Party at the Natural History Museum

Whoever came up with the idea of having late hours and serving drinks at a museum should be given an award. Maybe the uber hip furniture and the multiple DJs are a bit much, but whatever. Back to back bands and scientific speakers is an awesome concept. What's better than having a beer or looking at dinosaur fossils? Having a beer WHILE looking at dinosaur fossils. Boom. It's an experience, for sure, and can be a bit overwhelming. But making science a little bit sexy? I like it.

Joshua Tree

For Birthday Weekend (Dave and I have birthdays just 2 days apart!) we went on a quick weekend camping trip to Joshua Tree. It was my first time there, and I'd heard so many things I wasn't sure it would live up to expectations. It was amazing.

Joshua trees are really bizarre looking palm/cactus/hat trees. Actually, they are a yucca (not to be mistaken with the edible yuca, or cassava). They only grow about 1.5 inches per year, and can live hundreds, up to a thousand years! We were lucky to see some of them in bloom, which can happen between February-April. They are pollinated by a particular yucca moth. Even crazier, researchers think that during the Pleistocene giant sloths were responsible for dispersing their seeds and played an important role in Joshua Tree dispersal and colonizations! Knowing a little bit about the ecology of an area (or the ancient ecology!) can bring a whole new dimension to the way you see things. Giant ground sloths facilitating dispersal of super weird yucca trees? Awesome.

The flowers themselves have fallen off, but you can see where they bloom on this young Joshua Tree

Anyways, apparently spring (and Labor Day weekend in particular) is the most popular time of year to visit and camp at Joshua Tree National Park. We hadn't made any reservations and there were no campsites available, but luckily you can do backcountry camping throughout the park- and it's free! We got a couple of recommendations from the information center and set out. There is designated parking and you fill out a permit at the lot to let the rangers know you are out there and which car is yours. Then you hike at least a mile from the car and then 500 feet from the trail and you can camp, totally undisturbed, pretty much anywhere.

The view from our campsite

We found a spot up above a river bed and watched a spectacular sunset and the stars all come out. The temperature was perfect during the evening, though we both woke up chilly in the middle of the night. As soon as the sun came out though we warmed right up.

Hiking back from backcountry camping

We had a little time to visit the Cholla (sounds like choya) Garden the next morning. These are cacti that are like velcro- they grow in segments and can practically leap onto you if you get too close. I've been in areas with lots of cholla, but never like this! The cacti were also flowering. We visited a few more spots and went on a short hike, but I'm looking forward to going back and exploring more. It is such a unique place, and only about 2 hours outside of LA!

Twenty Thirteen

2014?! How did that happen?? I blinked and 2013 was gone. I posted some, but not all, of what was going on. Here's a quick recap, because in a second it's going to be 2015 and I'm not going to remember anything!

Alligator in the Everglades

I visited 2 new states- Colorado in July for the Animal Behavior Society conference on Boulder, and hung out with friends in Denver. Got to take a quick day trip to Rocky Mountain National Park, hiked the Flat Irons, and can't wait to go back! I also ended up (unintentionally) in Florida with Tiffany in November. We made the most of our few days in Miami and biked in the Everglades!

Aspens in Rocky Mountain National Park

Also with Tiffany I made my first trip to Belize. We spent time snorkeling in Caye Caulker, hiking in the jungle of the Cockscomb Basin and Jaguar Preserve, and checked out Mayan ruins of Cahal Pech in San Ignacio. It was a fantastic trip, and there is so much more I want to see and do in Belize!

Top of Tiger Fern trail in Cockscomb Basin, Belize

I just got back from Tiffany and Brian's New Year's Eve wedding in Seattle. It was a wonderful week in Washington, seeing lots of friends from Clark and helping her get ready for her big day! Dave and I also managed to do quite a bit of exploring, and my parents were there too. I also spent a long weekend in Seattle in April, helping Tiffany pick a wedding dress and spending quality time with Caitlin G in Seattle and Tacoma.

Brian and Tiffany get married!

In February I TA'd a field biology course in the jungles of Nicaragua (feels like forever ago), so I guess I spent a fair amount of time in Central America this past year!

Remote censored camera photo of a puma, Nicaragua

August was a whirlwind family and friend trip to the East Coast. In Southern Maryland we got together for my cousin's change of command ceremony with his Navy squadron. I also stayed with Dave's friends at their home outside of Baltimore, visited more friends and family in New York City and met another cousin's triplets. We hung out with Dave's family in Providence and around Rhode Island, and made a whirlwind trip through Massachusetts, including stops in Worcester, Paxton, Clinton, and Boston! It was wonderful to be back and catch up with lots of family and college friends. Hopefully I'll have an excuse to go back again soon.

Naval Change of Command ceremony

It hasn't been too shabby here in California, either. In March Dave and I spent a week driving from LA to San Francisco. We stayed in Pismo, Montaña de Oro, Cambria, camped for 3 nights in Big Sur, Monterey, and Redwood City. It was my first time in Big Sur, and it was totally magical! The weather was perfect, the poppies and wildflowers were blooming, we saw California condors(!!!), a California newt, grey whales, seals, sea lions, sea otters, elephant seals… pretty much everything amazing. I want to go back asap.

California Condors in Big Sur

We also did another EEB camping trip to Cambria in May. The UC Reserve where we stay is one of my favorite spots, on bluffs overlooking the ocean with lots more wildlife viewing and tide pooling. Plus trips into the town for ice cream or ollaliberry pie!

EEBers in Cambria

Back in January my sister was home for a bit so I flew up to San Francisco for Second Thanksgiving (a great Chock family tradition). Our family went to Año Neuvo to see the elephant seals, and there you go with a guide and can actually walk around them on the beach! We also stopped at a goat cheese farm in Pescadero to make a truly amazing day.

Elephant seal in Año Nuevo

In May Dave and I took a ferry to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands, where we camped for a night and did sea kayaking. The Channel Islands have one of the highest concentrations of sea caves anywhere in the world, and it was fun and a little scary to kayak through them. On the ferry out we saw a Steller's sea lion, a huge guy resting on a buoy, and on the way back we went through a big pod of dolphins. There were also a ton of small island foxes near the campsites.

Channel Island fox

Over Thanksgiving weekend we went whale watching in Monterey Bay with my family and aunts, as it was an unusual year and there were a ton more anchovies in the bay than normal, meaning the humpback whales were hanging around instead of migrating south. It was one of the most spectacular days- in our 3 hour trip on the water, we saw about a dozen whales, and they were breaching- jumping out of the water- almost constantly. It was unbelievable being so close to them and watching these huge masses power out of the water and then crash back down. Really spectacular.

Humpback whales breaching

In trips further south, I spent a day watching paragliders at Torrey Pines and then Dave, his friend Elana, and I went snorkeling with the leopard sharks in La Jolla. Pregnant females hang out there for a few months during the late summer/early fall when the water is warm. The water is also quite clear, and not very deep, so you feel like you could almost touch them if you reached your arm out. It was a bit unnerving, but a very cool experience.

Dave and I also made a trip to the Santa Ana Zoo in June to see the baby giant anteater, who was still at the age he could ride around on his mom's back. He was so big though he looked totally ridiculous. It was awesome.

Baby anteater riding on his mom's back

In October we also used a gift voucher I won when I went to see a filming of the Ellen Degeneres show for a two night stay at a very posh hotel in Laguna Beach. We spent a day hiking in Crystal Cove state park, then lounged by the pool and on a beautiful beach by the hotel. That was my first time in Laguna Beach, and it was quite lovely.

Montage Laguna Beach

Morgan, Tina, Caitlin N, and Annie came out at different times. I did some local birding and hiking with JP. I went to The Craft at Cinespia, spent a week trapping kangaroo rats and another observing pocket mice in captivity. I also passed my qualifying exams and ran my first independent field season from May through August. Looking back, it's no wonder I feel like this year flew by! I'm not sure how I even managed to fit that all into one calendar year, but if that is possible I can't wait to see what 2014 brings!

A Stephen's kangaroo rat! 

Becoming a Scientist- What is Graduate School?

UCLA undergraduates helping monitor kangaroo rats

Recently I've been talking to high school students and undergrads who are excited about science but don't really know what their options are in terms of careers or graduate school. Many students think that medical or veterinary school are the only professional options in the sciences, so I figured I could put this out there.

Here in the US, we have quite a few options for higher education. Typically, after high school, students will go to four years of college, take classes, and earn a Bachelors degree (an undergraduate degree). With this diploma you can enter the working world in almost any profession. If you decide that more education is necessary, the next option is a Masters degree. In the sciences, this is typically 2 more years and includes both classes and independent research. If you decide to pursue a Ph.D. (or doctorate) this is an additional 5+ years of education- mostly independent research with some classwork required. You can do the Ph.D. after a Masters, or skip the Masters and go straight to the Ph.D. It depends on what your interests are, how much experience you have (a Masters program is a great place to get more research experience), and financial packages.

Recent graduate Dalia showing off a rattlesnake
rattle during pocket mouse trapping 

A super important fact that not enough students know about- while you typically pay for your undergraduate education, graduate degrees in the sciences are often paid for. In fact, they pay you to be a student in the program! This makes it feasible to spend these extra 5+ years of your life as a student. You won’t get paid a lot, but you also won’t have to go into huge amounts of debt. Professional programs, like to become a medical doctor or veterinarian, are not funded and most students take out loans to cover these. The expectation is you will make enough money when you start your career to pay back these loans. In reality, I don’t think I will ever make a ton of money, but I’m ok with that because I get a lot of satisfaction out of what I do. However, if I had hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans, this would be a much tougher field to be in.

Spider monkey during the field biology quarter in Nicaragua

How you spend your years in grad school varies widely across different fields, schools, departments, and mentors. In almost any program, grad students spend time working as teaching assistants (TAs) for undergraduate courses at their university. There is usually a full professor who teaches the course, but TAs lead discussions, lab sections, grade essays and exams, and hold office hours for students to drop in and get help. I’ve been really lucky and got to TA a field biology course in Nicaragua. I helped students design research projects, collect and analyze data, and present their findings in written and oral reports. It was a great learning experience for everyone involved!

Presenting my Masters research at an Animal Behavior Society meeting

There are also classes you have to take, and other ones you can chose to take to fill in gaps in your knowledge. Mostly grad students spend time working on their independent research, whether it is field based (like my Pacific pocket mouse studies are), laboratory based, computer modeling, or some combination. Almost all scientists spend a significant amount of time preparing their research results for publication and presenting at meetings- and applying for grants and other support to fund future research projects.

If you are a student now and are interested in science or passionate about conservation, it’s always a good idea to start thinking about what kind of job you would like to have. Find out about the people doing that job now- did the go to graduate school? What sorts of topics did they study? If you do think graduate school sounds great, start talking to graduate students. If you are in college, your TAs are a great resource. Most of us are more than happy to chat about our path to graduate school. Find out what they majored in, what kinds of internships and jobs they had before becoming a grad student. It is also a great idea to start getting research experience.

Graduate students Erin and Stacey
weigh a pronghorn fawn

As you gain experience you will also figure out what you like (and don’t like!) and this will help guide your decisions about grad school or career paths. Do you love working in a lab? On a computer? In the field? There are so many different options, the more you know about yourself the easier it will be to navigate them. Also, getting experience is a big advantage in applying for MORE experience- and often cooler opportunities! Again, if you are in college there are often opportunities to assist a professor or grad student with their research, sometimes for course credit. Many schools offer field biology quarters, which are much more hands on than traditional lab courses. Search the web for job boards in a field you are interested in and browse them regularly. Even if you aren’t qualified or ready to look for a job yet, it’s a great way to find out what is out there. There are also often posts for seasonal field assistants. Some of these are unpaid, but it can be a great way to get some experience. I spent a summer helping catch pronghorn fawns on the National Bison Range in Montana. I lived in a 1 bedroom cabin with 5 other people and slept on the floor for a month and a half- but I spent my days in a gorgeous place with fascinating animals. This certainly doesn’t appeal to everyone, but if it does to you, it’s amazing.

It’s never an easy process figuring out what you want to do when you grow up, but you can be in a much better position to make those decisions with a little more knowledge of what is available! I took 3 years between my Masters and beginning my Ph.D. to really figure out what I wanted to do. There’s nothing that says you need to know right now where you want to go, and there is always a way to change your course if you find something new you love. Graduate school- and research biology- is not an easy path to take. But if you love what you are doing, it is totally worth it.

Up All Night with Pocket Mice

Summer has flown by but here's a taste of what I've been doing in the field since May- a new blog post for the San Diego Zoo about some of my research with Pacific pocket mice!

http://blogs.sandiegozoo.org/2013/08/21/up-all-night-with-pocket-mice/

Giant Anteaters and So Much Joy

Ever since I learned about baby giant anteaters riding around on their moms' back, I've been obsessed with seeing one. Since I was out in the jungle in Nicaragua when this happened, I contented myself with imagining what it would look like. When I came back to the wonderful world of youtube, I immediately started watching videos. It was even better than I expected! I also discovered a video of a baby anteater from the Santa Ana Zoo, which is about an hour south of LA, or roughly between LA and Oceanside, where I live during the summer and my field season. I've been scheming to visit, calculating how old the baby is (they ride on the mom's back until they are about 10 months old) to make sure I could see some awesome animal stacking in action. Luckily, the little guy was born in November(ish), so I figured he would be about 8 months old in June. Plenty young to still get piggy back rides. Right?

Anteater "baby". Almost the same size as the adults, seemingly way too large to be carried.

We arrived at the zoo and made a beeline for the anteaters. When we got to their exhibit, I was so disappointed to see how big the baby was. He was practically the same size as his mom! They were each walking around on their own, and I thought for sure we had missed the opportunity to see them stack. They were still awesome, and I was still happy, though it wasn't "the greatest thing ever". 

After a lunch break and checking out some other animals we stopped by the anteaters again. Still both standing on their own, but now the baby was following mom around. They went out of sight for a few minutes, and we heard what sounded like a frustrated squeal. Was he trying to get a ride?! I waited with anticipation to see them return. And- OHMYGOODNESS!!! This ridiculous lumbering baby had convinced her to carry him around. And it was THE GREATEST THING EVER. 

(I was quite overcome with excitement. These photos were taken by Dave, who was a great sport and also enjoyed watching them for about an hour).

Channel Islands

The Central Coast of California is slowly becoming my go-to weekend travel destination, and one of my favorite places on earth. I can’t believe, as a native Californian, it has taken me this long to discover and appreciate this spectacular area, and all the incredible wildlife it has to offer! Dave and I drove up to Ventura and took the ferry over to Santa Cruz Island, which is part of the Channel Islands National Park. This is America’s least visited National Park, probably because it is quite pricey ($80 for the ferry! Yikes!) to get out there. About 20 miles off the coast, the ferry took an hour and we lucked out that it wasn’t too choppy because I am unfortunately prone to getting seasick. On our way out we passed a buoy with a GIANT Steller’s sea lion resting on it. This species is common up north- like Alaska north, and this is the very southern tip of its range. Apparently this individual hangs out on the buoy regularly, but it was a treat to get to see such an enormous fellow.

On the island there are no services- no cars, no bikes, just 25 campsites (which do have potable water and pit toilets! Luxurious!) and a handful of facilities for the rangers who live there.  The Channel Islands are home to an endangered species of fox found nowhere else- the Channel Island fox. Each island has its own unique subspecies, and I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of the Santa Cruz Island fox. I didn’t have to look far- these creatures have figured out that campers = food, and are like squirrels, running around campsites, jumping on picnic tables, and running away with any unattended food items. Heavy-duty lock boxes are provided at each picnic table, and when the foxes climbed on the table with us standing a few feet away during the middle of the day, we understood why.

The foxes are an endangered species success story. Descendants of mainland gray foxes, they have evolved on the islands for about 10,000 years with no natural predators and are quite small- the size of large house cats. Bald eagles have historically lived on the islands, though they only eat fish, seabirds, and carcasses; not live foxes.  Farming came to the islands, bringing with it DDT which began to wipe out bald eagles and non-native animals which were a food source for golden eagles, which could move in when their bald eagle competitors were declining. Golden eagles were also large enough that they easily preyed on the Island Foxes. By the late 1990’s there were only 80 foxes left on Santa Cruz Island. The National Park service and US Fish and Wildlife began an aggressive, multi-pronged approach to save the foxes.

Some of the remaining individuals were brought into a captive breeding program. The golden eagles were moved off the island and the native bald eagles were brought back in. Livestock were shipped off and the feral pigs were wiped out. Efforts continue to remove invasive plant species, such as fennel, which outcompete natives.  Foxes are now reproducing unassisted (as evidenced by the 3 baby foxes we saw! So cute!!) and are roaming the island. Of course, their interactions with campers (and human food) are not natural, but the park service makes sure to educate everyone who comes over on the ferry and make sure they are aware of the problem. It was amazing to see so many foxes!

Dave and I also went kayaking around the sea caves with Channel Island Outfitters, a great group that rents kayaks and organizes guided tours, which is what we did. Apparently the Channel Islands have the highest density of sea caves anywhere in the world! I certainly wouldn’t go into any of them without an expert who can judge the safety conditions- we got part way into one and backed out when our guide decided it was too sketchy to safely stay in. But it was amazing, going through arches and caves! There was one cave with a beach in the back they call Seal Beach, where harbor seals are often found resting. When we visited there were no animals on the beach, but two very curious young seals who swam right up and investigated us and our boats. They are so cute! We also so lots of sea lions, brown pelicans, and tons of cormorants. On the ferry back to the mainland we came across a pod of dolphins feeding on a huge school of bait fish- there were hundreds of dolphins around us, and they would come so close to the boat. What an incredible adventure, and so close to home!