New Trip Report: Tibet

Tibet, 2012: Jesper Hornskov, 3 weeks & 17 mammals including White-lipped Deer.

(Scroll to the bottom of the page and look under “other trip reports”)

Jon

African Wolves

Some news about wolf sightings in Morocco and Algeria

http://moroccanbirds.blogspot.com/2012/08/African-Wolf-discovered-in-Morocco.html

Jon

South-East Arizona RFI

I’m going to S-E Arizona next weekend, mainly to the Chiricahuas though I fly into Phoenix. Does anyone have any advice on places for Grey-Collared Chipmunks (the closest I know of is Flagstaff Arboretum, which isn’t close), Hog-nosed Skunks, and anything else which might be exciting….

Thanks!

Jon

New Trip Report – Ecuador

Hola!

Here’s a report of my recent trip to Ecuador. http://mammalwatching.com/Neotropical/neotropicecuador.html, the highlights of my 9 days there were Spectacled Bear and Mountain Tapir plus 9 species of primates in the Napo Valley.

Jon

New Rat Species that cannot gnaw or chew

‘There are more than 2,200 rodent species in the world and until this discovery all had molars in the back of their mouth and incisors at the front.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2191799/New-rat-species-discovered-remote-rainforest-lives-exclusively-earthworms.html#ixzz24KRgOZh2

Jon

Jaguars in the USA

Thanks to Coke Smith for sending me this link on efforts to protect Jaguar habitat in the US, and whether the money might be better spent elsehwere…

http://www.nature.com/news/jaguars-win-critical-habitat-in-us-1.11255

Jon

New Trip Reports – Scotland and Northern Australia

Two new reports on mammalwatching.com

Scotland, 2012: Mark Hows, 1 week & 18 species including White-beaked and White-sided Dolphins and a Pine Marten.

Northern Australia, 2012: Dion Hobcraft, 18 days, 7500km & an impressive 43 species including some difficult ones like Kultarr, Scaly-tailed Possum, Northern Leafnosed Bat and Northern Dibbler. (The report is under the other trip reports section at the bottom of the page)

Jon

Campsites & mammals

Probably not a surprise to anyone here: Study finds camp sites help mountain mammals cope with climate change. 

Question about carnivores in WA State and/or British Columbia, CA

Hi again to the mammal watching community.
Before I get to my question let me not be selfish, and thank everyone for the awesome tips and advice I’ve been getting from everyone!! It’s extremely helpful and I’ve seen more cool mammals over the past 2-3 years than I have in all the rest of my life combined.

Ok – now to my question:
I just booked my tickets to Seattle for a total of 8 days, of which 3-4 I’m spending in Portland visiting friends. So that leaves me with really 4 days to do some mammal watching. I know that ‘s not a long time, but I was thinking of either going to BC in Canada and staying on Vancouver Island, or spending time in Olympic and Mt. Rainier.

I’m kind of leaning towards the former.. But what do you all think?
First of all – never seen a grizzly bear. So I was thinking of doing a Knight Inlet bear tour for a day. But besides Grizzly my main targets are (still) felines – highest priority; Martens and fishers – second priority; Other mustelids tied with wolf – third priority and then other mammals.

Actually I’d skip any other mammal to get a good picture of a puma, lynx or bobcat, with Marten being close behind. So any tips? What can I do in 3-4 days around Vancouver island to maximize my chances of seeing my animals? SHould I just go ahead and do a grizzly tour even though it’s a whole day? Do you see other animals besides grizzly and black bears? Orcas are cool, but I’ve already seen them well, as I have gray and humpback whales, and harbour porpoise. Or does anyone think I should stay in the USA, stay inside Olympic for a few nights and just drive up and down the roads at night? I know fishers are pretty much extinct from Olympic, but I haven’t heard about them being seen on Vancouver Island either.

I’ve read through Jon’s trip report of BC and WA state, and the rest of the reports. One cool thing to note is that all the BC reports by others saw a marten, but they all spent more time there than I can, and only saw 1 or 2 after a few days there.

Any tips, names of good mammal watching guides, or anything else would be highly welcome!!! Also, if anyone is in the area and can/wants to join for a couple of days – then by all means!!

Thanks in advance!
Tomes

Cozumel Island

Vladimir Dinets sent some notes of his recent trip to Mexico’s Cozumel Island. They are linked to http://mammalwatching.com/Nearctic/nearctmexico.html

Jon