Thesis Stuff

The Distribution and Abundance of Feral Hogs (Sus scrofa) on Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

Within the past two years, there has been an explosion of feral hog activity at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge.  Getting a baseline of data and understanding the seasonal changes and habitat use of the feral hog is important for maximizing management efforts.  In order to monitor the hogs across the refuge, thirty points were selected with certain criteria as locations for cameras. There are three different sets of variables for the thirty cameras.  The first variable is sign versus control.  Fifteen cameras are “sign” cameras, which were placed in areas where hogs were thought to be present due to rooting, wallowing, and scat.  The other fifteen cameras are labeled as control or random cameras and were placed on a transect line made by ArcGIS.  The second variable is bait versus no bait.  Out of these thirty cameras, using a random number generator, 15 cameras were chosen to have bait.  Seven of those cameras are “sign” cameras and eight are “random/control.”  The third variable is low versus high elevation.  It is thought that during the wet months there would be more pictures on cameras at high elevation than at low elevation. The trail cameras have been in the field since November 2012 and will be collected December 2013.  As of September, 63,125 images have been collected.  Out of the thirty cameras, twelve have had pictures of hogs.  The images are currently being sorted by camera, month, and species.  

*This is a small peak into what has consumed my time as of late.   This weekend my adviser is taking 4 SEMO graduate students to the Central Plains Society of Mammalogists meeting.  I am presenting a poster (above) and another student is giving a 15 minute presentation.  The paragraph is an abstract about my thesis topic.   

www.nomorevoices.com

Biologist

Humidity hair

Sweat soaked shirt

Rubber boots on

Muddy pants

Dirt under fingernails

Callused hands

Smelling like bugspray and sweat

Water is a necessity

A GPS at my side

This is my life

Church

Church

A political place

Filled with fakes

Who gather in the same place

Every Sunday morning

And listen to sermons

While thinking

This is for the sinner next to me

Where prayers are used

To keep the service flowing

Getting people on and off stage

Where there is never enough people

For child care and children’s church

At the same time

The younger generation of Christ followers

Is slowing dying off

This is the American Church…

Won’t you join us?

Pens and Pencils

Dear God,

I’ve given you the pen

To write my love story

It was easy giving it to you

Because I don’t like pens

Pens are too permanent

I prefer pencils

While you have been holding the pen

I have been holding onto my pencils

And I’ve found myself dreaming

Doodling and erasing 

Thinking, no damage has been done

Nothings permanent, it will erase

But I see now

That’s not the point

It’s not my life

But yours

It’s about waiting and trust

Not wanting and lust

So I will give you my pencils

With my doodles and dreams

And trust that you

Will write my love story

*Found this today. written 5/2/2011

Thoughts from Mingo

"I never liked jazz music because jazz music doesn't resolve.  But I was outside the Bagdad Theater in Portland on night when I saw a man playing the saxophone. I stood there for fifteen minutes, and he never opened his eyes.

After that I liked jazz music.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way."

That is one of my favorite quotes from Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz.
____________________________________________________________

This is how it relates to my life.  

"I never liked waterfowl, because I didn't know the species and I had never seen them fill the sky.  But I was at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge one afternoon when I saw the sky filled with geese. I just stood there and I watched them.

After that I liked waterfowl.

Sometimes you have to watch somebody love something before you can love it yourself. It is as if they are showing you the way."  

This is one of the things that I have learned from my one year of being able to be at Mingo NWR.  I didn't know about Cyprus swamps and I didn't really care about duck/goose habitat and migrations.  Now I do. 

Quote

"You can trust Christ when you have diabetes, you can trust him when you get diagnosed with breast cancer, you can trust him with your neuropathy, you can trust him with degenerative eye disease, you can trust him when you have kidney failure, you can trust him when massive bleeding takes over your brain because in the middle of it all, you know that Jesus has met the deepest need of your heart. You know that you have been cleansed of all your sin and have nothing to fear before him. And you know that when this body can’t take it any longer, you breathe your last breath, and your heart stops beating, you have no reason to worry because you have united your life with the man who conquered death, the only one who severed sin as the root of all suffering, and you say with Scripture, 'Where, O death is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'"  (Page 63-64) 

-Follow Me by David Platt

Always a Victim

You are

Always a victim

Never at fault

Never part of the problem

Or the solution

Never to blame

Never involved in the mess

There you are

A damsel in distress

Standing on the sidelines

Innocent

Never willing to admit

That you were wrong

Or at fault

The blame must be cast on someone else

Because

You are always a victim 

Coenobium

I see God in science. I have the opportunity to study what he has created and some days, it blows me away. Let me give you an example:  in many cases, algae reproduce asexually which means they cut themselves up into little pieces and then release these genetically identical pieces into the water.  Asexual reproduction in plants is super cool, but it gets more amazing.  

The term Coenobium refers to a colony with a fixed number of cells.  That means within one cell of algae, when it is cutting itself up into many pieces, there is going to be a fixed amount of cells within that cell.  More specifically, a tiny copy of that species of algae is being created within one cell. Once the cell breaks open, that little copy will be released into the water and will grow and be able to reproduce on its own.  If there is a colony of algae made up of 16 cells, each of those 16 cells has the capability to reproduce and make a little 16-celled colony.  That to me is absolutely amazing. Sometimes I sit in class and think.  Wow! what a great creator God is.  

Pictured Pediastrum, a type of algae that reproduces asexually in this way. 

 See the little "daughter"  come out?  Some cells are empty and some are not.