A Week in the Life of an Ecology Student

In summer 2019, back before the whole COVID-19 pandemic, I took a class called Animal Ecology. The class was all about how animals interact with each other and with the environment. If you love animals, the class was a whole lot of fun!

During the class, we had the chance to go on an 8-day field trip to observe many animal species in different parts of Colorado. We saw a ton of different animals: from insects to birds, and from fish to moose! I wish we could actually go on the trip, but since we can’t road trip over the internet, here is a little recap of my field trip.

Our first stop was at the Orient Mine in Moffat, Colorado to observe some Mexican free-tailed bats. About 250,000 bats migrate north from South America to sleep inside the mine every summer, and that number is as big as it sounds. Check out the video below to see just how many bats there were! We watched the bats fly out of the cave for about an hour before it got too dark to see.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/ebc7cc_5621adae7a1f460fbb17f1a96cfec33e/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Our next stop was the Yampa River near Dinosaur National Monument. We used fish-finding backpacks and fishing nets to catch fish from the river, and measured them after catching them. Our class caught a lot of different fish and learned all about which fish are native and which are introduced!

Our last stop was Rocky Mountain National Park in Northern Colorado. We saw a bunch of different animals in the park, the most noticeable being a whole lot of elk. In late summer/ early fall, elk are looking for love and their mating calls make them pretty easy to find. We had to keep our distance so the video is a little blurry, but check it out below!

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/ebc7cc_a8552bdbe3d94b16bdc32b569ba79496/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Over the 8 days of our trip, we saw and learned a lot more about animals than what I wrote here. You can learn even more about animals by (safely!) observing them in person. If you try to find or learn about any animals in person, make sure to ask a parent, keep your distance, and stay safe!

Sincerely,

Matthew Luzincourt ’21

m_luzincourt@coloradocollege.edu