San Francisco Bay Area, California
How do you save an endangered species?
First you need to answer some important questions, like:
- Where does it live and what kind of habitat does it prefer?
- How many populations or subgroups exist?
- What does it eat? What is it eaten by?
- And if there are existing threats to this population, where else can it go? How do we preserve these places?
For most of 2012-2013 I interned with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) on a project evaluating the survival of Ridgeway Rails (Rallus obsoletus), an endangered species of marsh bird. As part of the Western Ecological Research Center, my team partnered with researchers at the University of California-Davis to answer several questions regarding the much beloved bird, recently diverged in 2014 from the Clapper Rail species.
Measuring recently captured Ridgeway Rails and providing them with leg bands inscribed with unique IDs
The ridgeway rail of California lives in brackish water, is an opportunistic and omnivorous forager, and can swim, fly, and run (albeit not always well, or for long periods of time). Their best talent lies in being invisible. The rails are rarely seen. Enthusiastic birders will haunt marshes at dawn and dusk when they can hear the rails call to one another in a sound that mixes elements of both clapping and cackling.
In spite of their excellent camouflage, rails' biggest threat is loss of habitat. Saltmarsh swamps are disappearing quickly due to overdevelopment. As changing climates affect the coastline, rising waters are also covering lower altitude habitat. Thus the important question researchers ask is: are there available high-altitude habitats where rails can successfully survive?
In spite of their excellent camouflage, rails' biggest threat is loss of habitat. Saltmarsh swamps are disappearing quickly due to overdevelopment. As changing climates affect the coastline, rising waters are also covering lower altitude habitat. Thus the important question researchers ask is: are there available high-altitude habitats where rails can successfully survive?
Kayaking in the marsh on the way to check a camera trap
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The USGS Clapper Rail team pursued this answer by trapping the birds, equipping them with "backpacks" containing a radio transmitter, tracking their movements, and determining survival rates and breeding success. We worked according to tidal schedules. Setting traps in deep marsh channels often required both physical and mental dexterity, especially in mud that will quickly envelop you waist-deep. Our team set camera traps and audio equipment around the marsh to quantify rail presence, as well as to determine whether the rails were using manmade nesting structures. Creating these structures was yet another task we did during our "office days" and designed to provide a safe shelter away from the many predators that view rails as tasty swamp chicken. And the final result? While the work still continues, data seems to show that northern parts of the Bay area hold promise for this species.
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Like many types of fieldwork, finding the rails by often felt like an extreme scavenger hunt. The only feeling that beats the satisfaction of checking a trap and finding your target creature is the joy of discovering a successful nest! Maybe there's hope for this charismatic bird after all.
A newly hatched rail learns to walk while its future sibling sleeps in