Big cat researchers take Santa Cruz sixth-graders to the mounts on research mission

By Nadia Drake - Santa Cruz Sentinel
Posted: 03/28/2011 07:39:49 PM PDT

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS - While the skies unleashed torrents of water on Saturday morning, a group of enthusiastic sixth-graders squelched through mud, jumped into puddles and stopped to stare at poop in the hills above Santa Cruz.

They were on a field trip designed to teach them about the mountain lion, one of Santa Cruz County's most notorious and elusive inhabitants.

"I'm having fun," said Gabby White, 12. "We're learning about poo!"

Yes, among other facts, the group learned that carnivore poop contains fur and bones, but otherwise can look quite similar to doggy-doo. Often, poop and paw prints are the only signs anyone will ever see of the shy, nocturnal mountain lions.

"They live right next to us but keep themselves hidden," said UC Santa Cruz graduate student and biologist Yiwei Wang, one of the students' guides for the day.

Spotting scat along the trail became a source of shrieking amusement for the kids, who also listened closely to Wang and Yasaman Shakeri, both of whom work with UC Santa Cruz environmental scientist Chris Wilmers. Wilmers' group is tracking pumas in the Santa Cruz mountains using high-tech collars that allow scientists to learn not only about lion location, but lion activity.

"The collars let you see if the cat is doing stuff like flicking its tail or hunting prey or resting," said Craig Schroeder, public outreach manager for the Felidae Conservation Fund and organizer of Saturday's field trip.

Learning about the pumas' behavior will help scientists understand the role pumas play in the Santa Cruz Mountain ecosystem. As humans move into mountain lion habitat, encounters and sightings are becoming more frequent - and the mountains have become a habitat island, isolated by roads and water. Animal movement into and out of the mountains is limited.

"When you cut off a population, over time that contributes to extinctions," Schroeder said. "We're trying to mitigate that before it's too late."

The Felidae Conservation Fund, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving populations of big cats worldwide, includes field trips as part of their new educational outreach program. Using funds from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, they designed a three-pronged lesson plan aimed toward teaching middle and high school students about pumas. The students learn through lectures, a predator-prey lab exercise, and a field trip led by researchers such as Wang and Shakeri.

"We'd like to get in front of every school we can," Schroeder said. "These kids can see amazing animals right here, and you can see their excitement when they're out in the field."

This group, from Branciforte Middle School, is the fourth class to follow classroom learning with field excursions.

"This is the way to tie together what they've seen in the classroom," said teacher Erin Petersen-Lindberg. "These opportunities are fantastic. The timing is perfect. We're just starting to learn about ecology now."

At the beginning of the field trip, Wang and Shakeri showed students how project biologists catch pumas using 6-foot long cages normally baited with deer legs. When the trap snaps shut, a radio transmitter on the cage emits a characteristic beeping sound that lets project scientists know an animal is inside.

"We sit about half a mile away and check to see if the transmitter is going off," Wang said. "We don't want to leave the cat in there."

Kids tested the cage trap by crawling in. Then they learned how scientists put radio-emitting collars on the cats that let them track animals and remotely download data.

Then they headed into the woods - swathed in ponchos and armed with umbrellas - while Wang and Shakeri spoke about how mountain lions move through natural habitats and stalk prey.

"A lot of times, mountain lions will just wait right off the trail for the opportunity to jump on a deer," said Wang.

That might sound alarming, but pumas rarely attack humans. Six people have been killed by mountain lions in California since 1890.

"You definitely want to treat the lions with respect because they're predators, but they're not something to be fearful of all the time," Wang said. "Hitting a deer in your car is a lot more dangerous."

Indeed, deer are the puma's preferred meal, and Wang and Shakeri led students to a grove of trees about 50 feet off the trail. There, they showed students an old deer-kill site - a months-old pile of bones in the brush beneath a tree - dragged there by a puma so it could dine undisturbed.

"Is that the head right there? I want to see the head!" said White, who appeared fascinated by the skeletal bits near her feet. She prodded the bones with a stick while asking non-stop questions of the researchers. Other kids took pictures.

Then it was time to head back, and students stopped along the way to learn how biologists set up motion-activated cameras to snap photos of pumas walking in the wild. They watched while Shakeri demonstrated how pumas mark territories by scraping leaves into piles with their back feet.

"I had fun, but my feet didn't. They're soaked," said Jessie Martines, 12, as she returned to the school bus. "But I would do this again. Just wear rain boots next time."

http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_17720989?nclick_check=1