Global Challenges Competition – Anti Wildlife Crime Project

Check out the contestants here and London Zoo’s anti-poaching project. Vote and the winner will get $750k in funding from Google

Jon

Pacific Northwest Badgers

Hi Everyone,  I’m from western Washington State and have been trying to find an American Badger for a very long time but to no avail.   Since I have to trek to the desert to find them I’m always limited to one or two night visits to their habitat.  Does anyone have any pointers of where a very active badger area/natal den might be found in the Washington/Oregon/British Columbia region?

Joe Dlugo

Last Minute RFI – Yellowstone National Park

Hey folks,

Sorry for the late reply but I have been busy with research and moving. I am heading to Yellowstone National Park (stopping through Jackson Hole on the way) on Saturday, and would like to get a few mammal pointers. There is tons of information out there for the megafauna, but doesn’t anyone have advice for the following:

Yellow-Pine and Uinta Chipmunk

Voles

Gophers

Mustelids

Cats of any variety?

Other noteworthy herps/small mammals? There is less info out there on these guys, so I figured I should ask. Also…I presume Uinta Ground Squirrel will be everywhere, and I don’t need to make an extra effort to track this species down. Is that correct?

 

Thanks again for any help

A few things cetacean

1. Apparently, a breeding area of pygmy right whales has been located: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/1814232X.2013.769903#.UZRqEsqNDbQ

2. There is a nice listserve called Marmam where interesting topics like the one above come up sometimes: https://lists.uvic.ca/pipermail/marmam/

3. I might be able to organize a July pelagic trip to the dropoff area south of Mississippi Delta. The price would be around $100-150. The area is not Beagle Channel and there might be nothing to see at all, but over the years people have recorded some really cool stuff including all species of sperm whales, huge herds of short-finned pilot whales, all spp. of Stenella, Bryde’s whales, beaked whales, etc. Would anybody be interested?

Vladimir Dinets

New Mexico

I’m heading on a camping/hiking trip to some cultural sites in New Mexico and Colorado next week: Chaco, Mesa Verde, Bandelier National Monument and the Santa Fe area. Are there any good mammal sites nearby?

I see Vladimir saw a lot of rodents in the Chaco area, at the campsite. Any camping area in particular? We will be camping there. Any tips appreciated.

Cheers,Matt

Bat ID California

Can anyone help with the ID of this bat, it was taken in Monterey in January. It is a largish bat with characteristic wing markings. My field guides don’t really help me, so any help appreciated

Thanks

Mark

Sri Lanka Slow Lories Quest

Hi all

I am planning to go to Sri Lanka later this year. Do you know any good places to see Grey Slender Lories and Red Slender Lories?

Your help would be very much appreciated!

All the best

Tobi

Thank you

I just wanted to saw a big thank you to the growing community out there who are using this forum. When I set this up on wordpress I hoped it would become a place where we could all share and request information, as well as post pictures of species we wanted to ID etc. The forum has been growing slowly but in the last few weeks in particular I’ve noticed more activity with some great advice on trip planning coming in, as well as expert help with animals IDs. So thank you to all who take the time to help others.

I set up the mammalwatching site and this forum to try to take some of the luck out of mammal watching. To try to increase people’s chances of finding what they were looking for. I’ve long had a theory that its possible to see just about every species of mammal in the world relatively easily (note easy is not the same as cheaply!) so long as we go to the right place at the right time and search in the right way. But for many species most of us don’t know where the right place is and so we rely often more on luck than judgement. Slowly we are discovering the right places and sharing what we find. And then, around those right places, a cottage industry of mammal tours can spring up which generally ought to help protect the species (though I know it can bring problems too). Twenty years ago when I started getting interested in mammals I think the idea of seeing a Snow Leopard, a Giant Panda, a Jaguar or even an Iberian Lynx were a pipedream. But now finding them is more than likely in Hemis, the Quinling Mountains, the Pantanal or Andujar. I wonder which of the megaspecies we are going to find sites for in the next 20 years? Sumatran Rhino? Okapi? Unicorn?

And for those who read, but don’t post, can I please try to encourage everyone to post whatever they want (within reason!). This site is meant to be for everyone and I’m thrilled when new people post, even if its just to say g’day or to suggest things I could do better or differently to make the site more useful.

So thanks again everyone.

Jon

Genet Identification 2

Second picture of Genet 11 from the Okavango…..

Genet Identification

Hi…

Sorry for so much detail regarding this, and for a few of the lousy pictures, but I would appreciate some feedback regarding the genet identification below, particularly concerning the way in which we use a mammals range in order to determine identification. As I am sure most of you are aware, the range maps on most websites, including the IUCN, are not entirely reliable and I have recently encountered both Patagonian Weasel and Striped Hog-nosed Skunk well beyond their generally accepted range.

Please therefore let me have your views regarding my identification of the following:

Pictures one to three were taken at Shimba Hills on the coast of Kenya over a couple of different trips. According to range, these can only be Genetta maculata or Genetta genetta.
My id – Genetta genetta

Pictures four to five were taken at Aberdare in the Kenyan highlands.
According to range, these can only be Genetta maculata, Genetta genetta or Genetta servalina
My id – Genetta maculata

Pictures six to seven were taken at Tsavo East and Tsavo West in Kenya.
According to range, these can only be Genetta maculata or Genetta genetta.
My id – Genetta genetta

Pictures eight to ten were taken at South Luangwa in Zambia.
According to range, these can only be Genetta maculata, as neither Genetta genetta or Genetta angolensis are supposed to extend as far as South Luangwa, although G.angolensis does go fairly close.
My id – Although I believe that number eight probably is G.maculata, I think that nine and ten are both G.angolensis beyond their accepted range.

Pictures eleven to twelve were taken in the Okavango Delta.
According to range, these can only be Genetta maculata or Genetta genetta.
My id – Genetta genetta

Picture thirteen was taken in the South African section of the Kgalagadi
According to range, this can only be Genetta genetta.
My id – Genetta genetta

Agree or disagree? Please let me know if you can and also, how many of you are prepared to identify a species on range alone?

Many thanks

Jason