I had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of the Siegele Internship this summer. Although tiring at times, the internship’s diverse projects filled my summer with endless fun, joy, and natural beauty. From the wildflower blooms in Routt National Forest to the glorious sunsets on the short-grass prairies of SE Colorado, I got to experience Colorado’s natural heritage in its full glory. Throughout the summer, I was lucky enough to be put on a variety of different projects. I had 1 week of helping out at the Louisville bioblitz, 2 weeks of entomology surveys in the Eastern Plains and Routt National Forest, 1 week of general conservation work at TNC’s Phantom Canyon, 4 weeks of Prairie Dog fieldwork out of state, and 1 week of general zoological surveys in SE Colorado.
Since I spent the most time on the Prairie Dog project, I will describe that experience in a little more detail. The project is mainly focused on investigating plague resistance in Black-tailed and Gunnison’s Prairie Dogs through genomic approaches. As such, extensive fieldwork is required to collect genetic samples from Prairie Dog colonies across their range. During my time with the project, we visited 5 different Black-tailed Prairie Dog colonies in Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota across the span of 4 weeks. My job as a field technician intern was to assist with the trapping and processing of Prairie Dogs, which involved setting up trapping plots, checking and baiting traps, processing Prairie Dogs, and releasing Prairie Dogs.
On trap-setting days, we would scout out colonies in the populations we wanted to sample and then set up traps to cover a reasonable portion of the colony. To scout out the areas, we would check for Prairie Dog activity and assess human disturbance. Then we would start setting up opened traps with their associated numbered stakes at the entrance of fresh burrows, pinning the traps on both ends and carabining the trap doors open so that the traps remain secured and opened. Finally, we would scatter bait in all of the traps in hopes of attracting the Prairie Dogs to investigate and become accustomed to the traps. Once the plot is set up, we would give the Prairie Dogs a few days to acclimate to those traps and only come back to add bait when needed.
Once the traps have been set and baited for a few days, it’s time for trapping and processing the Prairie Dogs. On trapping and processing days, we would either stay up late or wake up an hour or two before sunrise to unclip the carabiners holding open the trap doors and rebait the traps. In doing so, we can minimize the risk of bycatch and the amount of heat and sunlight the Prairie Dogs are exposed to. Then comes the fun part: around 8am, once the Prairie Dogs have had enough time to wake up and have breakfast, it’s time for us to check the traps and set up our mobile workstation to start collecting samples. Once we bring the Prairie Dogs back to our makeshift workstation, we’d shoo them into a canvas cone so we could hold them safely until they are fully anesthetized. The process that follows is pretty straightforward: we would take flea, blood and tissue samples from them, put ear tags on them, take measurements of their mass, tail, hindfoot and total length, and depending on the weather conditions, give them some subcutaneous rehydration. Once all of that is done, we put them back in the traps to rest before bringing them back and releasing them at the same burrow we caught them from.
Even though workdays can be grueling at times, I still absolutely loved every moment I got to spend on that project. I loved spending time with the field crew (with whom I got along very well), exploring so many new places that I’ve never even heard of, learning from my kind, experienced and knowledgeable mentors, and of course, holding and seeing the Prairie Dogs up close.
Described above is only one of the many projects I was involved in this summer, but I can say that the other projects were just as rewarding and fun. I am incredibly grateful to CNHP for giving me this opportunity to explore so many kinds of conservation-related fieldwork and to learn so many new skills. This internship benefitted me greatly, and I am sure that this experience will help me in my future career too.
