Rawge's Wildlife Biology Photo Scrapbook

Rawge's Wildlife Biology Photo Scrapbook

The majority of the email I receive involves questions about what it is like to be a wildlife biologist. I usually respond that it involves field work and office duties. There are times that there isn't another soul for miles, and other times you're standing in front of an audience. We are often handling wild animals but are just as often handling paperwork. We put up with red rashes and red tape. Sometimes we are working in temperatures that are so cold you fear you'll never feel your toes again, but they always thaw out just fine when the summers reach 110 degrees. I tell people that you may never see your debt go down, but you'll always get to see the sun come up. You'll scratch your head a hundred times a day because there aren't easy answers to wildlife management problems, and probably scratch a million mosquito bites because they haven't invented a mosquito repellant that can somehow make it from your truck to your pocket. I tell them.... oh well, you probably get the picture. If not, here a few taken during the past 6 or 7 years to help illustrate my point.

It is a truly great job!

Back to the Wildlife Biology Home Page


I am not a big fan of snakes, but handling them comes with the job. I'm certainly no "Crocodile Hunter"	Many animals can't safely be handled without sedative or restraints, but this baby beaver was very docile and didn't seem to mind his new eartag.	Pheasant capturing is a Blast! They are captured at night by traveling around in a 6-wheel open vehicle and locating them with spotlights. Once located, one of the crew chases them down and grabs them with a big salmon net. After capture, they are banded and blood samples are drawn for pathology testing.	Wetlands management is some fairly hard work. The shovel is your best friend

A little dry land log-rolling competition	.... more good times with the shovel....	Sometimes I get to meet celebrities, like Eliza Thornberry	Protection of our burrowing owls takes many forms, from building artificial nesting mounds to installing signs to warn motorists.


I try to spend as much time as I can working with the community, such as taking part in this Jr. High science fair	A trip inside the riparian forest to remove beaver debris from our water control devices (the shovel is back again)	Here I am giving a tour of our seasonal wetlands to high school biology students	Our work doesn't slow down much in winter - the clothes just get heavier.


Much work is done in the office, including writing reports, working with research data sets, identifying specimens, and countless other tasks	Wetlands come in two nice colors ... Brown ....	....and a really pretty green	Poling a boat out to a blind before daylight. We use the blind to survey waterfowl. This is fun, as you get a great opportunity to see wildlife up-close, but sometimes it is cold and wet.


June 2002 - filming a wildlife documentary. For over two weeks, I worked with Tadashi Shimida, a famous Japanese wildlife photographer and his film crew (Brenden, Misu, Shin, and Tomako) to film a burrowing owl documentary for Japanese Television. Japanese was dubbed-in over my voice.	July 2002 - banding our baby burrowing owls. These bands will help us ID individual birds and better determine their local movements.	I got to interact with the Pickle Barrel Puppets at an Environmental faire. These guys are great! Everyone loves them and the audience really gets into the drama. If you are in N. California and want a great show for your event or party, call 530-613-1605	I occasionally get calls from people in my agency to help them with "visitors" in some of our buildings. Here, a baby opossum got locked in a building. Even when they show their 50 teeth, they are still very cute! This little guy seemed very happy to be moved back outdoors.


I love working with Kids, click here to see how you can help.	I gave a nature walk to a Christian group with a focus on Christian's responsibility to be good stewards of nature. I caught a gopher snake on the route. This little girl loved it!	Planting trees with Girl Scout Troop 2094. As part of our habitat restoration goals, we have planted over 50,000 trees. This was a great day and these girls are hard workers!


Taking data from a Microtus californica
	A cold morning on the 2006 Audubon Christmas Bird Count	Me and my co-workers, This picture was for an article in a UC Davis Magazine.

Trapping Small mammals for a mammal inventory	Building artificial burrowing owl mounds with my friends - Mr. Carnie's 5th grade class! Check out their website, blog and games	They Won!!!! My friends at Mr. Carnies class won the grand prize in the Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge. I am soooooo proud of them! I got to go and help surprise them with the news.

Working with these kids and being there when they received their award was one of the greatest days of my career.	We even got to meet Jiminy Cricket. We hope you will consider getting your own school involved. Click here for more info.	Remember....always smile and keep a happy face... ...even on Payday