Kalysha Clark

I'm famous! Well, sort of. I got my 15 seconds of fame because I was featured in my school's newspaper, The Technician. The feature talks about my summer research in Arizona working with cliff chipmunks, as well as my involvement with a club on campus, Roots and Shoots!



If you want to check out it, click here.

Today was my last day of classes for the semester. That's crazy. I just have to make it through three exams and then I am done until January!

This semester was very busy, but I had some awesome opportunities.

I got to present my summer research at the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium. This was my first ever professional poster presentation.

Photos taken by Jennifer Merems.

It is my last day in Arizona and I thought I would reflect upon my summer research experience.

•  Map and compass
•  Field notebook
• Pencil and sharpie
• Flagging tape (for when we find a new nest)
• Bait for trapping (Roasted, unsalted peanuts)
• Trapping kit
• Data sheets
• Scale
• Metal ear tags
• Pliers to attach ear tags
• Mesh bag for handling
• Alcohol pads
•  Tissues and hand wipes
• Neosporin and chapstick
• A small container for trash
• Hand sanitizer
• Chewing gum
• Poncho or rain jacket
• Sunblock and bug spray
• Water bottle
• Radio

On some occasions, I also carry the following:

This past session was mostly filled with telemetry. I needed up to 15 points for some of the chipmunks, so there were at least four different days where I was tasked with that. The good news is, after the first few rounds, I was able to devise an order and a system that allowed for a smooth flow from one animal to the next. Plus, I was taking points with a second person instead of doing it alone, which made it much easier.

I was also able to start the side project this session and do about four trial runs. These runs gave me an idea of what all I would need to do to conduct the tests, how I might need to tweak it, how long each test should take, etc.

Essentially, I will take a chipmunk and place it in a glass aquarium (an arena, if you will). The arena will be placed in an open field and one end will be closer to the neighboring forest than the other end. Once the chipmunk is inside the arena, I will video record its behavior in an attempt to determine whether the animal is able to detect the forest that is closer as within its perceptual range.

Gogo Squeez applesauce is perfect for morning observations.

We have juvies! Since the research I am working on focuses on dispersal behavior, we need to trap juvenile chipmunks so we can 1) radio collar them to track their movements and 2) analyze their behavior to see where they fall on the spectrum of curiosity and aggression. This past session was my third trip on the mountain and we finally caught some juvies. Three, actually. 

We found a mountain lion print!

And of course, a battle wound! I smacked my leg on the branch of a log while trying to step over said log.

I have also been working on the side project. We are hoping to start trial runs in the next couple sessions!

As I type this, I am sitting in my boss's house. I flew back to Tucson this morning after a short trip home for my sister's high school graduation. It was so nice to see my family and my boyfriend. I hate that I was only there for three days. It felt so short.

Alas, I must get back to work. I got my first paycheck for one week of work and it was nice to see the hard work pay off.

I struggled during my first week on the mountain. I felt unprepared for all the work and was constantly exhausted. I didn't realize I would be up every morning at 5:30 AM. And while I realized that there would be hiking involved, I didn't realize how much and I certainly didn't consider that there would be less oxygen at 9,000+ feet elevation, making it harder to breathe.

We go back up on the mountain tomorrow. I am hoping my second session is more successful (and has less early mornings) than the first. That being said, I am still excited to be learning the techniques that I am learning and to be involved in hands-on research. It really is a great experience.

I have been reading up on scientific papers for the last several hours in order to decide how I want to approach the side project I will be working on. The project will be focusing on perceptual range, which is the distance from which an animal can perceive key landscape elements (Zollner and Lima 1997).

It looks like we will likely be trapping the chipmunks, dusting them with fluorescent powder and then tracking them with a UV light after displacing them into a new habitat. This will show us from which distance(s) the chipmunks can detect habitat.

Also, I've got some photos. Check out below.

As always, I will keep you all posted and updated. Thanks for all your warm wishes so far!

The community cabin.

The desk area with the computer that has internet access.

Kitchen area in the community cabin.

Our two fridges. Left is electric and right is propane.

The sitting area of the community cabin.

The bait shed (right) and trap shed (left) and our bathrooms (AKA port-a-john's).

My cabin from the outside.

The view when you walk in my cabin. My "room" is to the right around the corner.

My (roughly made) bed with Harvey.

My terribly messy bookshelf, which houses all of my things. Since it was the end of the session, all of my clothes had been worn and packed up to be washed.

My toiletries hanging on the wall.

And lastly, a chipmunk selfie. :)

Allyssa and I went grocery shopping today to get all of our food for the mountain. Each person gets a shelf and a space in the fridge, but I still wanted to pack light when it came to the food. I also wanted to keep meals simple because simple tends to be cheaper.  I was happy to find that food in Arizona is basically the same price as food in North Carolina. We did our shopping at a store called Fry's, which is wonder by the same company that owns Kroger (and apparently Harris Teeter as of recently). The bagger at the store was from Raleigh too, so it was nice meet someone from the same area.

All of our food, ready to prep.

Below is my grocery list:

• Bananas
• Tortillas
• Carrots
• Granola
• Doritos
• Velveeta Macaroni Cups
• Granola Bars
• Dr Pepper (gotta have my soda fix!)
• Mayonaise 
• Yogurt
• Chicken Breast Tenders
• Herb Butter
• Cream Cheese
• Bread
• Bagels
• Cheese Sticks
• Green beans
• Peanut Butter

Tucson, Arizona - I have arrived! It is very different from NC. The land is basically all flat, but has mountains all around. There are cacti everywhere, but the same cannot be said about grass.

For the next few nights, I will be staying with my "boss" Allyssa, (more about her here) at her professor's house, where she is dog sitting. They have two mutts. I'm excited to be around doggies.

Quandary. She's a little older and took some time to warm up to me.

Quinton. He was friendly from the beginning.

He liked me enough to nap with me.

Tomorrow, we will go to the University of Arizona to get the rest of my hiring paperwork finished. Then, we will tour the University, grab some lunch, and possibly tour the Desert Museum, which would introduce me to some of the native wildlife around here. She also invited me out to Happy Hour tomorrow night with some friends, so I'm excited to get social.

We are going grocery shopping on Saturday to get food for the mountain, where we will do our research for ten or so days before returning to Tucson for a break. There's a deal on Saturday's where you can get a 60 lb. box of fresh produce for $10 so Allyssa and I plan to split that for some of our groceries.

I also have to get some shots, including my rabies shot. This is actually really awesome because the rabies pre-exposure is essentially a necessity for careers handling wildlife and it's free to me under my employment! Awesome.

When we are up on the mountain, Allyssa said I will get some orientation, but will basically be thrown into things, so I'm interested to see how that goes. I always put my best foot forward and this will be no exception.

I will post more updates as I go.