mark and recapture

I have 2 fabulous research assistants, Nancy and Andrew. I simply wouldn't be able to do my work if I didn't have their help. And they're fun to be with, so I'm pretty lucky. I should also mention that they often bring their sig-Os, Angel and Jessica (respectively), and I appreciate their willingness to help when they get nothing for it. 

Anyway, Andrew took a bunch of pictures the first night we marked. They're pretty cool.

Here's a coyote running across our field just as we arrived. We see its poop a lot.

No caption necessary. We see at least 20 of these ladies each night.

Alright, here's me getting the flies out of the trap. I use a plastic vial to take out a few at a time, because there are so many of them now that it's not possible to count them while they're all in the trap. I have to have one person watch for escapees while I'm in there. 

Once I've got the vial full of flies, I stick it into a cooler full of crushed ice. Since flies are exothermic, cooling them down is like anesthetic. But I have to be careful not to cool them for too long, because it would kill them (by slowing down their metabolic processes so far that they stop). 

Here I am marking the flies on their wings with sharpie. 

These flies are not afraid of humans. Not much is known about them, but the only predators I can think of for them are bats, so they have no genes for being nervous around big mammals. Here is a fly that I've just marked standing on the tip of my pen. This isn't uncommon, it's kind of a hassle. But cute:)

This is the "recovery room". After the flies are marked, someone drops them here so we can see if they recover. It's pretty important in a mark-and-recapture project that the marking process doesn't kill the organism. I would say it's imperative...

So there you go (Erin:), it's like you're almost there. I wish I could have all of my friends and family come and do this with me. It's a pretty cool experience and I would love to share it with all of you.