Badlands – at last!

South Dakota and me are going to get along just fine.

It’s stunning here – rugged and starkly beautiful. There was an amazing lightning storm to greet my first night. And rains made our first day in the field a bit of a mud fest. Today was an orientation day – we learned the ropes. And it looks like they’re easing us into things … we started at a civilized 8:30 AM, though in my trailer, somehow all four of us forgot to change our clocks to mountain time, so we were ready to go by 7:30 AM instead.

We worked Plot 2 and Plot 3 today (there are six 4-hectare plots total), laying out 90 traps at each plot (10 traps per person, per plot + extra if you finish up first). These were Tomahawk traps, and we learned to set them up, and bait them. Also how to tell if a prairie dog burrow is active, namely by looking for fresh scat and signs of recent digging. Bait is oats mixed with peanut butter to weigh down the oats so it doesn't blow away. For now, we’re not actually leaving the traps open, rather getting the prairie dogs used to having them around. And giving them a chance to develop a taste for our bait.

We worked from 8:30 AM through 2:30 PM, had an hour lunch break, and then watched an hour-long documentary about prairie dog ecology. Some interesting facts: each family can have up to 50 feet of burrows underground; families are incredibly territorial but will allow interlopers if there are predators around; each family has a sentry that calls out if there’s any sign of danger; prairie dogs have a sophisticated language communicated in yips and barks; they identify humans individually (I have yet to figure out my name in prairie dog lingo); the “all clear” signal is an exuberant yip with head and neck thrown back and front paws to the sky.

Tomorrow is more theory than practical … plague facts, three hours of driver’s education (ugh!) to ensure we don’t wreck our two 4x4 trucks.

It has been unexpectedly cool here in the mornings and evenings, with strong, strong winds that lightly rock our trailers. It’ll be fun times at our next major storm.