It was another long night out in the field.  After a very warm day, the early night was pleasantly warm and calm, though not particularly productive in ferret finding.  Around 2am a strong wind came up, whipping dirt through the trucks and stinging the eyes.  On one of our trap stops, I hopped out of the truck and ran ahead, realizing later that I almost thought I heard something besides the wind back at the truck, but wasn't sure.  On the walk back to the truck, I had the sense that the sound could have possible been a rattlesnake, so went slow.  As soon as I was past the headlights and in total dark, I heard a distinct rattle through the wind, and stopped.  My spotlighting partner came around with his headlamp, and we found it.  He pushed the snake away with a tool, and we headed on to continue spotlighting.

Ferrets are no more fond of the wind than humans are, and we didn't have a lot of success: just three ferrets caught all night, making the total for the week at Roberts prairie dog town just 12.  The ferret that swam across the dam two nights ago was spotted alive and well, and given the nickname Michael Phelps.  Another BFF likes to dig out around the traps, earning the name Digger.  I drove the ferrets to the mobile lab while the other two guys stayed at Roberts to locate and pull all the reflectors we were using to mark holes where we found ferrets.  It was the last night of spotlighting, so we needed to collect everything.  When I returned, I got to drive the truck out to release two of the ferrets back at their holes.  In the daylight, those reflectors are much harder to see, and we had to get a GPS unit from someone else in order to find the right places.  It's an uncommon experience, getting to bounce along off road in a prairie dog town in a national park.  Very cool.

After a half day's sleep, I was awake again for the evening, and spent it debriefing with friends, sharing some food, and making a trip down to the Wagon Wheel to relax and listen to some music.

Setting a trap

Checking a ferret that was caught

Scanning for microchip

We had caught this one yesterday, so released it right away

The rattlesnake by my door

Holding a trap

Waiting to be transferred to a tube

Sunrise

Sunrise

Back at the mobile lab again

Still asleep from anesthesia, ready to be weighed

Precious cargo

Ready to release

Release

Collection of ferret IDs: We use marked tape to identify individual ferrets in their tubes when transported to the mobile lab. Tape is transferred to the kennel so we are sure to get each ferret back to his or her own hole.