In this episode of the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast, you’ll find out what work is happening for wildlife in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, talk about climate change and wildlife adaptation with Chris Hoving, and hear listener questions answered during the mailbag segment. The episode wraps up with a discussion about avoiding nuisance skunk issues.
Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD). You can also email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov, and even send your question as a sound file that you record on your phone to be played on the air!
Episode Hosts: Holly Vaughn, Hannah Schauer and Rachel Leightner
Producer: Eric Hilliard
Around the State Guest: Bill Scullon
Main Interview Guest(s): Chris Hoving
Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD) or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.
In this episode of the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast, you’ll find out what work is happening for wildlife in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, talk about climate change and wildlife adaptation with Chris Hoving, and hear listener questions answered during the mailbag segment. The episode wraps up with a discussion about avoiding nuisance skunk issues.
Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD). You can also email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov, and even send your question as a sound file that you record on your phone to be played on the air!
Episode Hosts: Holly Vaughn, Hannah Schauer and Rachel Leightner
Producer: Eric Hilliard
Around the State Guest: Bill Scullon
Main Interview Guest(s): Chris Hoving
Questions or comments about the show? Contact the DNR Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 (WILD) or email dnr-wildlife@michigan.gov.
Announcer:
You know what that sound means. It's time for the Michigan DNR's Wildtalk Podcast. Welcome to the Wildtalk Podcast where representatives from the DNR's Wildlife Division chew the fat and shoot the scat about all things habitat, brothers in fur. With insights, interviews and your questions answered on the air, you'll get a better picture of what's happening in the world of wildlife here in the great state of Michigan.
Hannah:
Welcome to Wildtalk. I'm your host, Hannah Schauer, and with me today is the wonderful Rachel Leitner.
Rachel:
We got a good episode today. Holly Vaughn is going to be back with us joining Hannah to talk to Chris Hoving about climate change and how it impacts Michigan's wildlife. Then, later in the show, we'll be answering some of your questions from your mailbag and, sometime during the episode, we'll be revealing the winners of our Wildtalk Podcast camp mugs and you can find out how to win one too.
Hannah:
We'll also be chatting with Bill Scullon to hear about the happenings in the Upper Peninsula, but before we get into those updates let's start things off by shining our wildlife spotlight on the trumpeter swam. Trumpeter swans are gorgeous large white birds. In fact, they are the largest native waterfowl species, coming in at a length of about six feet long and weighing over 25 pounds.
Rachel:
Yeah, it is an enormous bird.
Hannah:
Yes, they're quite sizeable.
Rachel:
So these large birds, they prefer to nest on shallower inland wetlands, ponds, lakes, where they often build nests on small inland islands or top of muskrat houses and beaver lodges. They prefer undisturbed bodies of water with plenty of aquatic plants for eating. They also need a fair amount of open water that provides enough space for takeoff. I think it takes them quite a while to get their big bodies off of the body and up into the air.
Hannah:
Yup, yup, just like with airplanes. I think the bigger the airplane, the longer the takeoff space you need. Same thing with birds, I would imagine. Now, trumpeter swans primarily feed on vegetation, including sedges, rushes, pond weeds and wild rice, but they will also occasionally eat small fish, or fish eggs or aquatic insects.
Rachel:
These swans tend to form a pair bond and typically stay with their mate for most of their life. Now, that pair often uses the same nest site each year and has a clutch of four to six eggs.
Hannah:
Trumpeter swans will build their nests between late-March and early-May, and trumpeter swans are very sensitive to human disturbance as their nests sites, so if you do know of a nesting pair in your area, please give them plenty of space.
Rachel:
This species is making a comeback from being close to extinction throughout its ranges in the United States, and are also expanding their numbers in Michigan. However, they are still listed as a threatened species here in our state.
Hannah:
Now, one threat to recovery of this majestic bird is the invasive mute swan. Mute swans are particularly aggressive and will occupy nesting habitats and drive out native species like the trumpeter swan. Additionally, things like habitat loss and lead poisoning can impact the population as well.
Rachel:
We'll also mention the easiest way to tell the trumpeter swan from the mute swan is the adult trumpeter swans have an all-black bill, whereas the adult mute swans have an orange bill and they often hold their neck with more of a curve. So I actually just saw my first pair of trumpeter swans flying ahead and I heard them before I saw them, so they were flying about 30 feet above me.
Rachel:
I was in a wetland and I heard the most unusual whirling sound and it was their wings. You could hear their wings flapping, and I'm assuming because they're such large, heavy birds you can hear the winds moving through their winds. But it was like this weird whistling and then they came into view and, sure enough, the trumpeter swan gets its name from the incredible sound that it makes. It literally sounded like a trumpet, which was fascinating. They're such cool birds to see.
Hannah:
Well, folks, don't fly away. Next up we'll be chatting with Bill Scullon.
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Hannah:
Welcome back to Wildtalk. Bill Scullon, the Acting Upper Peninsula Regional Manager, is here today to chat about the happenings in the UP. Welcome back to the show, Bill.
Bill:
Glad to be here, thank you.
Hannah:
All right, so we're going to dive right in and I'm curious, what you would say the biggest accomplishment that the Upper Peninsula region has tackled this past quarter?
Bill:
Well, this is one of those things where there's a lot of things that have happened, and some of them aren't real glamorous, but they're really important to how we do business and, more importantly, what the public gets out of it in the long run. Probably the most important thing that we've done is wrap up our compartment review process for the year. All of our biologists and technicians are involved in this across the region and all the state forest lands in the entire state of Michigan are reviewed on a 10-year rotating basis.
Bill:
So every year we look at 10% of the forest landscape out there and we co-manage the forests with Forest Management Division, so our staff are out there with the foresters looking at timber stands, looking at habitat conditions and making prescriptions for that land. Then they go through a public vetting process, the public review process, and that typically culminates with our public meetings we have in the late-Fall for each of the state forests out there. Then the new cycle starts ado, so we've just wrapped up the one cycle, the year of entry, and now we're starting a new cycle, so that means the staff will, again, be looking at forests again on the landscape.
Bill:
But that determines what happens in the state forests, those timber sales that the public sees, the habitat products that the public sees, all the management activities that are out there, they're being done over the next few years, are driven by this process. It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, but it's one of those things that drives the entire system. So it's not the most glamorous things in the world, but it is really integral to everything we do and the things we produce for the public.
Hannah:
Sounds like quite a heavy lift for our staff.
Bill:
Yeah, it is, but it's one also one of those things where you get to be out in the woods and you get to see what's happening on the ground. That really gives them the basis for making really good decisions and working together and sharing values between the foresters and the biologists and working at it collectively. It makes a big difference. And getting really good input from the public too. So it's a good process. Everybody likes it, it's a never ending process too about the same thing, so yeah.
Hannah:
So besides continuing with the next round of compartment reviews, what would you say the biggest project is that you have looming on the horizon for the Upper Peninsula?
Bill:
Well, we have a budget things. We just got off of deer season and getting through CWD surveillance and fur bear check. It's really important for staff in that process to just maintain connections with the public and, as we go forward, it's the same thing. We know it's a struggle for staff, just like it is for private citizens, with closures and COVID mitigation measures and all those things. Our staff continuously try to make sure that we connect where we can and how best we can with the public on whatever issues they have.
Bill:
That's one of the things we work on on a daily basis, but right we're into the January season, our winter season, and our staff are actively all engaged out in our annual winter track survey we do for wolves. So that's something that goes on until the snow melts, so there's a lot of time involved in that.
Bill:
We also have a deer winter complex survey what we do, typically from the road or snowmobile where people are out looking at deer usage patterns, so there's a lot of time spent in the field with those two big surveys. So those are some of the big things we're working on.
Bill:
This is also the prep time for all the summer habitat work that goes out. Again, this is not really glorious, but people spend a lot of time working on bids for opening work, or whatever. We have a lot of state wildlife grant work we're doing this year, which is kind of new for us. It's a new funding source for us at the scale we're working in.
Bill:
We're looking at some projects that are also out of our normal envelop a little bit, working with black terns at Portage Marsh. We know some nesting platforms for black terns that have recolonized that near, that's near Escanaba. Looking at doing some new work with sharp-tailed grouse in different areas of the Upper Peninsula where sharp-tailed grouse are found.
Bill:
So there's a lot of cool new work that's occurring, but now is the time we plan for that work to get all the logistics lined up. When they have those seven degrees below zero days, that's a good day to spend working on that kind of work, and we've had a fair amount of those lately.
Hannah:
I'm glad folks are staying warm and getting those plans ready for all the summer work that's going to be happening. Now, I know we have a lot of great contributions that our staff put forward for wildlife in Michigan in general. Would you be willing to highlight some that your staff may have made this past quarter?
Bill:
Yeah, we have a couple of really neat things to talk about. The first comes out of our Newberry office, where [Jean Rohr 00:09:57], our wildlife technician there, and [Kristie 00:09:59] [inaudible 00:09:59], our biologist there, came up with a new program, they call it Spotlight on Youth in the Outdoors. For them, they went out and they were trying to figure out a way to engage local youth about their interest level in the outdoors.
Bill:
This helps us also understand what people's interests are in recreation, broader recreation, not just traditional hunting, trapping, fishing. So what they did is they came up with a program where they solicited stories, basically, from area youth, photos, stories, interest level, and then they got sponsors from different local conservation clubs and other groups to have some awards, some sponsor prizes. They give open access, things like that to these folks.
Bill:
They ended up with interest from at last 25 local individuals. It really helps us help us reach out to them, develop a connection so we could help them on their conservation stewardship pass, there's these young people, but also learn from them too. What are their interests? Because demographics change over time and it helps us provide a few more insights on what do they want us to produce for them from the state forests and other recreation that we provide?
Bill:
So that was a really cool program. It's a neat thing to see it take root the first year. Then also, one of our own, [Colter Lubin 00:11:14], who's our technician in Escanaba, he was recognized by The National Wild Turkey Federation as their conservation partner of the year in the state of Michigan, which is a really cool recognition. He'll be receiving that award in recognition on the 15th of this month at their annual statewide banquet and it's because Colter's done a tremendous amount of work in Menominee County and Delta counties working on turkey habitat projects, in particular.
Bill:
He's done some significant large opening complexes where he has created them and managed them. We're talking 70 to 100 acre complexes that benefit a whole host of wildlife species, not only turkeys. The public utilize them pretty heavily. He's put a lot of work into that.
Bill:
Also, Colter's worked extensively with what's called the Wheelin' Sportsmen. This is a local group. It's affiliated with Turkey Federation and some other conservation groups in the UP. They have specialized trailers and equipment where someone who has mobility challenged can get out, be afield, and they have mobility able weapons for them to use. So he goes out with them, helps set those things up, guides, in some cases.
Bill:
Also, he films these adventures as well for the individuals. Whether they shoot a bear, or turkey or a deer or just be out afield observing, and those have lasting impacts on people's lives. I mean, they're a very personal adventure and for those families, especially for folks have critical diseases. Someone passed already, but those have been life-changing moments and it's really important to see him recognized for that really, really impactful work that he does with that group.
Hannah:
Very impressive contributions from our staff. We really appreciate you taking the time to share those with us and to talk a little bit about the other work that's been in happening in the Upper Peninsula, so thanks again for joining us today, Bill. For our listeners, stick around. Next up we'll be talking with Chris Hoving about climate change and how it impacts wildlife.
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Hannah:
Welcome back to Wildtalk. Joining Holly and I today to talk about climate change and its impacts to wildlife, is Chris Hoving, Wildlife Division's Adaptation Specialist. Welcome, Chris.
Chris:
Thank you.
Hannah:
Chris, can you tell us a little bit about your role with the division and how you got interested in climate change?
Chris:
Sure, so my role in the division is Adaptation Specialist, so I work on sort of do future scanning, looking out at the horizon, what are things that are changing, what are threats to wildlife that we might not be thinking about, or things that we're thinking about and we just don't know how to adapt. Climate change is one of the big ones that I deal with. I sit on several committees at the regional and national level on climate change issues surrounding wildlife.
Chris:
I got into this actually back when I was a field biologist working in Southwest Michigan. I had noticed certain impacts to some of the species that we were managing, both grassland birds, we were seeing some birds that we hadn't seen before, and also some of the pollinators, like insects and butterflies were having declines because of the weather. But it seemed to be different than what we had experienced and I did a little research and sent a memo to my superior and, as you know when you show interest in something or you point out a problem, often folks will say, "Hey, why don't you go solve that problem?"
Chris:
And so, over time, I got tasked with more and more climate change work and then, about 10 years ago, we did a strategic planning exercise and went out and asked all of our partners, we said, "What are the things that we're not doing as an agency and what are we doing right?" We heard a lot about what we were doing right.
Chris:
The three things that they said you're not doing, one was, "You don't have a outreach and education team." We didn't have things like these podcasts at that time. We didn't have a invasive species program and we didn't have a climate change program, and so that's when we started this program. It was really based off of that outreach.
Holly:
For those that may not know, can you give us broad strokes overview definition of what climate change is?
Chris:
Sure, so we all know what weather is. It's what you're experiencing, the rain, the snow, mostly snow these days, the temperatures, the wind, all of those sorts of things are the weather. Climate is really just the long-term average and variability on those. Often it's measured over a 30-year period, sometime it's measured over a decade, over 10-year periods, but it's some long-term measurement of the weather. That's really all climate is.
Chris:
Then climate change is when you look at really long time periods and you start to detect that there are changes, the 30 years from 1950 to 1980 are cooler than from 1990 to now. That's all that climate change is.
Holly:
All right, so looking at those long-term trends, how is the climate changing in Michigan and what difference might people notice or not notice?
Chris:
Right, yeah. Yeah, I mean we could-
Holly:
[crosstalk 00:17:11] it's changed.
Chris:
We tend to notice the weather. It's a lot harder to notice how a 30-year average is changing. I'm old, but I'm not that old to really grasp those changes. When people think about climate change, they often think about the globe, the whole planet warming, but none of really experienced that. What we're experiencing is where we live.'
Chris:
Here, in Michigan, we've had about one degree warming Centigrade, about two degrees warming Fahrenheit, so we're warming at about twice the rate of the rest of the world. That's just due to where we are latitude. Most of the warming is happening further north.
Chris:
The other thing, probably the bigger deal here in Michigan, is changes in precipitation. We're seeing less snow, unless you live in lake-effect areas. The lake-effect areas are getting just as much snow as they always have. It's an interesting thing because what's happening is the lakes are warming up, so there's less ice, and because there's less ice, there's more evaporation and so you get more lake-effect snow. So even though everybody's getting less snow, the folks in the lake-effect area are getting more snow and it averages out, so they're still getting a lot of snow.
Chris:
Then we're getting a lot more heavy rainfalls, the really gully washers, the ones that end up flooding highways in Detroit or flooding my basement. Every time there's a two or three inch rain event, I know that it was that much because I start getting water in my basement. Have to get out the pump and clean it out.
Chris:
Those are definitely happening. We have really good evidence those are happening about 60% more often than they were just a couple of decades ago.
Holly:
Absolutely. I can attest to that. I live here in Southeast Michigan and we've had several storms in the last six to eight years with, just like you said, closing down highways and man, just crazy flood basements. So, yeah. That's definitely happening. And also, we don't really see snow down here like we used to.
Chris:
Not like we used to, definitely not.
Holly:
So how do these changes, like more precipitation, per se, how do those impact wildlife?
Chris:
I talked about some of the impacts earlier with seeing new birds that we haven't seen before. We're also seeing some turtles that weren't originally in Michigan. Red-eared sliders are now found in Southern Michigan. They weren't found here before. So we're seeing some species move north.
Chris:
An interesting one that many people don't realize is that the possum is really sensitive to cold and it was only found in far Southern Michigan, historically. Now we've got them, because it's warmed up and they can survive in the winter, we have them all the way up into the UP now, so that's something where that species has expanded its range.
Chris:
Another thing we're starting to see is waterfowl migrating later. They're triggered to migrate by how much ice and snow they're seeing up in Canada where they're spending the summer. When it gets to be too much, that's when they come south and they're getting that trigger later and so they're coming south later and they're often not going as far as south. They don't get as many waterfowl all the way down to the Gulf Coast.
Chris:
It's probably not a bad thing for us, as long as we adjust our seasons a little bit. We'll see more waterfowl. It would stink for the people down in Mississippi, though. I had mentioned how less lake ice means more lake-effect? In the UP that's good news for things like snowshoe hare and moose, not so good news for things like deer that have trouble moving around when you get too much snow.
Chris:
Then one of the biggest issues we're seeing here in Southern Michigan is we have a big wetlands on a lot of state lands, our waterfowl managed areas, and they're kept wetlands with berms and dikes and pumps and there's all this infrastructure that keeps this wet and allows us to manage the water tables in ways that don't screw up the crops and the surrounding farmers' lands.
Chris:
But as we get these bigger rain events, we're seeing more and more flooding, more and more damage to those and then we have to repair them. That gets to be a cost to us just to maintain that wildlife habitat, and so that's something that we're seeing a lot of and we're having to engineer those things and rethink how and where we manage for water on the landscape.
Holly:
Is there any concern about asynchrony of insect caches and bird migration? Are we seeing any of those things occurring in Michigan?
Chris:
Yes, we're definitely seeing ... What that's often called, the technical term for that is phenological mismatch, but as you mentioned it's really just the timing is different. So what triggers insects to hatch is really how warm it is right now where they're at. And so if we get some warm days in the spring, certain insects are going to hatch.
Chris:
What triggers birds to migrate, especially the long distance migrants, that is more about day length and what season it is. So they come back to the same spot at the same time year after year. If it's warming, they might miss a key hatch of insects. We have seen some of that here in Michigan. It's definitely a concern.
Chris:
We're also seeing that play out not just with birds, but with other insects and other things that rely on insects, so bats, for instance. The timing of hatches, how many insects are available. One thing we are seeing as a global thing is that there are just fewer insects on the landscape. Climate change is one of those drivers, also land use change and the use of pesticides, and so on and so forth.
Holly:
What is the DNR doing or how are we responding to the issue of climate change?
Chris:
Well, part of what we're doing is tracking where different animals are and keeping track of what's going on in these areas. We'll use things like eBird or iNaturalist and the data that's collected through citizen science, and we'll use that to see how is migration changing? Are we seeing new birds, new turtles, for example? That helps us know what wildlife it is that we're managing.
Chris:
We're also adapting what we do for wildlife. I had mentioned waterfowl migrating at different times and we don't get to set the dates for waterfowl just ourselves, it's actually a cooperative thing with other states and the Fish and Wildlife Service. But they look at climate change and change the dates slightly so that the timing of the waterfowl migration isn't completely out of sync with the hunting seasons.
Chris:
Then we're also right now doing a systematic check of all of our water control infrastructure, all those dams, and dikes, and gates and pumps, especially in the northern part of the state. We have a surprisingly large amount of that infrastructure up there and we're going through and systematically looking to see are things damaged? Do they need to be repaired? Are they still providing the wildlife benefit that they used to be or can we maybe remove them and rely on beavers, which weren't on the landscape when we were building a lot of these things? We're doing a strategic analysis to try to right-size our wetland management, given this big change that we're seeing in flooding regimes.
Holly:
Have there been any models or any predictive work that we've done to look at what species might be impacted the most or which ones might be able to adapt? Has any of that work been done too?
Chris:
Yup. Yeah, that work was done ... I mean, it's ongoing tracking what research is being done in the scientific community, but we did our own analysis internally, in partnership with the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, and looked at all of the game species that we manage and all of the non-game species that we manage, all the wildlife action plan species. Ended up being about 500 species.
Chris:
We used a tool developed by NatureServe to look at each species and rank it on 27 different criteria of ways it might be sensitive to climate. Then that gave us a sense of which species are going to be most vulnerable, which species are going to be last vulnerable and then, because we had those 27 factors, we could also turn it around and say, "What kinds of climate threats are affecting the most species?"
Chris:
And so what we found was about 40% of our game species have some vulnerability to climate change, and think species like snowshoe hare, deer, waterfowl, and then about 60% of our species of various conservation need, our action plan species. About 60% of those were also vulnerable to climate change.
Chris:
The big drivers for that were changes in hydrology, and so it really is that increase in precipitation. Temperature was more of a minor threat to our species. It was really all about water and wetlands here in Michigan.
Holly:
So, thinking about climate change, is there anything listeners can do to maybe either to help wildlife adapt to climate change or to help, I don't know? I don't know if we can prevent it at this point, but is there anything we can do to lessen the impact of climate change?
Chris:
Yeah, it's a difficult one because people often feel like there's nothing that ... "What can I do?" There's seven billion people on the planet that share responsibility for this issue and you're only going to have 1/7 billionth of a affect in that sense. There are some things you can do for wildlife, though, that would be effective. I recommend two things that most people can do.
Chris:
One of them is helping us, and just helping you, know what is in your area. A lot of people can only name five to 10 wildlife species that live around them in their neighborhood and nearby parks. But there are probably hundreds of species out there, and so using something ...
Chris:
I got into using an app this summer called Seek, S-E-E-K. It's developed with iNaturalist and it's a great little thing. You just point the phone camera at something with the Seek app open and it tells you, now always, but usually tells you what species it is. It's just a good way. Then you can send those to iNaturalist and that helps us know which species are where on the landscape. That's going to be useful for managing wildlife in a changing climate because it's going to be dynamic, it's going to be changing.
Chris:
The other thing that I often recommend to people is to either let a corner of their property go wild, just stop mowing, stop doing anything to it. Not the whole property because then you get citations for weed ordinance and things like that. Don't want to do that. But a little part of it, especially if you plant a little garden around the front of it, that's a good way to provide some wildlife habitat and it creates stepping stones through the urban landscape for a surprising number of species; migratory birds, small mammals, all of your insects and pollinators.
Chris:
The other thing you can do if you don't want, or can't, leave something wild is just planting a small, or large, native plant garden. That's going to have that same effect. Those are two things that ... Possums can move across the landscape really easily, but it's harder if you're a butterfly or something. You need to have those stopping points where there's nectar available, so that's something that's really helpful.
Holly:
Are there any additional resources or where could people go to learn more or find more information on climate change and wildlife?
Chris:
There are a couple of different places to go for that information. If you're looking for information on climate change in particular, like how is the climate changing or what is climate change, a good one online is what's called the Great Lakes Integrated Science and Assessment, or GLISA. It's like the name Lisa with a G on the front. I mean, just look that up online.
Chris:
But they're part of NOAA, so they're part of a federal agency, but they're run through Michigan state and University of Michigan and so they have good local information. They take all of that difficult climate science and boil it down to something that everyone can understand, so I definitely recommend. If you're just interested in the climate part, that's a good one.
Chris:
Probably the place that I go for information on wildlife and what you can do as far as wildlife management, would be the Northern Institute of Applied Climate Science. They've done a lot of work of trying to translate all of this climate adaptation literature and science into something that managers and everybody else can use to figure out what would be a good tree to plant now in my neighborhood? What's going to thrive over the next 200 years? It might be different than what is growing here right now, for example. They've got tree lists and things like that on their website.
Chris:
I guess the last place that I'd look, because it's got really good information, is the National Climate Assessment. You can look that up. It's redone very five years and they take a scan of all of the climate change information across all the science that's been done in the last five years, and then boil it down into a document that's pretty easy to understand. That's where I go when I'm hearing stuff that I'm like, "Is that good science? Is that solid?" I want to go to someplace where it's really been vetted really well. The National Climate Assessment is vetted through universities and so it's something that I trust.
Holly:
Well, Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate your insights into the complex topic of climate change, so thanks for being here.
Chris:
Yeah, my pleasure. Any time.
Holly:
Next up, Hannah and Rachel will be answering your questions from the mailbag.
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Hannah:
Welcome back to Wildtalk. Now, let's dig into the mailbag and answer some of your questions.
Announcer:
One, two, three.
Hannah:
So I got message from Greg asking if colony traps can be used for muskrats and, if so, what the requirements are for the trap. Yes, you can use multiple catch or colony traps for taking muskrats, provided that the trap is completely submerged. Colony traps must be constructed of steel and be no longer than eight inches high, eight inches wide and 36 inches deep.
Hannah:
For additional information and requirements, please see, "Can I Use a Colony Trap?" on page 30 of the Fur Harvester Digest. You can find other trapping equipment regulations, including trap tagging requirements, on pages 29 through 32. The Fur Harvester Digest is available at Michigan.gov/trapping.
Rachel:
I got a question from Audrey. She's wondering about spring turkey season. She asked when the spring turkey season drawing results will be available, so when she'll find out if she was drawn for a spring turkey license.
Rachel:
The final day to apply for a spring turkey license is actually today, February 1st, so if you haven't applied yet, you still have some time. Then those drawing results will be posted next month on March 7th. Those results will be available online at Michigan.gov/turkey. Now, depending on the area and the time of year you want to hunt, an application may not be necessary. However, there are some select areas that do still require an application and will likely not have any leftover licenses available for you to purchase.
Rachel:
So, spring turkey season, it's a great time. You get to get out in the early spring, experience some of the first hunting seasons of the years. If you're interested at all, we would recommend you at least check out the season dates and license types. You can find those in the 2022 Spring Turkey Digest.
Hannah:
Got one more. William is wondering if it is true that you don't need a small game license when hunting on your private land. This is false. All hunters are required to have a base license, even when hunting on private land. A base license is valid for hunting small game and additional licenses are required to hunt other species.
Hannah:
Now, you can learn more about the base license in the Hunting Digest on page nine. You can also find Michigan hunting and fishing license information at Michigan.gov/hunting.
Rachel:
All right, we're going to zip this segment to a close. Remember, if you have questions about wildlife or hunting you can call 517-284-WILD, you can email DNR-Wildlife@Michigan.gov and your questions could be featured on the mailbag.
Hannah:
All right, now is your opportunity to win a Wildtalk Podcast mug. As a thank you to our listeners, we'll be giving away a mug or two every episode.
Rachel:
Our January mug winners are Nolan [Rupp 00:35:44] and Steve Santoro. Check your emails. We'll be getting in touch with you soon. They answered the question: what Michigan animal will eat their own poop to have a second chance to absorb nutrients? And there was a two-part question. If you know, what is the term used for this behavior?
Rachel:
So the animal that eat their own poop to have a second chance to absorb nutrient is the cottontail rabbit and the snowshoe hare. That behavior is called coprophagy. Interesting tidbit all around.
Hannah:
All right. Congratulations to Nolan and Steve. Now, to be entered into the drawing this month, test your wildlife knowledge and answer our wildlife quiz question: what is a group of owls called?
Rachel:
Well, email your name and answer to us at DNR-Wildlife@Michigan.gov to be entered for a chance to win a mug. Be sure to include the subject line as, "Mug Me," and submit your answers by February 15th. We will announce winners and the answer on next month's podcast, so be sure to listen in to see if you've won and for the next quiz question.
Hannah:
Good luck. Now, back to the show. (silence)
Hannah:
Well, we're ending this episode on a stinky note and we're going to be chatting a bit about skunks.
Rachel:
Yes, we are.
Hannah:
Now, most people know of skunks because of their strong musky smell and, if you have skunks around, you might notice a skunky smell in the air in the coming months as spring approaches.
Rachel:
The smell of spring. Occasionally skunks where we'd prefer they didn't and sometimes they can cause damage by digging up lawns in search of grubs or other foods. Now, they may get into garbage, eat outdoor pet foods, grubs, bugs or anything else they deem edible. They may seek shelter and den under buildings, decks or woodpiles.
Hannah:
So, what can you do if a skunk is hanging around? First, look for those possible food sources. Skunks have a varied diet and will take advantage of most food sources, so remove things like bird feeders and pet food and ensure that garbage is securely tucked in an animal-proof container. Put garbage out the morning of garbage pickup rather than the night before.
Rachel:
And to prevent skunks or other animals from denning under your porch, place lattice up from the ground to the deck to keep the skunks, or lots of other critters, out. You can fence off these areas around the base of sheds and buildings to prevent skunks and other critters from digging underneath. If you have a brush or a woodpile, you might want to remove it before the skunk takes up residence.
Hannah:
Now, if you have pets, check the yard before letting the out, especially at night and especially if you've noticed skunk activity in the area. It's always good to make sure there are no skunks nearby that could potentially spray your pets. Now, speaking from experience, it is no fun for you or your dog, so just be mindful if you know there are skunks around when letting those pets outside. Just be cautious.
Rachel:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Now, every once in a while we will get a question about what to do about a skunk that got into a window well and find themselves unable to get out, and this happens with lots of other wildlife too. I know I've gotten a handful of calls from possums being stuck in window wells. For this scenario the best thing to do is to place a rough board into that well because that'll allow the animal to get enough grip to be able to climb out on their own.
Hannah:
Yeah, best to find a way to help them in a way that they can help themselves get out, rather than you putting yourself in a precarious situation.
Rachel:
Now, if you are in an area where hunting or trapping is allowed, skunks can be taken year round if they are doing, or about to do damage to your property. You can also contact a nuisance animal control company for removal assistance.
Hannah:
Yup. You can find this information, as well as other tips and tricks, at Michigan.gov/wildlife, can also find contact lists for those nuisance animal control businesses as well.
Hannah:
Well folks, thanks for joining us this episode. We'll see you back here in March.
Announcer:
This has been the Wildtalk Podcast, your monthly podcast airing the first of each month and offering insights into the world of wildlife across the state of Michigan. You can reach the Wildlife Division at 517-284-9453 or DNR-Wildlife@Michigan.gov. (singing)