Wildlife

Where Two Deserts Meet

In this episode of Where Two Deserts Meet, we connect with Wildlife Ecologist Michael Vamstad. With his insight, we dive into the wonderful world of Joshua Tree National Park’s wildlife, consider the special care that goes into conserving their populations, and discuss tips on how you can help protect and possibly spot some on your trip to the park.

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TRANSCRIPT:

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Donovan:  Where Two Deserts Meet is an official podcast of Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree National Park acknowledges the Serrano, Cahuilla, Mojave, and Chemehuevi people as the original stewards of the land in which the park now sits. We are grateful to have the opportunity to work with the indigenous people in this place and we pay our respects to the people past, present, and emerging who have been here since time in Memorial.

Donovan: Hi, I'm Donovan.

Ian: And I'm Ian.

Donovan: And we're both park rangers here at Joshua Tree National Park. Where Two Deserts meet is a podcast where we investigate topics that often require a bit more detail, and sometimes, the help of an expert in the field to gain perspective.

Ian: Donovan, have you heard any good animal facts recently?

Donovan: My favorite go-to animal fact is that the rattlesnakes that we have in the park smell with their tongues.

Ian: Elaborate.

Donovan: Joshua Tree National Park is home to six different species of rattlesnakes which are part of the pit viper family. Pit vipers have special pit organs that they use to catch prey. Those cute little tongues that pop in and out of the rattlesnake’s mouth help transfer the smells and temperatures of its surrounding. The pit organs are located in the front of the face and they allow the rattlesnakes to sense out the smell and heat of its prey.

Ian: I'll admit that is a pretty good fact, but I've got a few of my own tucked up my sleeve. Did you know the desert tortoise moves at an average speed of 0.2 miles per hour.

Donovan: Okay, but how long would it take them to get to the other side?

Ian: Very clever.

Donovan: I'm sure that both of us can go on and on, but you know who would have even better facts about some of the wildlife here at Joshua Tree National Park Wildlife ecologists? Michael Vamstad. He always has some great insight about some of the amazing animals in this park such as bats, bighorn, and big old tortoises.

Michael: My name is Michael Vamstad and I'm the wildlife ecologist here at Joshua Tree.

Ian: Tree National Park is home to hundreds of different species of wildlife, including roughly 250 different species of birds and about 150 types of mammals and reptiles. As you can imagine, the roles and responsibilities of the lead wildlife ecologists here are very diverse. it's Michael's job to monitor and work with many of these species within the park, but some often require special attention.

Michael: The most common species that I work with, or the ones I spend the most time on, are the endangered species or the species that are of special management concern: desert tortoise, and big horn sheep. Nesting raptors are another thing that every year we spend a lot of time.

Donovan: In 1973, the Endangered Species Act was signed into law creating protections for all plants and wildlife listed as threatened or endangered. This law requires all federal agencies to consult with the US Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure that the actions they authorize, fund, or carry out are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence. Any listed species or result in the destruction or adverse modification of designated critical habitat of such species. That was a mouthful, but essentially, it's saying that there are millions of species on planet Earth and tools like the Endangered Species Act help us better protect species who are at high risk of extinction. There is quite a lengthy process to get a species listed as endangered, but of course, the first step is figuring out what species needs our help.

Michael: An endangered species is simply just a species that has seen its numbers shrink or its habitat shrink. Its numbers are to a point where we're concerned about it being able to self-sustain into the future. A classic example would be the condors or the bald eagle, where DDT thinned their eggs to a point where we weren't seeing very many bald eagles. When they classify the species as endangered, it's really based on their abundances and distributions, when there’s been a big change in reduction. You have fewer of them around and fewer places. The desert tortoise is like the main one that the US Fish and Wildlife has listed for us. It’s the one that is inhabited in the park, the one we spend the most time on. There are a few other species like the yellow-billed cuckoo and the California gnatcatcher and a couple rails that come through the park during migration. There’s not a lot the park can do to manage endangered species, per se, because they're just passing through. We really focus on our resident species that are having a hard time. We have a couple plants that are also endangered, but the desert tortoise clearly gets the most attention from the park to conserve them. We really have some of the best protected habitat for the desert tortoise in the Mojave Desert. We really try to protect the best we can, and then keep our millions of visitors away from affecting them negatively in any way. The populations of desert tortoise have really changed in Joshua Tree since like eighties and nineties. During that time we did some very light surveys to get an idea of abundance or how many of them were on the landscape. And it turns out there’s anywhere between thirty or forty, or sometimes even close to fifty tortoises counted per square kilometer. Nowadays when we do those surveys, we're only finding three to four tortoises per square kilometer. So going from thirty down to three is a huge change. And as a scientist, we call that an order of magnitude reduction. That means usually like a tenfold reduction. And there's really little that you can argue about that kind of change. A lot of scientists, we look at different survey methods. Each survey method is a little different, so your numbers can be a little different, but when it is an order of magnitude change, thirty down to three, it's kind of undeniable. At that point, historically, we had pretty good populations in the park and we probably had close to 30,000 tortoises in Joshua Tree. And nowadays I estimate about 3000 tortoises. We've been a putting these little radio transmitters on the back of tortoises. What that allows us to do is to go out once every couple weeks to see where they're at and to see how they're moving on the landscape. Do they move miles at a time or do they just move a hundred feet at a time? Do they keep a same home range over the years, or do they really change and move around? And so, what we're trying to figure out, how can we get an idea of the movement patterns for those tortoises that live by roads? Is there a way to work with our million visitors and all that traffic on our roads to keep the tortoises from getting smashed on the roads? For example, during rainstorms, we've found that they tend to go towards wherever the water is. This can be the road. We have signage at each one of our entrances that tells people, “There’s a rainstorm right now. Please watch out for tortoises on the road. Those rocks on the road may not be a rock, but a tortoise drinking water. Additionally, we have tortoise crossing signs in the park that make people aware that tortoises are there and to drive slowly to avoid hitting them. That really is the biggest issue that we have.

Ian: The desert tortoise was added to the federal endangered species lists in 1990 after a significant reduction in their numbers was observed over the past few decades in Joshua Tree National Park. Estimates from past research indicate there were approximately thirty tortoises per square kilometer. However, there is now an average of roughly three tortoises per square kilometer. That's a massive 90% reduction of the population within. Tortoises that were once abundant roaming the desert and a relatively common site are now something you need to be lucky or diligent to find.

Michael: Yeah, the big reduction that we saw from the late eighties and nineties to now. We believe had two big issues that happened at the same time, and they worked together synergistically and negatively. An upper respiratory tract disease was introduced to the desert tortoise sometime in the late nineties, but we think it didn't get into the park until the early 2000s. What happened is that they basically get a really bad cold during a time when they need to conserve. Imagine having a really runny nose from a chest or a head cold, but you couldn't drink water to hydrate yourself. These tortoises were dying from the disease. This was coupled with drought. We’re also seeing these recurring severe droughts happening in the Mojave and we really believe that's from climate change. The effect of climate change is more severe droughts. And then you have this disease issue going through the population at the same time. Those two things working together reduce the tortoise population in the park. We believe the disease came from a pet tortoise or a tortoise in captivity that got introduced into the park. It's not a native bacterium that got into the tortoise. We've seen it in other reptiles and predominantly within the pet trade of tortoises across the globe. The mycoplasma agassizii, which is the name of the bug that got into the tortoise here in the Mojave, was really derived from other mycoplasma and bacterium from around the world.

Ian: Michael brings up a great reminder here that the wild desert tortoises that we have inside the park shouldn't have play dates with any pet tortoises you may have at home. It's nothing personal. They just don't have the same immune systems, and honestly, they are quite the homebody anyway. They're small population numbers in the park. Paired with their homebody behavior of spending most of their life underground, can make desert tortoises come off as quite aloof or mysterious. Because of this, they're often one of the most asked about species by park visitors. However, as exciting as it can be to see one, it's important to remember to respect their personal bubble and keep your distance.

Donovan: While tortoises are definitely a fan favorite among park visitors, a species that always stays neck and neck with the tortoise for most sought-after sighting is the big horn sheep. Some people might also know them as rams, but the term ram actually refers to a male big horn sheep with the iconic curled horn. On the other hand, female big horn sheep are actually called ewe spelled e w e. Bighorn sheep are one of our larger mammal species that we have inside the park, but honestly, there is something very magical about getting to see one in the arid desert. One could easily fall for the misconception that since they are large, they should be easy to find in the park. However, they are impressive experts in camouflage and do their best impressions of the beige granite boulders in the park by employing a similarly colored coat and often remaining quite still while out and about. With the massive size of the park, this means that visitors are often playing a very difficult game of hide and seek with big horn sheep.

Michael: Big horn sheep in Joshua Tree really are a very difficult species to find. You'd think because they're pretty big they'd be pretty easy to find, but they are rock dwelling creatures in some of the most rugged and rigorous habitats in the park. It’s very difficult to count them or to get a real good understanding. But we do see them during certain times of the year. They need to drink open water, mainly in the hottest months of the year. In July, August, even into September, we see them around water sources. When it comes to viewing them or finding them, or for us to count them, we try to go in the summertime to these places. We set up cameras to take infrared triggered photos with these wildlife cameras. Really interesting stuff. We know that their populations really expand and decline, and the literature really reflects that. When mountain ranges in the Mojave get a really good monsoon or good winter rain, the forage is really good, but then another mountain system, literally 10, 20 miles away may not get any of that. The sheep that are in those mountains having a really hard time generally don't expand, but the ones where they got the really good rain, do expand. The lambs are born very well. They’re super healthy. They ewes are providing quality milk to those lambs so they're able to survive. Whereas the sheep that are in those mountains that are in less than ideal, they may not have any lambs that survive. It really is dealing with the conditions of the land in Joshua Tree. We've had a couple of issues. Everything seemed to be rolling pretty good when times were good. The sheep were everywhere. But we also had disease come in too. Just four or five years ago, we identified a strain of mycoplasma. Again, you probably heard that's from the bacterium that the tortoises had. The same similar bacterium is actually in bighorn sheep causing very similar issues, upper respiratory distress. They lose a lot of water though basically mucus and other things like that, and it makes it really hard for them to survive. The adults generally can get over it, but the lambs succumb to it almost a hundred percent of the time. Very, very few times do we see a lamb that gets sick from the disease that makes it through. Conditions are just so hard in the summer, and if they get that sickness, they don't survive. It also highlights the importance of connectivity in the sense of looking at the desert. Areas that got really good rain, got good plant response, therefore really good forage for the bighorn sheep. But then this range over here doesn't. In the past, when there weren't any highways in between or any solar fields in between or other things that humans development that prevents that movement, bighorn sheep were able to move in between different herds and repopulate from good, healthy herds over here to repopulate the herds that were struggling. That’s called a metapopulation dynamic. It was originally described for butterflies. Where resources would be really good in one area, the butterflies would do really, really well one year, but in another area they would all almost go extinct. That is a big challenge with the bighorn sheep management. We know where these connections between large land masses for the sheep have been fragmented.

Ian: Often when discussing the topic of big horn sheep visitors will mention sightings at other park service sites such as Rocky Mountain National Park. While there is some uncanny resemblance between the sheep here and there, the ones in Joshua Tree often appear much smaller in size. On top of that, they will often behave differently, but that makes sense when you take into account the harsh and dry climate of the desert compared to the cool and mountainous areas of the Rockies.

Michael: The bighorn sheep in the desert are called the Nelson's Desert Bighorn Sheep. That’s actually their full common name, and they are quite different in size and even coloration than the Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep which you tend to see in Colorado, Northern Nevada, Montana, some of these other places with the Rocky Mountains. They tend to be bigger, bulkier animals. And when I drive through that area of Colorado and I see sheep along the side of the road, I'm always taken back like, wow, these guys are big and they're heavy. They're called the Rocky Mountain sheep because it is a different subspecies of Big Horn, but they are all ovis canadensis. Which is basically big horn sheep. It's just a subspecies difference so the sheep down here in the desert seem to be more adapted to desert environments. They're lighter colored and not quite as large. They don't have the water requirements that the rocky mountain sheep do. They've even learned interesting adaptations like kicking over cactus and eating out the innards of a cactus. So there is a bit of a difference between them, but not as much as you would think. The sheep that are below Interstate 10, basically Palm Springs south into Anza Borrego and down to the Mexican border, are considered the Peninsular big horn sheep. At one time, they had called them a separate species of sheep, but later on, through genetic work, they found that they are pretty much identical to our desert bighorn sheep that we have here in Joshua Tree. They continued with their listing of them being endangered, not the ones in Joshua Tree National Park, but just across a valley, south into the Santa Rosa Mountains and San Jacinto mountains and Lagunas. These sheep are endangered. They're covered under the Endangered Species Act. They're listed, but they're more of a geographic range. They said all these bighorn sheep that are in this area have really suffered from development issues, basically losing connectivity as well as numbers reductions from disease. They continued with that endangered species protection for just that population. In every other sense of how the animals act and how they deal with the desert is very similar to the ones in the in the park.

Donovan: If you've ever recreated outdoors before, you may have come across a closure of an area for reasons related to wildlife. National Park Service sites like Glacier will sometimes close trails due to bear activity or climbers at Devil's Tower may find the climbing route that they were eyeing up is closed for Raptor nesting. But if you come to Joshua Tree in the summer you'll find something a little different. Often during the consistent triple digit temperatures and extreme sun of the summer, Joshua Tree will close a specific trail on behalf of our beloved big horn sheep. But many often ask, what is the purpose of these closures and how does the park go about deciding how and what to close?

Michael: Closing down areas in a national park for wildlife is definitely a decision we don't take lightly. Any and every option or alternate to thing to try is considered. We look at the amount of water in the park, especially related to bighorn sheep because they really need it. In the summertime, we've monitored our water sources in the park and when we're in a severe drought and we lose those water sources, we count them. I created a decision matrix that would be completely rigid once these places go dry, then we go ahead and close down areas to visitors. The idea here is to only close the areas when they are needed by the wild. In this sense, when the drought is severe enough that it's removed water from Barker Dam, Keys Ranch Dam, and few other places, we assume that these other places where they get water are dry as well. For example, the Bighorn Sheep closure at 49 Palms Canyon is something we don't do every year. Five years ago we did a closure and then for three or four years, we didn't do any kind of closure. However, the last two years in Joshua Tree have been extremely dry, and so these other water sources that were once available for the sheep are now dry. We go ahead and close 49 Palms Canyon because it’s a real perennial permanent water source where the spring is always running. It seems to always fill up pools of water and it never dries up. In July and August, our visitation has gotten to the point where if we did leave it open, we would have visitors there every day. And that would displace the sheep during the most critical time for them. We go ahead and close those areas, so we definitely take it very seriously. We do not like to close down areas to the visitors but what's been really cool and really heartwarming for me is that whenever we put out these public announcements that we're going close 49 Palms Canyon…it is overwhelmingly positive. The folks that comment on that stuff, on social media or even on our website almost, 90 percent of the time, it's actually very positive. They're happy that we are doing this for the sheep, so that makes it really easy for the ecologist.

Ian: Of course, monitoring big horn sheep access to resources in these areas is a big deal. In order to get the best results, Joshua Tree National Park had to take a critical step in building an understanding of big horn sheep, and that's by collecting.

Michael: The park decided to put forward a proposal on a project about three or four years ago to put these collars on bighorn sheep, and it literally is like a necklace that we put on the sheep. Everybody, I think, can imagine what a collar looks like. We went out and we collared sixteen animals and the idea there is that these collars send data to the satellites. I can even look on my computer, my laptop right now, and check it out. Where are the sheep now? And we put those collars on the animal to really see what habitats are being used. Are they going into areas that has a lot of visitor interaction? The real Hidden Valley, for example, has thousands of visitors every year. Or are they choosing habitats that are very rugged and don't see visitors at all. We're almost at the end of that study. We're still collecting data but what we are seeing is that few places are very important to Bighorn sheep. They go there a lot, they hide. I think it's a lot of predator evasion at that point. If they hang out in these locations, then they don't get predated as much by Mountain Lion. We have really cool data on our visitors as well. Where are they going? We set up trail counters. Barker Dam, for example, had 550 people on the trail today. Then we look at how many times the bighorn sheep are in those areas when they have that many people around. This is a second time we've looked at this. We looked at it back in the late nineties, and we found really interesting things. On weekends, the bighorn sheep would avoid these areas with a lot of visitors but the instant it became quiet, let's say on Monday or Tuesday, they would go back into these areas. Now that was back in the nineties. When basically we had under a million people, I think it was 800,000 visitors or so. We are really concerned about this expansion of visitation in the park to almost 3 million visitors. And would they then have that persistent, constant, presence at these areas instead of like before, whereas only the weekend was busy. Now we're starting to see the weekend and the weekdays busy even in the summer. We are really concerned about that increase in visitation and that effect it could have on the sheep. The technology is that these collars talk to the satellites. I can see it on my laptop, and we can see these movements and shifts in their patterns and how they use the habitats when there's a lot of people, or not so many people. We're really trying to really focus in on how the big horn sheep really get affected by visitation in the park or visitors walking around. For example, if there was a time period where they're lambing. The pregnant ewes really like to go into areas that are secluded. They're solitary, they're by themselves, but they're very in tune to those sites, they going back to them yearly to lamb in the same basic locations. We really want to figure out where are those locations. In the future, if we're talking about putting in a trail or something, or back country camping area, we are going to make sure that it's not in those areas that the sheep are lambing, it's just too important of a time for them. So that's one of the ways we're using this technology to guide our management into the future.

Donovan: As we've already stated, ensuring adequate water for the big horn sheep is a very important part of the conservation process here at Joshua Tree National Park. But that's not the only adversity that big horn sheep face.

Michael: There really is a problem with pets in parks and pets really are close to us. We love them. Personally, I have a dog. There are certain areas of the country or certain places that I just will not take my dogs and national parks are one of them. They really do have an effect on wildlife and everyone that brings their pets to the parks or to these areas should really be aware that they can have a real negative effect on big horn sheep and desert tortoise and things like that inside the park. Other national parks have the same problems. The marmots and pikas on in Rocky Mountain National Park is another place where these critters are just walking around the trail and then someone with a dog arrives. And all of a sudden, all those critters take off. Wildlife understand and really know when there's a predator in there. Dogs and cats and things like that are instantly known by wildlife as predators. The fact that your pet may have been in an area will displace things like bighorn sheep. They'll smell either the leavings or droppings from the dog or cat, or they'll basically be scared of the barking or other things like that. We want people to enjoy wildlife. Pets, however, in these areas, prevent that. There’s further issues with even things like disease. One example that we had in the park where it was particularly bad is that we had canine distemper go through a population of fox and we're finding dead fox all throughout the park. The issue here is that canine distemper can be carried by your pet and brought into the park into an area where animals are not vaccinated against that. The fox aren't given shots every year by veterinarians to prevent things like parvo or any of these other diseases that are common in our pets and treatable. The wildlife aren't treatable so when we find that there's a problem, it's usually because there's a bunch of dead ones. Let us be a visitor to these areas as well. We go in, we enjoy it, and we leave. Because the primary focus of these areas is the preservation of the natural and cultural artifacts in these areas. I really truly believe, let's give wildlife a rest or some reprieve from pets.

Ian: When discussing how our pets and other actions we can take, while visiting can affect the chances of seeing rare wildlife. It's important to remember that those aren't the only species that a wildlife ecologist will work. Sometimes a more common species of animals, visitors will see in the park can actually be a unique task for a wildlife ecologist simply because their management overlaps with other park objectives. Bats are an extremely common site for those staying into the night to cam or stargaze, and they are an important part of Michael's role here.

Michael: We have some really interesting species of bats in the park as well as abundances. It's actually quite interesting. Our most numerous bat is called the canyon bat. Used to be called the Western Estro Bat. And so if you come to Joshua Tree National Park and you're looking around at night, maybe you're camping in one of our campgrounds and you look up. Very frequently you'll see hundreds if not thousands of bats flying around. What's really cool about these canyon bats is they live in the cracks of the rocks and other places, even trees they'll roost in, but they're definitely our most numerous species of bat in the park. The other really interesting species we get is called a yellow bat. These yellow bats live in palm trees only, which is actually really kind of cool because we have Palm Oasis in Joshua Tree, so the bats are up in those skirts that live underneath those palm trees. They're a bigger bat, but they are yellow and they're really interesting. The other third dynamic or kind of situation that's kind of interesting to Joshua Tree is the abandoned mines. We literally have hundreds of old abandoned mines that were once part of the gold and silver prospecting era in the park. We have a rich history of mines in the park, places like Desert Queen mine. The problem is that these mines are dangerous. These mines are not natural. They were put in by people back in the early 1900s looking for gold and silver but the bats found them and made them their homes. For visitors to the park, I would say, enjoy these mines when you come across them. They're definitely a rich history for the park, so enjoy it but be really careful around these mines. People fall in them all the time, and it's usually a pretty serious situation, getting them out. We put bat gates over the holes, down the shafts in these mines to keep people out or keep them safe, but allow the bats to fly in and out. So that's a fun program or project in how we're making the landscape safe, but we're also allowing that habitat that they've found.

Donovan: A special quality of Joshua Tree National Park I personally love is when camping in the park. Bugs are often not an issue. Of course, the dry desert climate can be thanked for that, but bats also deserve special appreciation when it comes to balancing insect populations within the park.

Michael: The bats in the park are really numerous. We find a lot of these canyon bats at night, especially in areas like Barker Dam or Hidden Valley and in some camping areas too. They eat a lot of bugs at night. You think the desert doesn't have a lot of mosquitoes but there are, the bats are very important at balancing that. We would have huge insect outbreaks in the park if we didn't have all these thousands of canyon bats basically taking away the problem for us. They are also known to really process those dead insects and basically their feces are very rich in minerals and nutrients. Bat guano was once used very heavily for fertilizers for people's gardens and things like that. We've now gone to more synthetic things like Miracle Grow, but back in the day it was bat guano. Bat guano is very rich, high-end nutrients and minerals, and it really helps plant and is part of that whole nutrient cycle of things. Bats are definitely something we watch for. And in fact, one of the things we do in the park is monitor for white nose syndrome. We set up bat nets, which is really interesting at night, at a few places in the park and, capture the bats, handle them, and swab them for white nose syndrome. Now, I must say that, handling bats is definitely something you have to do delicately. They have very sharp teeth, it's very interesting. But they also carry rabies. All of us are working with bats in the wildlife branches here at Joshua Tree have rabies vaccines so that we can handle these bats safely. If you ever see a bat flopping around, you probably heard this before, leave it there. Contact a ranger. Contact your local wildlife officials. That may be the sheriff's department, even in your community or animal control. It's very important that we figure out if the bat was sick from white nose syndrome or something. It's very important to report wildlife doing interesting things or wildlife doing very abnormal things like a bat flying around during the day, but landing nearby, acting all funny is something to be concerned about and you should report it. Really local to this area or in to Southern California is palm trees. And, palm trees are very important for bats. Those yellow bats, like I mentioned before, use those skirts underneath the palm trees. If you do have palm, resist that feeling to clean it up and chop down all those dead, branches that we call the petticoat that hangs down. If you leave that petticoat, you'll actually be creating wildlife habitat for bats. I’ve been trying to figure out a way to use bat boxes that are popular in the Midwest and the East Coast but they don't seem to work out here in the desert. We've tried them a few times. They either get too hot or, for whatever reason, don't work. Another thing with the mines and the caves, if you're visiting them, if there's bats in those caves, they may be displaced. You walk in during the middle of the day and all of a sudden the bats all fly out. Obviously those bats are going to have a bit of a hardship. They're going to have to find a place to roost really quickly, and that may be near predator or something like that. We do ask people to stay out of mines as much as possible. Enjoy them within the landscape…take a look, but don't go inside them.

Ian: We've clearly established that Michael plays an important role here at the park from managing wildlife species to collecting data and making important decisions. However, he's not alone and, like many things in the National Park Service, it's a team effort. Managing wildlife in a national park is quite diverse.

Michael: We count species, we watch over species, but we also monitor the general health of wildlife. But to be honest, I heavily rely on our partners in the USGS that do a lot of our research on disease or research on population Issues, but also disease labs and veterinarians within the park service and the state of California. I'm always sending samples around from one place to the next. I can't be an expert of all these things like disease and pathogens. But what I am very good at is I can get those samples to the lab to do that. Really what I have in my role here at Joshua Tree is to be able to understand all of the science, all of the disease issues, and all of those things that I learn from others. Yeah, wildlife management is really fun, but a lot of times in the park it's, I'm collecting the samples, I'm finding the dead animals on the landscape or something that's happened and I'm reporting that to the folks that can study that. A perfect example of this would be our distemper outbreak in foxes. We were just going out to check a wildlife camera out in the Coxcomb Mountains and, oh, look at this! Two dead kit fox very near the water source. That was a concern. And so, I called up our wildlife veterinarian in Colorado and told her about it and we said, okay, let's go back out there and collect an animal. Lo and behold, when we went back out, there's two more dead kit fox in that area. We collected one, we sent it off, and found out it was canine distemper. A big part of my job is actually these partnerships and collaborations with researchers around me that can answer these things for us. It has to be collaborative. You can't just work in a vacuum and manage wildlife at Joshua.

Donovan: Whether it's leaving the buildup of dead palm fronds, also known as the skirt on the palm trees, to help provide habitat for bats or not taking your pets on trails to preventing big horn sheep from getting sick or even driving the speed limit to keep desert tortoises safe from getting struck by vehicles…there are many behaviors that we as visitors to this place can do to help wildlife populations, but there is a bigger issue that will need us to go beyond individual action in order to help Joshua Tree National Park’s wildlife.

Michael: The effects are starting to weave into so much of our management in national parks. What we're really seeing is changes in vegetation. I would have to say that with the changes in vegetation, you have changes in wildlife. And we're starting to see this now, we're starting to see certain species of birds moving up an elevation where they just can't survive at areas that have lower rainfall or they're experiencing more droughts. We're really seeing a bunch of issues in the park with shifts in wildlife where they're living. Even recruitment of certain plants, elevations that they once could grow, now they can't. But it is starting to get woven into every single one of the decisions around managing wildlife is this kind of unknown factor of what climate change will do. We have predictions, we have models for the park on different wildlife species. We have desert tortoise models where we've looked at climate change effects and pushed temperatures up and then these models tell us…they're not going to live in these big areas anymore. They're going to live in these smaller areas instead.

Ian: As the natural world changes around us, our relationship with wildlife shifts and changes. In turn, people worldwide have a variety of reasons for caring about wildlife. And it holds meaning in multiple contexts and cultures, whatever reason draws you to the natural landscape in hopes of spotting something alive and wild. It's important to remember that experiencing sightings of wildlife means you must pay attention. Turning on your listening ears and using your watchful eyes, paying attention to the world around you is an important way to show appreciation and love for our natural environments. And learning to pay attention can teach us a lot about a unique and special place.

Michael: Joshua Tree National Park watching wildlife in the desert is actually quite difficult. And that is just because deserts don't have a lot of abundance. Let’s say you're going into Olympic National Park up there where it's basically Pacific rainforest, you have a huge chance of seeing wildlife really around any bend, look over a rock, or under a log and you’re going to see something. In the desert, you need to be quiet, looking around, looking at your feet, looking out hundreds of yards and taking it slow. The other thing I would say is it really depends on the time of year. If you're going to be out in July and August the middle of the day looking for wildlife, you're going to have one heck of a hard time because, guess what? You're going to be the only one out in the middle of everything, in the middle of the hot day. Everything else is going to be down in their burrows or hidden or someplace where it's cooler than sitting out in the sun. So, timing is everything. In the springtime, in the desert, especially in Joshua Tree, when there's a wildflower bloom and all that's going on…that’s a really good time to see wildlife. There's a lot of things moving. Early morning hours and early evening hours. These are times when most of our critters are doing most of the foraging or feeding or whatever it might be. They limit their activity during the day. I would say, if you want to see a lot of wildlife in Joshua Tree, come in the spring and fall. Get up early and look for those critters moving around in the early morning and then the early evening. And you'll be surprised on the amount of wildlife that'll be running around.

Donovan: As interpreters, we want our visitors to see as much wildlife as they can while visiting the park. Honestly, nothing is better than getting to hear a junior ranger story of a kangaroo rat in their campsite, or a lifelong traveler's first encounter with a bobcat crossing the trail, and I got to say, I'm the same way.

Ian: I also wanna see those amazing creatures, but to ensure the chances of these sightings, we must make sure the population of wildlife within the park remains healthy. I always think of the words of scientists and author Robin Wall Kimmer: “to love a place is not enough. We must find ways to heal it. Healing and ensuring wildlife wellbeing can be the actions you take during a trip to Joshua Tree National Park, but can also be what you do within your own homes and.

Donovan: Exactly. And while in the park, there are a few easy steps that you can take that you've probably heard of before. Things like making sure that no trash gets left behind or driving the speed limit and not taking any pets on trails. Although many factors that are affecting wildlife that Michael mentioned might feel as if they are out of reach of change, but we have to start somewhere. Good practices of respecting wildlife while visiting the park and at home are just some of the many actions to lower our impacts.

Ian: Exactly. And sharing what you learn and continuing conversations is critical.

Donovan: Speaking of sharing what you learn, while working on this episode, did you learn any new animal facts in the process?

Ian: Uh oh. This again? Alright. It is probably that the desert tortoise can hold its bladder for over several months in order to combat periods of drought. Honestly, I can't even fathom living like that. Since living here, I've always subscribed to the stay hydrated lifestyle.

Donovan: Okay. Alright, well I guess we'll end on that. Have patience, be curious, and keep learning and stay hydrated apparently.

Donovan: Where Two Deserts Meet is an official production of Joshua Tree National Park, co-hosted and written by Donovan Smith and Ian Chadwick, produced and edited by Donovan Smith. We would like to extend special things to Michael Vamstad for taking the time to talk with us. Sharon Lee Hart for letting us use her artwork titled Split as the Cover Art for Where Two Deserts Meet and Bar Stool for their songs, Slow Lane Lover, Lanky, Lockley Fells and Feather Soft. For more information about the park, please visit our park website at www.nps.gov/jotr. Happy trails!