{"id":69518,"date":"2003-09-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-09-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/boonton-resident-aids-endangered-species-in-rhode-island\/"},"modified":"2003-09-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2003-09-23T00:00:00","slug":"boonton-resident-aids-endangered-species-in-rhode-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2003\/09\/boonton-resident-aids-endangered-species-in-rhode-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Boonton resident aids endangered species in Rhode Island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tMedia Contact: Todd McLeish 401-874-7892
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\nKINGSTON, R.I. — September 23, 2003 — Like many students, 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Victoria Potucek spent her summer going from one beach to another. But rather than spending her time tanning and swimming, she was working to protect one of Rhode Island\u2019s most endangered species, the piping plover.
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\n\tThe tiny shorebird nests on several beaches in the state, but its breeding success depends in large part on the efforts of human helpers like Potucek.
\n\t“Predators like skunks, foxes, coyotes, gulls and crows all eat the birds eggs and some will also eat the chicks,” said the Boonton, N.J. resident. “The chicks are an easy snack for gulls.”
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\n\tBeginning in May, Potucek worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists to monitor the adult birds as they arrived at their nesting beaches and watched for mating behavior \u2013 high-stepping and flying in figure eights. “As soon as we see that two out of their four eggs have been laid, we put a wire cage exclosure around the nest to exclude the predators,” explained the 20-year-old wildlife biology major. “Only birds can get in and out of the exclosure, and a mesh netting over the top keeps out avian predators.”
\n\tOnce all the exclosures were in place, Potucek monitored each of the 52 nests for 28 days until the eggs hatched, and she then continued monitoring for an additional 25 days until the young chicks began to fly.
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\n\t“I saw a lot of signs of predation this year,” she said. “A lot of adult birds were killed right outside the wire caging. And there were lots of skunk tracks around the exclosures.” Despite the predation, however, 58 chicks survived to begin their migration south.
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\n\tPiping plovers are still endangered in Rhode Island, Potucek said, but the population is increasing. “We started monitoring the birds in 1992 with only a handful of pairs, and now the population is way up. But they\u2019re still going to need this kind of monitoring for many years to come.”
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\nFunding for Potucek\u2019s summer research was provided by the 溏心vlog免费B站 Coastal Fellows Program, a unique program designed to involve undergraduate students in addressing current environmental problems. Now in its eighth year, the program based in 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s College of the Environment and Life Sciences teams students with faculty, research staff and graduate students to help them gain skills that will ensure their future success.
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\n“I\u2019ve always enjoyed wildlife, so I entered 溏心vlog免费B站 as a wildlife biology major. As soon as I completed my first semester, I completely fell in love with the program,” she said. “I had no interest in birds before I got involved in this project, but now I\u2019m really interested in birds and that might lead me in a new career direction. The project has certainly helped me with the Field Ornithology course that I\u2019m taking right now.”
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\nWhile Potucek is considering going to graduate school when she completes her 溏心vlog免费B站 studies, she is also continuing her work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a volunteer helping them with educational programs through the fall.
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\n“I didn\u2019t have a strong science background in high school, but the science side of what I\u2019m learning is really cool. I\u2019m really enjoying it,” she said.\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media Contact: Todd McLeish 401-874-7892 KINGSTON, R.I. — September 23, 2003 — Like many students, 溏心vlog免费B站 junior Victoria Potucek spent her summer going from one beach to another. But rather than spending her time tanning and swimming, she was working to protect one of Rhode Island\u2019s most endangered species, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69518\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}