McNeese State University High School Field Biology Experience

For our final field activity, we were finally able to find a wadeable stream for seining and backpack electrofishing. Seining proved challenging due to the debris left behind by recent flooding, which is why backpack electrofishers are such an important tool for sampling a variety of stream habitats.

Despite the difficult conditions and relentless mosquitoes, students captured 15 species of fish! We were proud of their hard work and perseverance. They especially enjoyed the opportunity to observe and handle a diversity of smaller, but no less important, native fish species.

All fish were collected under the appropriate scientific permits and were released after sampling. Species list in comments.

This morning, students learned how to pin insects for an insect collection. This wasn’t one of our originally planned activities, but the rainy weather gave us the opportunity to try something new. We had to improvise with some of our materials, but the students had a great time learning the basics of insect preservation and are excited to take their specimens home.

The rainy weather forced us to cancel our evening snake trip last week, but fortunately we were able to reschedule it and got out last night. It was an extremely productive evening in the marsh and our students got to see feral hogs, a 9ft alligator crossing the road, a plethora of wading birds, and even a bobcat! The snakes were the stars of the show and we caught 15 individuals of 4 different species in just 1 1/2 hours!! Mississippi green watersnakes, salt marsh watersnakes, a ribbon snake, and a juvenile cottonmouth gave the students a great lesson in coastal snake diversity. This trip was conducted with proper permits and permission on a wildlife refuge closed to the public after sunset. This allows us to work safely on the roads and also reduces the amount of road mortality for the local snake population 🐍

After our visit to the Eunice Prairie, we traveled north to explore the hiking trails at the Louisiana State Arboretum in Chicot State Park. In contrast to the open grasslands of the Cajun Prairie, the arboretum protects a mosaic of forest habitats, including beech-magnolia and bottomland hardwood communities. Along the trails, students encountered towering beeches, sycamores, magnolias, hickories, and many other native plant species while experiencing a very different Louisiana ecosystem.

Today, students visited the Eunice Prairie, the oldest prairie restoration project in Louisiana. The Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society began restoring the site in 1988 and continues to manage it today. The Cajun Prairie once covered approximately 2.5 million acres across southwestern Louisiana. Today, fewer than 100 acres of intact prairie remain, scattered among small, isolated remnants.

Robby Maxwell, an LDWF fisheries biologist who is also involved in prairie restoration and native plant cultivation, guided students on a tour of the site. Along the way, students learned about the incredible diversity of native prairie plants and the importance of preserving and restoring this unique ecosystem.

While exploring the prairie, students used butterfly nets to collect and identify native pollinators and other insects associated with the habitat. Some specimens were preserved so students could learn proper insect pinning and curation techniques for a scientific collection.

Thank you to Robby Maxwell for sharing his knowledge of prairie ecology and restoration with our students. We also thank the Cajun Prairie Habitat Preservation Society for their continued efforts to preserve an important part of Louisiana’s natural heritage.

We received a lot of rain over the past few weeks, which has made our aquatic field activities challenging. Fortunately, we were still able to get students out on the Calcasieu River for some boat electrofishing!

After lunch, we visited the LDWF office, where students identified, weighed, and measured the fish we collected. They learned how this data is used by fisheries biologists to manage fish populations and observed a demonstration of how otoliths (ear bones) are removed and used to estimate the age of fish,

Thank you to LDWF inland fisheries biologists, Sean Kinney, Emily Freeman, and Beau Gregory for providing this outstanding learning opportunity for our students.

Happy father’s day!! Today the students spent the day on the gulf learning about coastal ecology. Maddie Byrne of the Audubon Institute gave a demonstration on dolphin and sea turtle stranding. They also enjoyed some time swimming, fishing, and shell hunting.