very well. Although there will be a few changes to our feeding protocol, the pilot experiment worked quite well and the squirrels responded as we had predicted.
We also began monitoring two new study areas that will be included as part of our large food addition experiment. One of these areas (Chitty; named after Dennis Chitty) was used as part of the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Experiment and will serve as one of our control grids. In addition, an entirely new grid has been established that will be one of the three food addition areas. This grid has not yet been officially named and will receive supplemental food in the fall of 2006 after one year of pre-manipulation data collection. The Sept crew trapped and tagged ~150 new squirrels on these two grids. Feeders have also been refilled for the fall on our two food addition grids (Agnes and Lloyd). These will be replenished with more peanut butter in December.
The initiation of the food experiment has meant a near doubling of our operation so we have made some expansion on our camp facilities. A new cabin was built as an office for the graduate students, and we have started some upgrades to our kitchen and outhouse facilities. These projects will be completed when we return to the camp next year.
We will be hiring several field assistants in both the spring and summer of 2006, so if you are interested in being a part of our crew please check back to the KRSP website again in the future.
Finally, I want to personally thank all the people who worked hard to ensure that this field season was a successful one and I look forward to another successful season next year.
-AMc
We also began monitoring two new study areas that will be included as part of our large food addition experiment. One of these areas (Chitty; named after Dennis Chitty) was used as part of the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Experiment and will serve as one of our control grids. In addition, an entirely new grid has been established that will be one of the three food addition areas. This grid has not yet been officially named and will receive supplemental food in the fall of 2006 after one year of pre-manipulation data collection. The Sept crew trapped and tagged ~150 new squirrels on these two grids. Feeders have also been refilled for the fall on our two food addition grids (Agnes and Lloyd). These will be replenished with more peanut butter in December.
The initiation of the food experiment has meant a near doubling of our operation so we have made some expansion on our camp facilities. A new cabin was built as an office for the graduate students, and we have started some upgrades to our kitchen and outhouse facilities. These projects will be completed when we return to the camp next year.
We will be hiring several field assistants in both the spring and summer of 2006, so if you are interested in being a part of our crew please check back to the KRSP website again in the future.
Finally, I want to personally thank all the people who worked hard to ensure that this field season was a successful one and I look forward to another successful season next year.
-AMc