Science at Vall de Sorteny

I started my day at Vall de Sortney, part of a National Park right outside of el Serrat. 

After the evening torrential downpours that culminated the finish of the Tour de France, the morning start was soaking wet, glistening with dew. 

At this site we are conducting many experiments, including capturing, tagging, and releasing small mammals. The small aluminum traps are loaded with  cotten to keep the animals warm, and snacks of tuna rolled in flower and apples. Thirty six traps are placed in a grid line and we check them first thing in the morning and then at 5 pm for three days in a row at the same site. The purpose is to collect baseline data of small mammals (mainly mice, voles, and rats) to use to see which animals are in various meadows around the Pyrenees, and over time evaluate any changes. As average global temps increase will the small mammals move to a higher elevation, and what impact will that have on the local ecosystem?

One of our science guys is experienced in small mammal data and he shares that there's this one small mammal that he had yet to see. 

He called this the masked rat, but in English it's the garden dormouse. It has a cute little mask, and he had yet to trap one. 

Well wouldn't you know that on day one we trapped Elomys quercinus - the garden dormouse. After successfully tagging her (we checked and its genitals) we released her back into the meadow. Yesterday I went to the other site, but this  morning we went back and that same tagged dormouse was in another trap, but this time she was very lathargic. One of our volunteers (this amazing 75 year old woman who has done 15 Earthwatch trips) scooped that little dormouse up and warmed her right back to life. 

We went on checking traps and found a couple of voles. 

It's not that fun to watch the ear tagging process. 

Another project they have going on is to record the types and numbers of insects. Just standing in the meadow for a millisecond, you know that there are millions of flies and mosquitos. To find more specific data, we set up small bowls of different colors with a tiny bit of water. At the end of the day we strained the insects from the water and will do some counting later. 

I am really enjoying the field work here. I am so glad I came.