Range Studies Explain Tidbits About the Wild

Are you curious about the potential of hamsters to breed in the wild?

Do you care about pocket gophers gnawing on electrical cables?

Did you ever wonder about the value of acorns in the diet of steers?

If so, you can find the answers in research reports from an experimental cattle range in the Sierra Nevada foothills.

Most recent studies sound highly technical, covering topics such as the effect of nitrogen and sulfur fertilizers on clover yield and the value of point counts in oak and pine woodlands.

But a directory listing studies performed at the San Joaquin Experimental Station in eastern Madera County since it was founded in 1934 reflect a time when scientific examination was less rigorous.

Dreaded Golden Hamsters

A 1959 study of domestic golden hamsters concluded that they could become a serious pest if they bred in areas with a good food supply and ground cover, but the prediction hasn’t panned out.

Gophers studied in 1953 chewed through non-metallic cables, but results weren’t clear when it came to munching small wires and sturdy metal.

Kenneth Wagnon warned in the title of a 1943 study that “great steers from little acorns do not grow.” The study explained that cattle fed acorns in a dry year suffered severe weight loss without a protein supplement.

Oddities in individual animals were enough to prompt three reports by Walter Howard.

Frogs, Birds, Snakes

Howard examined a black mouse with white feet in 1957 and a bullfrog that caught a brown towhee bird in 1950. A 1949 study entitled “Gopher Snake Killed Trying to Swallow Cottontail (rabbit)” finds “a factor which may occasionally account for some deaths of snakes.”

A 1980 report on the feeding habits of 8,300 game birds relied on 38 years of stomach analyses. A study of 21 species of parasites found 520 mammal hosts, including man.

Animal diets were the subject of numerous reports.

In 1953, Henry Childs Jr. reported a preference by raccoons for albino tadpoles.

Not too surprisingly, sweet-toothed calves liked poor quality forage after it was sprayed with molasses.

Advice on the best size of bait to get rid of pocket gophers indicated that bite-sized was best.

Ranchers who left culled potatoes in their pastures for cattle feed were warned to “guard those spuds” in a 1951 report that noted “voracious squirrels show an appetite” for them.

A 1946 study of rattlesnake stomach contents showed their penchant for squirrels. Then a 1978 study of squirrel behavior found both those experienced and inexperienced with snakes reacted in similar ways when confronted with the predators.

Ranch maintenance also was a pertinent subject for research.

Concern over wood’s ability to withstand the summer heat and winter fog of the foothills produced studies on the weathering characteristics of fence posts and 32 types of particle board.

Ranchers were warned against a generally accepted practice in a report “in defense of blue oaks.” The thinking that blue oaks were bad for forage was disproved by a researcher who found forage production was almost double under blue oaks and decreased when trees died or were cut down.

A study showed that the relatively harsh foothill climate and standard tilling practices improve the growth of California poppies, indicating that protecting the state flower with mulch might not be advisable.

Those more interested in technical studies might refer to a “Multivariate Analysis of the Introgressive Replacement of Clarkia Nitens by Clarkia Speciosa Polyantha.”