Hello ! My name is Sarah. I’m a rising senior at Keene State
College located in Keene, NH. I’m a biology major with a psychology minor. I’m
really interested in animal physiology, neurobiology, and behavior.
I’m so excited to be joining the 2017 Marmoteers. I’ve
always loved animals, particularly rodents. I always had hamsters, gerbils, and
guinea pigs growing up. The second I laid eyes on a yellow-bellied marmot, I
fell in love. Just the species name makes you smile…
I’m having an absolutely fantastic time here with the ladies
of our lab. The days might be long, and field work can be tough, but I love
being outside all day and observing the marmots play, interact, and explore
their world. The mountains here are breathtaking ! It is incredibly beautiful.
Handling the marmots is one of my favorite things that we do.
We take a variety of measurements – left hind foot, AG distance, assessing
repro status, scoring docility behaviors - and we take blood, hair, and fecal
samples. Despite their fat round bellies, the marmots are surprisingly strong!
I like to think the marmots are pretty similar to us. They
hang out with their family, eat, and sun themselves on rocks most of the day.
Seems like a pretty good life !
I’m so happy that I get to apply some skills I’ve learned
recently in my Animal Behavior class, such as recording focals and scoring animal
behaviors using an ethogram. I was hoping for a field research experience, and
I couldn’t have asked for a better one !
Excited to see what else the summer brings…
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