Red Fox on the Tuolumne River

After traveling several thousand miles through half a dozen national parks, you'd think I would be tired of watching for wild animals, but no, that never happens. It was a nice surprise this morning to see this Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes) on my more or less daily walk along the Tuolumne River. This is the first time I've had a chance to get more than just a couple of quickly snapped pictures.

I've seen them a few times before in the area (one of my pictures of a fox is on the interpretive sign at the beginning of the trail), but it's been many months since I've spotted any. I'm pretty sure they've seen me more than I've seen them. This one was working its way across the slope where the metal stairwell climbs to the parking lot at the west end of the Tuolumne Parkway Trail. It's probably getting used to humans, as the new trail has proven popular.

There are two subspecies of Red Fox (out of around 45 worldwide!) that are native to central and northern California. One, the Sierra Nevada Red Fox, is exceedingly rare and lives only in the high country north of Yosemite National Park (it was recently sighted in Yosemite for the first time in a century). Another, the Sacramento Valley Red Fox, lives in the Great Valley north of Sacramento. This individual is neither; it is probably a descendant of foxes brought to the valley in the 1860s for hunting and fur production. The Red Foxes have adapted well to urban and agricultural development in the Great Valley (I've seen them on my mid-valley college campus), and they contribute to the control of rodent pests, but they may also be a detriment to the survival of the endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox, which has lost a vast amount of habitat and has a population of just a few thousand.

I saw a native Gray Fox in this same area several years ago. I don't know if they are co-existing, or if one has replaced the other.

Invaders on the Tuolumne River!

I know I seem easily distracted. I'm working on two blog series at the moment, my explorations in Hawai'i, and our recently completed journey through the Pacific Northwest. But that's the joy of blogging. I can write about anything I want, when I want! The thing is, adventures never end. Even though I am back home, and back to the usual things, I still have the occasional adventure, however modest it might be. I'm keeping up with the walking exercise, for instance, so I've been down to the Tuolumne River a couple of times since getting home. Today I saw something new in the river: some turtles.

I don't know much about turtles, so I snapped some pictures before they slid into the river. I immediately took to my phone to identify it, hoping it would be a native variety, but found out right away that it was an invasive species, specifically the Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans). The only native species in this area is the Western Pond Turtle, but the red streak was distinctive to the Slider.

I quickly learned that the Red-eared Slider was the one I remembered from my youth, the cute little "dime-store turtles" they used to sell decades ago as pets. The problem, as always seems to be the case, is that the cute little baby turtles soon outgrew their terrariums, and people released them into the local streams and rivers. They became well-established and spread quickly, displacing the native species. They are now one of only two reptiles on the list of 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species (the other is the Brown Tree Snake that decimated the native birds of Guam; I don't know how the Pythons of Florida missed the list). So my river trail is under siege. During the drought, River Hyacinth choked the river. This week I found that Star Thistle had taken root along the trail (somehow they became unrooted today; I hope for good). I don't know if anyone is acting on the turtles. They seem benign enough; they are just making their living in an environment that they can thrive in, but they also contribute to the undoing of the ecosystem.

The Hawai'i That Was: Look at the Cute Squirrel! (NOT a squirrel)

First time visitors to Hawai'i will at some moment see a mammal on the islands. The creature is common enough to be taken as some kind of squirrel, but it most certainly is not one. It's not a rat either, but it is representative of the radical changes brought about by the arrival of the humans on the Hawaiian Islands.

Only two mammals were present on the Hawaiian Islands before the arrival of the Polynesians a thousand or more years ago: the Hawaiian Hoary Bat, and the Hawaiian Monk Seal. It's not difficult to understand why: it's hard for any creature that can't fly or swim to get to the islands. Animals have been known to float on mats of vegetation across seas, but it has not happened in Hawai'i. The Polynesians brought animals with them when they colonized the islands, including pigs and rats. Goats, sheep and cows arrived with the Europeans in the early 1800s. They had a devastating effect on the native ecosystems of the islands, but this "cute" squirrel-like animal stands out. It's the Small Asian Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus).

Sugar cane production became a mainstay, for better or worse, of the Hawaiian economy in the 1800s, but the rats and other pests, mainly insects, wreaked havoc with the cane fields. Common Mynas were introduced in 1865 to deal with the insects, but in 1883 someone had the idea of introducing the Mongoose to chase down the rats. It didn't work. The rats were active at night while the mongooses hunted in the daytime. They did little to control the rat population, but they turned out to be devastatingly efficient predators of the native bird species of the islands, especially the endangered Nene (Hawaiian Goose), the Hawaiian Crow, and Petrels. They prey on the eggs of the endangered Green Sea Turtle as well.

The mongooses run rampant on the Big Island, Mau'i, and Oahu, but were never released on Kaua'i or Lana'i. Efforts are made to trap them, but they are simply too widespread and populous for there to be much hope of containing them. These actions are concentrated on Kaua'i where one was captured in 2012. In their natural habitat in Asia, their predators include snakes, hawks, jackals and storks. Snakes and jackals would be an even worse disaster on the islands (the Brown Tree Snake eliminated nearly all the native birds of Guam). There is a native Hawk on the islands, but there are not nearly enough of them to control the mongooses, and mongooses actually prey on the young hawks at times.

The rats may have been introduced as a food source, or they were stowaways, but they had a horrible effect on the plants and animals of Hawai'i. The mongoose was introduced to control the rats, but they didn't. There are feral cats and dogs on the islands now. It almost sounds like a childhood song...

I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly,
I don't know why she followed a fly, 
Perhaps she'll die...

I knew an old lady who swallowed a spider,
That wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her,
She swallowed the spider to catch the fly,
I don't know why she swallowed the fly,
Perhaps she'll die...

In case you don't know the song, we eventually end with a horse, and she's dead of course...

Random Nature Notes from Hawai'i: The Land Reptiles of the Big Island

Reptiles (aside from sea turtles) are probably not native to the Hawaiian Islands but there are quite a few of them on the islands today. Some were brought by the original Polynesian settlers (four species of Geckos). Others arrived as escaped pets. In any case, they have become a part of the native ecosystem for better or worse. Some help to control pests, for instance, and are welcomed in homes on the islands, but others have an appetite for the endangered native species of insects and other invertebrates.

They are undeniably colorful parts of the environment, and I've been enjoying capturing pictures of them this week. The picture at the top was a Gold Dust Day Gecko at Pu'uhonoa O Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island. The second was waiting for a meal at Akaka Falls State Park this afternoon.

The Jackson's Chameleon was also hanging around the trail at Akaka Falls. I believe it is the first one I've ever photographed. It seems to be laughing in the picture below, which causes me to wonder why, unlike geckos who sell insurance, they make bad comedians. I think it's because they keep changing their punchlines...

Here is a short video of a gecko going about it's business at Akaka Falls.