Category Archives: Wildlife

Interpretive Blogs about Wildlife and Plants

Townsend’s Chipmunk (Tamias townsendii)

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Running in the Shadows

Townsend’s Chipmunk (Courtesy of
Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife)

Townsend’s chipmunk is one of the largest in Oregon and can measure nearly 10-inches long. Nine alternating dark and light stripes help identify this very secretive species.

This chipmunk has a black tip on their tail with margins lightly frosted. Its underside and small patch behind the ear are white-ish. Notice white patch under the ear in the image.

These chipmunks molt twice a year and the colors will brighten during the summer.

Communications

While they are secretive, they are not silent and are often heard before seen. They will not be singing “The Chipmunk song (Christmas Don’t be Late)” but they do communicate through a number of vocalizations, posturing, and other displays (no three-part harmonies, sorry guys).

There is a good chance of catching a peak at the Townsend’s chipmunk during the late morning and early afternoon when they are foraging, eating, and bringing food back to their burrow.  They will often momentarily perch on a sunny stump, log, or low branch… and with a flick of their tail, disappear.

Diet

These spunky omnivores eat a wide variety of materials depending on the season and stockpile food for winter. They fill their flexible cheek pouches with plants (seeds, leaves, roots, fruit), fungi and lichens, insects, bird eggs, etc.

They will forage up to a half mile from their burrow and carry food back in their flexible cheek pouches.

Their flexible cheek pouches can hold over 100 oats.

Where’s Home?

Townsend’s chipmunks live in dense forests and thicket found in the Pacific Northwest, up through British Columbia, and throughout western Washington and Oregon.

They are also found in more open areas such as slopes with rock debris. These talus slopes are favorite nest sites and refuges for escaping predators. Sometimes nests are created in trees.

Burrows

Burrows maybe up to nearly 33 feet long! They are used to stockpile food and may include shells and other debris. They are also used in harsher regions for hibernation. The chipmunk can be active all year round in mild areas.

Solitude

These chipmunks are typically solitary and territorial. Only one chipmunk will live in a single borrow system except when the female is rearing the young.

They seem to prefer isolation and solitude and are not generally socially active except during mating season when they can become quite loud. Males will also aggressively defend their home turf and mate, and attempt to exert dominance over other males.

Not much is known about their mating habits but the population is stable with few predators.

Last note. Chances are very few of them will answer to the name ‘ALVIN!’

REFERENCES
–Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife,  Squirrels, chipmunks, and marmots (https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/squirrels-chipmunks-and-marmots and https://myodfw.com/wildlife-viewing/species/townsends-chipmunk)
–Aniamlia, Townsend’s Chipmunk (http://animalia.bio/townsends-chipmunk)
–USDI, Fish & Wildlife Service (https://www.fws.gov/refuge/julia_butler_hansen/ wildlife_and_habitat/mammals/townsends_chipmunk.html)
–Squirrels at the Feeder, ‘How many squirrels live in a burrow?’ (https://bit.ly/30I6cTN)
–Munkapedia, Wiki, Alvin and the Chipmunks (https://alvin.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_The_Chipmunks_and_The_Chipettes_songs)

Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomus pileatus)

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Pileated Woodpecker (Hylatomus pileatus)

You have probably heard a woodpecker at some point in your life, but have you been lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the bird behind the noise?

The Pileated Woodpecker, one of the largest, most striking birds in North America, is a particularly beautiful sight. This black bird with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest is nearly the size of a crow. Its bill is long and chisel-like, about the length of the head.

Any forest type can sustain Pileated Woodpeckers as long as there are trees large enough for roosting and nesting. These birds are typically found in mature and old-growth forests.

Foraging

These powerful woodpeckers chip out characteristic oval or rectangular excavations in the trees where they forage for their prey, including wood-boring insects and insects that nest in trees like long-horned beetles and carpenter ants. These holes can be so large that they weaken smaller trees or even cause them to break in half.

The sound of the Pileated Woodpecker’s hammering carries long distances through the woods. They also drum to attract mates and to establish the boundaries of their territory.

Roosting

These birds roost in hollow trees with multiple entrance holes. These roosting cavities are used later by many other birds and small animals.

Shooting for sport and food was formerly a significant source of mortality for Pileated Woodpeckers; fortunately, shooting these birds is now illegal.

Clear-cutting of old-growth and other forests currently has the most significant impact on Pileated Woodpecker habitat, but this species is fairly adaptable, which offsets some of the impact from habitat loss.

Black Rockfish (Sebastes melanops)

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Black Rockfish are an important sport fishery in Oregon. In 2017, 1.8 million individual black rockfish were caught in Oregon, weighing about 1,960 metric tons.

Photo courtesy of California Dept. of Fish and Game

Over 25 different rockfish species are caught by sport and commercial fishers in Oregon. Black Rockfish are sometimes called: black or sea bass, and black snapper.

Body characteristics

Black rockfish have a mottled dark gray-black body, often with dark strips. Belly color is lighter, and dorsal fins have black spots. Notice the dorsal fin. The spines are poisonous and can cause pain or infection. Fortunately the toxin is not extremely toxic.  

The bass-shaped body measures up to 27.6 inches in length. Adults typically weigh up to 11 pounds.

Habitat

Black Rockfish inhabit rocky reefs around 180 feet deep or less in large schools with other rockfish species. Rockfish often congregate around jetties and other estuary structures.

What’s on the menu?

Rockfish are opportunistic predatory fish that eat squid, octopus, krill, crab larvae, crustaceans, and other fish.  They readily take bait and lures. Lures commonly used include rubber-tailed lead head jigs and shrimp flies.

Predators

Predators for young black rockfish include: sablefish, Pacific halibut, other fish species, and pigeon guillemot.

Typical Black Rockfish (courtesy of Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife)

Reproduction

Fish in the Sebastes genus use a different reproduction process compares to other fish–fertilization and embryo development is internal.

Adult Black rockfish mate in late summer. The eggs (between 125,000 and 1,200,000) are not mature yet. Females store eggs and sperm temporarily.

Fertilization completes when eggs mature. About one month later, live young are spawned.

Barotrauma

Black rockfish do not have a vent on their swim bladder. Rockfish use the swim bladder to adjust buoyancy.  Changes in air pressure can damage or kill the fish. ‘Barotrauma’ symptoms include bulging eyes, tight gill membranes, and the esophagus protruding from the mouth.

Future

Managers are watching this species closely for signs of overfishing. This is currently not a problem.

REFERENCES:
–Oregon Dept. of Fish and Wildlife (https://www.dfw.state.or.us/mrp/finfish/sp/rockfish.asp and https://myodfw.com/fishing/species/black-rockfish) 
–Pacific Fisheries Management Council (https://www.pcouncil.org)
–Oregon State University Fish and Wildlife program (https://www.pcouncil.org/groundfish/stock-assessments/by-species/black-rockfish/)
–Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game, Species profile, Black rockfish  (http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=blackrockfish.main)  
–California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, Abbreviated Life History of Black Rockfish (https://wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Marine/Groundfish/Nearshore-Finfish#26187347-black-rockfish)