12B Wednesday, July 24, 2013 The Montmorency County Tribune
THE DNR RECENTLY confirmed a fisher in Presque Isle
County. Photo courtesy of Mike O'Meara.
that
hi
Although there have been regular reports of fishers in
the Lower Peninsula, the Department of Natural Re-
sources had not been able to confirm fishers south of the
Mackinac Bridge...until now.
Recently Melissa and Nate Sayers of Onaway were out
for walk in North Allis Township, located in Presque Isle
County, when they saw something odd.
"We heard the neighbor's dog barking at a base of a tree,
and we saw a ball of fur up in the tree; we initially thought
it was a bear cub," said Melissa Sayers. "Then it moved,
and we realized it wasn't a cubl"
The DNRwas notified of the sighting and was provided
pictures. Local DNR wildlife biologist Jennifer Kleitch
investigated the location where the pictures were taken
and confirmed the photos were legitimate.
"This is very exciting, but we always want to be sure,"
stated Kleitch. "We treat every rare animal ighting very
seriously, and we must have evidence we can follow up
on and investigate to make a definite identification."
Historically fishers were found throughout both the
Upper and Lower peninsulas, although by 1936 defores-
tation and tmlimited harvest resulted in the species van-
ishing from Michigan. Beginning in 1961, fishers were
reintroduced to the Upper Peninsula, and by 1989 the
U.P. fisher population had recovered enough to estab-
lish a limited trapping season in the western U.P.
"It's great to see another native species return to parts
of its former range," said DNR furbearer specialist Adam
Bump. "Fishers are another species in Michigan that
benefit from habitat management and science-based
harvest regulations."
Now that fishers have been confirmed in the Lower
Peninsula, the DNR would like to gather additional in-
formation. Those who believe they have seen a fisher in
the northern Lower Peninsula, and have physical docu-
mentation (pictures, locations of tracks, etc.), are asked
call 989-732-3541, ext. 5901.
Fishers are typically found in large forests, with a pref-
erence for areas dominated by coniferous trees. They
have a very diverse diet, mostly comprised of small- to
medium-sized mammals such as mice and rabbits, along
with dead deer. Fishers also will consume a fair amount
of fruits and nuts, and often are noted for being one of the
few species that successfully prey upon porcupines, al-
though porcupines typically make up a small portion of
their diet.
Walk-ln's welcome!
Monday, Tuesday,
Thursday &Friday
per person
Humans have used dogs as help,
ers in innumerable pursuits for cen-
turies, and that relationship seems
to expand daily. John Rucker, a life-
long bird hunting enthusiast, has
always kept dogs to help him pursue
upland game, but he's also trained
his Boykin spaniels to perform an
unusual task. Rucker's dogs have
been trained to find and retrieve
turtles.
The 65-year-old Tennessee resi-
dent was in Michigan recently to
help members of the Department of
Natural Resources' Parks and Rec-
reation Division find Eastern box
turtles at Fort Custer State Recre-
ation Area, near Battle Creek. The
box turtles, a species of concern in
Michigan, inhabit the woodlands EASTERN BOX TURTLES, like this one, inhabit woodlands in southern
and adjacent fields of Fort Custer. Michigan.
Parks and Recreation staffers are
attempting to understand the turtles' seasonal habi-
tat usage to make sure ecological restoration efforts,
prescribed bums, mowing and the use of herbicides,
do not negatively impact the reptiles.
Alicia Selden, a DNR stewardship analyst, has been
working on the turtle project for two years now. She
says Rucker's help has been invaluable.
"He finds as many turtles in a few days as it takes us
a month to find," Selden said.
Employing the services of an army of volunteers,
many of them Michigan State University (MSU) fish
and wildlife students, Selden and her helpers survey
the agricultural field and prairies adjoining the woods
on Fort Custer, finding turtles as they nest in the
spring. The critters are typically homebodies, Selden
said, but will travel a fair distance, maybe ahalfmile,
from their woodland homes to find appropriate nest-
ing habitat or a place to burrow and overwinter. What
they've learned so far has already resulted in changes
to their land-management practices, she said.
"We've pretty much put a hold on spring bums until
we have a better understanding of the impact on box
turtles," Selden said "We're shifting over to bums in
the summer and fall."
Rucker, who travels the country with his dogs to
work on turtle conservation projects, said he "just
sort of fell" into turtle-hunting more than a decade
ago. He was walking with his dogs one day, found a
turtle, and showed it to one of his dogs. A short time
later, the dog came up to him with a turtle in its
mouth. He's been training his dogs to do the same
since.
This spring, with Rucker's assistance, the crew
found close to 30 box turtles, often in the grass near JOHN RUCKER, who uses Boykin spaniels to find and
the woods, where Michigan's only terrestrial turtles retrieve turtles, recently found box turtles at Fort Custer
State Recreation Area.
spend most of their time, and the sandy agricultural
and prairie grass fields. It was a pleat surprise.
"Last yearwe found 13," Selden said. 'It reallyscared Some of the long-lived boxturtles, which have been
us. We had more than 600 hours ofvolunteer time on captured, have been fitted with radio transmitters,
the ground for that. It scared us." epoxied to their shells, so they can be located year-
Tracy Swem, a graduate student at MSU who will round. The knowledge gained about their habitat us-
spend the summer monitoring the turtles, said mak- age will help land managers better refine their man-
ing sure the park staff does nbt impact the turtle agement techniques. In addition the turtles are
population withits land-use practices is important to marked with a series of notches filed into the outer
protect the viability of the population as the Fort edge of their shells, so researchers who find a turtle
Custer crew works to restore the prairie habitat that can compare locations to where it was last seen.
once dominated the area. The shell-notching is a standard
practice among
"Thereasonthismattersistheycanenterintoaslow turtle researchers. The crew at the recreation area
extinction cycle if theylose just a bit of the breed- found two turtles this year that had been marked by a
ing population, about two percent, she said. "They Purdue University researcher in 2006 on the nearby
aren't sexually mature until they're about 10 years military training grounds.
old, and you lose about 98 percent ofthe hatchlings." The Parks and Recreation crew made several impor-
Ittakesseveralyearsforthemrtlestoformtheirhard tant discoveries this year. They caught a 3-year-old,
protective shells, tg, r Eooares%er abl l O turdes canbe aged by'counting'therings on theplates
predation, particularly q , on their shells, like growth rings on a tree - the first
heavilypredate nests by digging them up and eating juvenile found in the two years of the project. Simi-
the eggs. larly, when a park staffer picked up a young turtle (7
Box turtles are unique among Michigan turtles, yea rs old) crossing the road the other dayand brought
Though they are terrestrial, they are true turtles, not it to Swem, she deemed it "an important find" be-
tortoises, theyhave claws on their feet, and they have cause "we hadn't found any between 4 and 10 years
a unique evolutionary trait, a hinged underside of the old."
carapace, which allows them to fully retract and pro- Parks and Recreation Division staffers and volun-
tect their head, tail and legs. teers will continue to monitor the box turtles into the
Some of the turtles the crew has found this year future. Ideally, the changes in land-management
show damage on their shells from previous bums. practices brought about by this research will ensure
Some biologists argue that these turtles have evolved that they'll be able find many more box turtles in the
with natural fires and can live with them, though years ahead, while restoring southern Michigan's
others contend that naturalfires do not occur as often prairie habitat.
as prescribed burns and repeated exposure to the For more information on Rucker's exploits, visit
fires over time could damage the population, www.turtledogs,org.
