lillianniccum's Journal

This assignment was rather challenging for me as I took photos of multiple plants in different locations over the course of several days and did not manage to find many relevant species for our class. I was able to see and learn about a lot of beautiful new plants, but did not find hardly any of the ones on the list. As far as my methods, I looked up each species on the list to see what it looked like and where it was commonly found. I then took pictures of several plants that I found in nature out and about and photographed them if they were unique or especially if they resembled the ones on the list. I did not necessarily pursue any of these species because I figured that they were fairly common and I would be able to find them without going on a scavenger hunt. However, this apparently was not the best method to approach this assignment with because as I said above, I was pretty unsuccessful. In the future, I will take better note of what the target species look like so I know better what/where to look.

In my observations of the cottontail, I have noticed a few things about their typical environment. Around campus, they can often be found in the grassy areas on campus, on French Hill, and in the bushes. They also come out in large numbers at night. In places where shelter (bushes, shrubs, artificial structures) is present, they are often harder to see because they like to be covered. In looking at maps of observations of the cottontails, there is a higher frequency of observations in places that are at lower elevations and have a higher human population. It is unclear whether this is because more humans=more observations or because the rabbits have more of a realized niche in areas where humans are present (more water, more grass, more shelter...). The fundamental nice is most definitely a larger area that encompasses a large part of the American southwest, including temperate weather, low elevation, and some source of food and moisture.