PBS SHOW- Crab Trap Cleanup, Birdy Bastrop & Bobcat City
the Texas Parks and Wildlife television series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas thanks to members across the state additional funding is provided by Toyota your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas Toyota Let's Go Places [Music] coming up on Texas Parks and Wildlife all right it fits in the water it usually has something in it [Music] I thought we were going to have a hard time finding cats to catch in these really Urban spots but there is no shortage of bobcats [Music] foreign Parks and Wildlife a television series for all Outdoors [Music] the people who are out here a lot understand the importance of keeping our Bays clean they're going out on their own vessels using their own time to help us remove these traps we have a pretty strong passion for for taking part in this effort it fits in the water it usually has something in it blue crabs and stone crabs and fish are in the Trap [Music] this week Parks and Wildlife has closed the base to all crabbing and any trap left in the water is assumed derelict and so our job is to pick them up let's go check it out I'm Alan Berger you get back to the map I'm the chairman of the San Antonio Bay partnership whose mission is to care for the San Antonio Bay system get your hook I'm Tyler Sanderson the executive director of the Guadalupe Blanco river Trust we are a land trust conserving working lands open space and habitat in the Guadalupe River watershed the Guadalupe River Watershed runs from Kerrville to the coast and it comes out right here in the San Antonio Bay and that's why we come down here it's a really cool project all right I mean that's the only way to really describe it [Music] two stone crabs three stone crabs when you actually get out there and you see how many traps are left yeah three and how many Critters are stuck it has an impact on you yeah a trap that's in the water even though it's not baited if something gets in it and dies itself baits so it continues to fish even though it's not being commercially run [Music] pull out of the water have live crabs in them and bed crabs in them and haven't been run by a commercial fishermen for months we got our blue crab big crap [Music] it kills crabs and it kills fish the same way one two three three fish and so that's that's the primary importance of getting them out of the water so that they're not ghost fishing here buddy addition to that they also are navigation hazards this one's damaged boats run into them damaged too yeah just a dead fish shrimpers catch them in their Nets as important to me is that they're ugly litter along the beachfront [Music] nice and Light see one two this is definitely about protecting our resources for everyone but it is really important for our Anglers because it is potentially impacting their catch the whipping cranes that come down here every year every winter big part of their diet are these Blue Crabs this one's heavy this is everyone's Bay this is 20. my name is Holly Grant and I am the Statewide coordinator for the abandoned Crab Trap removal program we can't do this alone abandoned crab traps have been an increasing problem in the Bays trapping unused crabs and other marine life first you have the crab drop cleanup back in 2002 it was mostly our game warden to participated we have an award for the heaviest yeah it was very clear after that that there was no way that we could do it on our own so we Enlisted the help of a lot of different organizations like the San Antonio Bay partnership Galveston Bay Foundation the Christmas Bay Foundation all have large volunteer events [Music] we were born you see Flo see one out there yeah I was a fishing bum for about three years when I retired and then I decided it was time to kind of start giving back a little bit of my love to the bait another one right out there enough we don't need any more I love the coast and that mission to conserve the bay six fish three of them dead there's quite a few Critters in these every single one it seems like has had something in them you see a lot of dead fish in here but the ones that are alive it does feel good that hey you're sending them home your slippery bugger my back's gonna be a little sore my shoulders are going to be a little sore I don't work out normally so getting my workout in this week this one needs a haircut like me Wilson the best part about this is that at the end of the day you can actually look and see what you've been able to accomplish entire body workout doing we've done about 40. I think the most important thing is awareness having better Outreach and education for these crabbers to understand the impact they're having by leaving them out there it's every year since the beginning of the program we've been able to save over half a million blue crabs [Music] it's really uplifting we'll be back if we do a good job of managing our business we shouldn't have to pick up so many traps so my goal is to see the number of traps we pick up go down every year [Music] [Music] one of the great things about Bastrop is our location if you draw a triangle and you go between Houston San Antonio and Austin kind of in the middle of that triangle in The Sweet Spot you'll find the city of Bastrop but what you'll find is historic wonderful friendly environment a community that works together and a community that enjoys Birds Bastrop is blessed with the Colorado River running through so a lot of riparian birds you're always going to see great blue herons often Egret there's a kingfisher that always hangs out here a builted kingfisher bald eagles bluebirds are almost always here in migration great numbers of warblers within Bastrop County we have probably five different Eco regions represented there's black land Prairie there's the Lost Pines or the Piney Woods there's the riparian and Post Oak Savannah so each of those has different Niche birds and just within a a small area which is fun back in March of 2018 we found out that there was going to be bird City designations and we were so excited to find out that Bastrop was one of only four cities in the state that was designated a bird City in the very first year the mural behind me it was in honor of Bounce job getting the bird City designation so that was a collaboration of the bird City Coalition and local artists to honor our work that we've done and in getting it [Music] birds are kind of Bellwether species in a lot of ways so if we don't focus on conserving Birds we're also going to lose a lot of other things what happens to the birds other species follow you know so we can't ignore it for our own pleasure of having the birds but also because of their importance in the whole scheme of things [Music] Bastrop has something to be proud of and they have something to work for in the future as far as building and restoring bird habitat and seeing it grow even more the bird City designation it makes conservation a priority implementing things like dark skies and you know non-reflective windows and cats indoors and it's just going to be carried as part of the mission of Bastrop as a city the environment is a really important part of what pulls the community together you can go stand up paddle boarding you can kayak you can canoe you can go for a walk along the river and ecotourism is an opportunity that helps both the economy and helps our environment we did an introduction to birding class we had 40 people come every week for four weeks there's an interest that's always been there that's being brought more into the Forefront it is a male one of our hot spots for birding is here at Fisherman's Park in the June Hill pave Riverwalk it borders the Colorado River and it just offers a very wide variety of birds we get a bit of everything when you're down here I think it's an exciting time for Bastrop and for Texas to be highlighting Birds cities should go for it because it will add a lot to your community not just in the in terms of Tourism but just in awareness and it will help protect the birds and the environment and just bring people a lot of pleasure [Music] Julie gulla is a graduate student when she is home she looks after a house cat but when she leaves home it's often because another kind of cat is calling the Allure of cats and their strength and their stealth they're pretty fascinating Julie is studying Bobcats and where she is finding them might surprise you with Texas Parks and Wildlife Julie is researching these wild cats in between urban Dallas and Fort Worth we're hoping to answer some very basic questions about Urban Bobcats something that we know very little about we do know a decent amount about them in rural areas there's been a number of bobcat studies here in Texas but nothing Urban we're genuinely looking at an area that is completely encompassed by human development we're looking at how Bobcats move in the city areas it started out with cameras cameras have been very important not only to see the number of animals but also to find those hot spots where we can catch them a quick and efficient manner we've gotten quite a few Bobcats on camera see what we get on trails that we do get Bobcat traffic that's where we'll put our trap awesome armadillo and then another Bobcat walks by I thought we were gonna have a hard time finding cats to catch in these really Urban spots but there is no shortage of bobcats and I think people will be surprised when they're developing a golf course they don't realize that the strip of trees between Fairways is serving as a corridor for wildlife but it works quite well for us in Euless all around the Texas Star Golf Course Wildlife corridors are identified then the real intensive work begins between seven to ten traps are open at once with one person running a trap line I can't do much more than that and we've been trapping for about 10 weeks it's good Julie is no stranger to catching carnivores she has worked with mountain lions and wolves in other states but baiting for Bobcats has its own challenges the trouble is when you put a lot of scent down a lot of stinky nasty stuff and then you're crawling on your belly odors only go so far like a rain oh yeah attracting Bobcats requires some cat psychology you know they're like house cats they're curious they like smell they like feathers they like furry shiny stuff and if they see something move it's going to catch their attention fortunately I can use that to my advantage making cat lures isn't exactly glamorous they're all about recycling fresh ones I don't do rotten roadkill but there is plenty of evidence that the custom cat toys work batting that's awesome you can tell this one's got it and then it lets go and it's probably flinging around of course getting a cat's attention and getting it to enter a trap are different things Bobcats are smart wary and rarely seen just ask someone who works where a cat can be seen daily Bobcats are about twice the size of your typical house cat they are native but people don't usually see them because they're most active when a lot of people are either just getting up or they're going to bed for the night but they are out there they're named the bobcat for their short little bobbed tail and uh just so curious you can just tell that they're constantly thinking those are just a lot of nice natural funnels Derek and Julie must be constantly thinking as well monitoring cameras moving traps and freshening baits I can put fresh raw meat squirrel meat rabbit meat in a trap and they still won't go in just because it's like I'm just gonna go eat my own squirrel they're not food motivated typically just because they're so good at what they do so that's where it comes into like just keying in on their curiosity it may seem curious that a carnivore could even make a living in this kind of landscape oh yeah that's Euless Avenue so that's another color wow eight o'clock at night Cars Moving by just doesn't even care the number of cats photographed suggests they are finding enough to eat the rats the mice the squirrels the rabbits the really small fuzzy Critters that may be quick to us but not too quick for a bobcat between roads and buildings green belts and watersheds connect hunting and hiding places but exactly how cats use these habitats is not fully understood and that is what this study is all about the study area stretches from the edge of Fort Worth to Irving and Grand Prairie GPS callers will store data about daily movements and ranges of individual cats for an entire year but first the cats must be captured some traps can send an alert when tripped but Julie still checks every trap twice a day driving to check traps literally a wild Bobcat Chase here we go after 10 weeks of trapping this road is due for a Bobcat 13 cats have been captured a few too small for collars Nine Cats now wear the GPS loggers but one more is needed for a full range of data thinking about it pressure is on Julie's friend Jim has come from Idaho to help trap for a week I'm a wildlife biologist for the Nez Perce tribe Julie and I worked on a wolf project up there but so far the Trappers are plagued by a different animal I convinced this guy to go on about his morning the bar is closed and there he goes when you're trying to catch certain types of animals you're always at the risk of catching bycatch species bye bye dude don't come back but missed a cow last night because something fell on the door and made it close but she got on top of the trap at one point looking through the front of the Trap maybe she'll come back and check it out again the weather holds up [Music] capturing the animals meeting your quota is your biggest fear at the beginning nothing's changed because you don't know what it's going to be like unless somebody's done it before we have no idea if it's possible or not all right nothing here I no longer have my camera on my tree my trap has been messed with really sucks nothing happening and he has come to a grinding halt it seems we're gonna get the bobcat I have to I'm gonna go crazy awesome I'm somewhat frustrated with possums at the moment when a one awesome day it's better than a stolen camera day he was a wonderful good squirrel A1 in his crying no he looks terrible foreign [Music] [Music] I don't know how much more of this I can even take always hope for tomorrow I was hopeful that we'd catch at least one Bobcat time's up for me I have to leave this afternoon disappointing not to catch one but I fully understand that that's how it goes 4 52 p.m I was just about ready to head out the door and I got a text so I came to check the Trap and sure enough there's a bobcat in the Trap right next to a very very busy road right at rush hour Derek is first on the scene if I had to guess I'd say it's a juvenile male looks like he's a healthy animal Julie is just dropping Jim at the airport Bobcat but still happy for the news the crew is soon assembled yes this would have been an excellent April Fool's Day joke very upset but this time it's no possum the crew ready is a sedative cocktail to be delivered with great care and an extra long syringe this is my decoy to kind of keep the cat facing him got him takes about five minutes for the drug to take effect so we'll walk away and let them go down so yeah we'll wait until about 7 45. [Music] we'll go to a much quieter location not only for us but also for the Bobcat because even though they're down and immobilized they can still hear the boy they can still sense light and fast movement that can make their heart rate faster so we want to keep things as calm and quiet as possible throughout the capture no good thank you kindly sir so he's not able to Blink right now so this is just artificial tears the cat is Thoroughly looked after while being thoroughly weighed measured and documented 7.5 some of these cats have a
lot of spotting almost leopard-like but yeah these arm bars that's how we identify them they're very easy to see in nighttime photos so that's what we get pictures of okay you want to get good solid information because this is a lot of work that goes into every Bobcat we catch we're very excited and happy that we're adding another member to our research group the fact is we still have a job to do and we don't take it very lightly as night falls additional data is gathered but not only for their study this is for parasitology this is for diseases for genetics this is for rodenticide getting a lot of information from these Bobcats but for Julie and Derek's research fitting the tracking collar is the most important step in a year when we get that caller back it could potentially be giving us 3 500 locations Perfect all right he's kind of waking up [Music] foreign stressful doing this because you take the animals while being in your hands when you work with them like this but we did everything right and everything went really well he's doing great right now it's relieving to see that the animal is coming out in great shape I always give him like 20 minutes last cat captured and collard excellent day having good days like today makes me know that we can get the most out of this effort I didn't even do the thermometer okay I think he's good [Applause] four and a half months after the release bobcat b14 and most of the studies cats can be regularly located by the radio beacons on their collars it will be months before the remaining collars drop off and reveal new secrets about the lies of urban Bobcats but the study is already shedding New Life on how their habitats overlap with ours he was about here yeah but he was also spotted about here like we've got cats sleeping under roadways they're hunting on golf courses we're finding the Bobcats are in neighborhoods on a daily basis and people rarely see them and rarely have problems if you see a bobcat don't approach it or try to feed it as long as we respect them as wild animals we can continue to share this space with wildlife they're here they're valuable they are excellent Critters and to strive in an urban environment that's incredible [Music] celebrating A Century Of Texas state parks foreign [Music] foreign this series is supported in part by Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation conserving the wild things and wild places of Texas thanks to members across the state additional funding is provided by Toyota your local Toyota dealers are proud to support outdoor recreation and conservation in Texas Toyota Let's Go Places [Music]
2023-01-03 13:10
