Category Archives: North Carolina

How did the flying squirrel cross the road?

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Photo: NC Wildlife Commission

Endangered Carolina northern flying squirrels can now safely cross the Cherohala Skyway in western North Carolina thanks to telephone-pole-like crossing structures. Before the poles were installed, in 2008, the squirrels did not cross the Skyway because the distance between the trees on either side of the road exceeded their gliding ability. The northern flying squirrel populations on each side of the roadway did not interbreed.

The squirrels’ use of the poles has been documented with video cameras mounted on the pole tops.

The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission hopes to allow trees to grow closer to the Skyway, which will allow them to eventually remove the poles.

More details, and a video, are available from the Commission’s press release.

WNS in North Carolina

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US Fish and Wildlife Service map

Six bats have tested positive for white nose syndrome in North Carolina, according to that state’s Wildlife Resources Commission. Many bats appeared to have the syndrome when researchers surveyed the closed Avery County mine on Feb. 1. Five bats there were collected for testing. One dead bat was found in a cave at Grandfather Mountain State Park, also during a bat inventory, this one in late January.

Read the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission press release here.

Go here for a link to the US Fish and Wildlife Service map of White Nose Syndrome occurrences. (Map is on the bottom of page, right-hand side.)

Shrew in a bottle

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North Carolina researchers found vertebrate remains in 4.5 percent of the open bottles they found on roadsides. The researchers recovered the remains of 553 small mammals, including five species of shrew and six species of rodent. They suggest that such an examination of roadside trash can be a way of surveying shrews without causing additional deaths in pit falls or snap traps. It’s also pretty good testament to the benefits of bottle refund laws.

According to the authors’ citations, the idea of using discarded bottles to survey the abundance of shrews goes back to at least 1966.

The study appeared in Southeastern Naturalist. Read more.