First live observation of Swamp Rabbit Confirmed!

Hello Friends!
So this past week was a really good week! After finding the popular latrine log on the North San Gabriel River two weeks back, and placing my camera on it last week, we got two videos of it being used and one of those observations is backed up by one of the other cameras. Both observations have been confirmed and they represent the first live images of Swamp Rabbit that we have documented since we started our Nature Tracking project with Texas parks and Wildlife.
I collected some more fresh scat and my family continues to grumble about the growing quantity of vials in the freezer! Dr. Russell Pfau of Tarleton State University has a plan in place for some early December DNA analysis. We are hopeful of his success!

We managed to get a an American Woodcock on trail camera this week too!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35819286

We have been seeing a lot of cottontail rabbits in our nighttime images and those are just too impossible to determine species I think. Looking back at the three documented Swamp Rabbits I observed in 2018 and early 2019, the benefiting factors for identification were color images, or the fact that the animal was in the water at night and happy about it apparently.
I have been becoming more inclined to use another type of camera to achieve a night time color image. The flash necessary for this is one that would be visible to animals and because of this I would not leave set up for very much time. Hopefully it will be not much different than lightning experienced by animals and certainly the flash duration, at fractions of a second, are not capable of causing harm to eyes. Perhaps next month we may have something in the works regarding this.
Short of trapping animals and releasing, something I know nothing about, I can think of no other method worth trying for short term use and quick answers.
Until next time,
Cheers everybody! And Happy Thanksgiving.

Publicado el noviembre 21, 2019 12:58 MAÑANA por mikef451 mikef451

Observaciones

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Nutria de Río Norteamericana (Lontra canadensis)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Octubre 2019

Lugar

Texas, US (Google, OSM)

Descripción

North American River Otter
Riparian zone
Williamson, co
10/25/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Nutria de Río Norteamericana (Lontra canadensis)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Octubre 2019

Lugar

Texas, US (Google, OSM)

Descripción

North American River Otter
Riparian zone
Williamson, Co
10/25/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Conejos de Cola Blanca (Género Sylvilagus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Lugar

Texas, US (Google, OSM)

Descripción

Cottontail Rabbits
Riparian zone
Williamson, Co
11/2/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Conejo de Pantano (Sylvilagus aquaticus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Descripción

Swamp Rabbit Latrine log extensively used .
Riparian zone
North San Gabriel River
Georgetown, Tx
Williamson, Co
11/5/19

Etiquetas

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Conejos de Cola Blanca (Género Sylvilagus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Lugar

Texas, US (Google, OSM)

Descripción

Cottontail Rabbits
Williamson, Co
11/8/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Lince Americano (Lynx rufus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Lugar

Texas, US (Google, OSM)

Descripción

Bobcat
Williamson, Co
11/4/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Conejo de Pantano (Sylvilagus aquaticus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Descripción

Swamp Rabbit using latrine log. These four images are screen captures of the linked video. Log previously confirmed in another observation.
North San Gabriel River
Georgetown, Tx
Williamson, Co
11/10/19

Etiquetas

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Mapache (Procyon lotor)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Descripción

Common Raccoon
Riparian zone
Williamson, Co.
11/14/19

Fotos / Sonidos

Qué

Conejo de Pantano (Sylvilagus aquaticus)

Observ.

mikef451

Fecha

Noviembre 2019

Descripción

Swamp Rabbit on latrine log. Four screen capture images from linked video. Along with additional camera images. The infrared flash can be seen triggering at the end of the video. The animal can not see these.
Riparian zone
North San Gabriel River
Williamson, Co
11/16/19

Etiquetas

Comentarios

Mike,
Are they unusual in this area? Looking at the range map it does look like Williamson and Travis Counties are on the Western boundary.

Beth

Publicado por bethd hace más de 4 años

They Used to be here in Wilco in good numbers but they were recently added to TPWD's SGCN list. I'm not sure if that is to habitat loss/ developement or what. That is why I chose them over River Otter which has slightly more observations here than Swamp rabbit. I just felt that Swamp Rabbit needed more attention. I do not believe that River Otter is on TPWD's list of SGCN. Inaturalist has a (Natureserv) reference of S3 for River Otter but a look at Natureservs website has it at S5 and G5. It is something that is on my list of things to question Dr. Tania Homayoun who is in charge of the Nature trackers project.

Thanks Beth

Publicado por mikef451 hace más de 4 años

Hi Mike, I might have seen them when I was walking my dog at night....in one small section of Brushy Creek Regional Trail.

Publicado por pufferchung hace más de 4 años

Thanks Michelle! Is that near the trail head under 183 bridge area? I may go have a look. I live close to Brushy Creek but in Round Rock.

Publicado por mikef451 hace más de 4 años

It’s further down toward the sport complex. Sorry my sense of direction is really bad. I know there is a huge empty field on the right, and brushy creek is on my left...and regional trail splitting into two separate trails. One goes into a neighborhood, the other one goes to Brushy Lake Park. There are a lot of rabbits between the trail and creek. My dog always go crazy In that areas and often tried to chase those rabbits. They live by the creek, at least 4-5 of them. I looked at the satellite picture from google map, and got a GPS address for that location. https://goo.gl/maps/T5CZGDiZxHsfMCBV7

Publicado por pufferchung hace más de 4 años

Thanks! I can find that area. I've been to the railroad trestle a couple times before but not west of it any.

Publicado por mikef451 hace más de 4 años

Holy moly! Just now seeing this -- AWESOME!!!! Spectacular! :)

Publicado por sambiology hace más de 4 años

Hi Mike:
I searched pictures of my old instagram story and found two cellphone pictures of rabbits that I saw in the Brushy Creek Lake park area. I am not sure if those two were swamp rabbits that you are looking for. Here are two links of the pictures.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/hZZho4NRzuSareCg6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RKukByuRQJRtM7DE8

Publicado por pufferchung hace más de 4 años

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