Ground squirrel trapping is over for now, but it was a successful season with Ayanda and Juliana capturing plenty of animals for autoradiography and Golgi staining. Currently, it is 'drumming season' and Ashley and Nick are out in the Crowsnest Pass region trying to trap as many ruffed grouse as they can for genetic samples and morphometrics. I was at my usual haunt, Buck Lake, trapping a few birds for a collaboration with Matt Fuxjager on the expression of androgen receptors in muscles and spinal cord. With such a dry winter and spring, bird numbers at Buck Lake were low, but I managed to collect 3 males anyhow to get that project going.

This summer will be busy with Nathan (NSERC USRA recipient) processing more vulture brains, Ben Brinkman (NSERC USRA as well) starting out in the lab and a MITACS student arriving from Mexico. That's of course on top of Ayanda running Golgi staining on ground squirrels and completing the validation of the isotropic fractionator in birds and Lauren making her way through lots of wild and lab rat brains.