What is it like to start a research project? Hopefully, you can find out along with me as I begin my doctorate studies at UCLA and learn about the endangered Pacific pocket mouse here in Southern California. I haven’t even met a Pacific pocket mouse yet (PPM) but have been reading a lot of scientific articles written by people who have studied them. I will start fieldwork this coming summer. It would be hard to see any PPMs right now anyway, because they hibernate in their burrows during the winter, so it is a good time for me to do a lot of background reading!
There are only three known populations of PPMs left, and San Diego Zoo Global is starting a managed-care breeding program in 2012 to raise enough individuals for a reintroduction the following year. A reintroduction moves captive-bred animals to areas of habitat they have historically lived in, while a translocation moves wild-caught animals to other areas of their historic range. Usually translocations are more successful, but there just aren’t enough PPMs to move!
There are a lot of factors that have to be considered in either a translocation or a reintroduction. A suitable habitat must provide food, water, and shelter, and predator control can result in higher survival rates and reproductive success (see post Mountain Lions Help Kangaroo Rats?). I am going to be looking at things from a slightly different angle: what effects competitors have on a reintroduction. Pacific pocket mice share their habitat with three other small rodents, and I am going to be studying competition between PPMs and these other species to see how they make it work when they all live in the same area.
The flip side of this is looking at habitat where PPMs could live (but don’t) and studying competitors in these environments to figure out how we can make it easier for PPMs to move in. This will help when we are designing the reintroduction plans for PPMs, and we should learn a lot along the way! Stay tuned for lots more on PPMs and what it is like to be starting a career in conservation research!
Rachel Chock is a doctoral student at the University of California, Los Angeles, and is working with Debra Shier, Ph.D., from the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research.
