White Memorial's Guide to Common Wildlife at Little Pond

We are pleased to announce the publication of White Memorial's Guide to Common Wildlife at Little Pond using the Encyclopedia of Life software.  This guide was developed to introduce you to 147 species of plants and animals that inhabit these critical habitats.  It includes a map of the various critical habitats for you to reference while walking through them on the Boardwalk that guides you around Little Pond.  It also introduces you to several conservation strategies that White Memorial employs which insures that this ecosystem serves future generations.  

Determining the Presence of New England Cottontail on Apple Hill

Red balloons delineate the presence of New England Cottontail scat,
while blue balloons show where Eastern Cottontail scat was found at Apple Hill.

The presence of New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis) was determined from cottontail scat pellets collected in January 2013.  A total of 14 scat samples were collected and only 3 were determined to be New England Cottontail while the remainder were from Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus).  A habitat management project is underway at Apple Hill to encourage early successional habitat that encourages cottontail rabbits and other species that inhabit dense shrubby habitats.  The loss of this habitat throughout New England has precipitated a loss of the wildlife that inhabit it.  New England Cottontail are an indigenous species that has adapted and evolved to the ecological processes that sustain early successional habitats in New England.  Eastern Cottontail were introduced to New England and also utilize the same habitat but can also inhabit smaller patches of shrubby habitats that are frequently observed in people's backyards.  New England Cottontail require larger habitat patches which need to be connected with other established populations to insure the species can be sustained for future generations.  Although few pellets yielded the presence of New England Cottontail in the habitat management project, we hope that as the vegetation regenerates and invasive species are controlled, they will flourish in this area of the property.  Future monitoring will determine if this occurs.

New England Cottontail Habitat Management Project Articles and Media

New England Cottontail.org has published an article about the habitat management project on Apple Hill that is creating habitat for early succession species, with a special emphasis on the New England Cottontail (Sylvilagus transitionalis).

You can also see a video explaining the project at Apple Hill below.

White Memorial's Terrestrial Small Mammal Inventory

Juvenile Masked Shrew (Sorex cinereus)
Photo by James Fischer

Inventorying terrestrial small mammal species requires the use of multiple survey methods to insure a thorough assessment of all species.  We are preparing for this project during 2012 and will need help by a series of dedicated volunteers.  Every volunteer will receive training and advisement during the course of this project.  Our goal is to assess the species of terrestrial small mammal species that inhabit the critical habitats found on White Memorial Foundation property.  We will focus our survey efforts on the shrews and moles (Order Insectivora - insect eaters), as well as squirrels, mice, and voles (Order Rodentia - gnawing mammals or rodents).  These species are often overlooked by inventory efforts because they are secretive, even though they are abundant and widespread.  These species are important because they are prey species for many of our predators or serve as predators themselves to many invertebrate organisms.  Some of these species have been found to serve important ecological roles in the disease transmission that affect humans (i.e. Lyme Disease).  And their most important role of all is that they are challenging to work with, which forces you to put on your ecological detectives hat when you explore their lives.  Life's greatest gifts come from its biggest challenges and can be found in the smallest of packages.  If you are interested in helping with this survey please contact James Fischer, WMCC Research Director.  There is much to be done to get ready for the season, so every bit of help ahead of time is greatly appreciated.