What mammal would dig up sand over and over?

[BenIsAlive]

habitat looked like this. very open canpopy area. probably a peraglacial dune. seems natural except for one fence post I found. very large area.

digs look like this

I would say in that area I found 15 digs like this ranging form these ones that look like big scrapes, to deep digs going more strait down. I've never seen so much mammal activity in one place before. Any suggestions of what mammal this was? grey fox or Coyote? what would they be looking for?

 

[46er]

I think it might have been Tee looking for stones

Sorry Tee

 

[ecampbell]

Yotes

 

[Teegate]

I bet manumuskin has been there. Not digging...just has been there.

 

[BenIsAlive]

If its coyotes, and they are digging all around in that area, is it fair to presume there is a den very close by? like a big hole in the ground?

 

[bobpbx]

That was where Jess rubbed her butt against the ground getting that mud off.

 

[Teegate]

Good one Bob

 

[manumuskin]

That is my kind of place.Can't say as I recognize it.If you throw a map link I could tell you if I"ve been there.As far as the digs I"d have to go with coyote by the pics,turkey don't dig holes,they scratch. Id have to say these dune islands are my favorite habitats of all.

 

[Spung-Man]

A lot of lichen-dominated open areas in the Pinelands are are windblown sand piles like dunes or coversand (flat sheets of sand). These landforms were generated under cold, nonglacial (periglacial) conditions during the Pleistocene when an immense ice sheet parked in North Jersey. My house is built on a barely perceptible proto-dune, which raises it a couple feet above coversand.

Here's a possible origin of the excavations. I’ve seen squirrels, raccoons, and skunks dig next to the house for underground black mushrooms that to my untrained eyes look just like truffles leaving patches like those above. Critters would dig up the snapdragons to get at the earth candy. I would love to show some to a good mycologist. Wouldn’t it be cool to train a pig to forage for truffles? I could give the porker a name like Arnold Ziffel, instead of the customary Cool Ham Luke or Makin’ Bacon.

 

[bobpbx]

A lot of lichen-dominated open areas in the Pinelands are are windblown sand piles like dunes or coversand (flat sheets of sand). These landforms were generated under cold, nonglacial (periglacial) conditions during the Pleistocene when an immense ice sheet parked in North Jersey. My house is built on a barely perceptible proto-dune, which raises it a couple feet above coversand.

Here's a possible origin of the excavations. I’ve seen squirrels, raccoons, and skunks dig next to the house for underground black mushrooms that to my untrained eyes look just like truffles leaving patches like those above. Critters would dig up the snapdragons to get at the earth candy. I would love to show some to a good mycologist. Wouldn’t it be cool to train a pig to forage for truffles? I could give the porker a name like Arnold Ziffel, instead of the customary Cool Ham Luke or Makin’ Bacon.

Mark, that term periglacial (the way you use it) confuses me when I read the definition. Do you mean (when you say "nonglacial" (periglacial)) that the dune is a landform generated at the periphery of the nearby glacier that was north of us, or do you mean landform conditions as if a glacier would be nearby (without there actually being a glacier nearby)? If the former is true, wouldn't it be less confusing to just say periglacial conditions when an immense ice sheet parked in North Jersey?

 

[Spung-Man]

The term ‘periglacial’ was coined in 1909 by Walery von Lozinski to describe the intense weathering of sandstone in the Carpathian Mountains of Poland. The Carpathians is where my mom’s side of the family is from (Lemko people, a Ukrainian sub-group). Lozinski noted cracked boulder fields like the ones we see in New Jersey’s Sourlands and around Princeton. The boulders were not glacial till, but shattering byproducts caused by intensely cold desertlike conditions that existed beyond the ice sheets.

There are really no good modern analogs for Lozinski use of periglacial since we experienced mid-latitude past permafrost and deep seasonal frost. See my extended NASA abstract and American Geophysical Union poster for geeky details:

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/dunes2012/pdf/7041.pdf

http://loki.stockton.edu/~demitrom/eolian_files/Screen shot 2015-03-23 at 8.32.03 PM.jpg​

Suffice it to say that ice age environments are terrible places for humans – cold, dry, windy, and dusty places. They are the evil antithesis to global warming. The Pleistocene climate was unstable. There were wild swings in temperature and precipitation that made things difficult to establish stable plant communities.

FULL ICE AGE CONDITIONAL TERMS:

Glacial Environment – The area covered by the Laurentide Ice Sheet (above Turnpike Exit 11).

Proglacial Environment – The narrow strip of land just in front of the Ice Sheet (between Turnpike Exits 9–11; Long Island).

Periglacial Environment – The area not covered by ice (South Jersey), but greatly influenced by the Ice Sheet.​

During the coldest episodes, Pine Barrens ground was frozen solid year-round in permafrost, with only the top couple feet thawing in summer. Permafrost, a condition, simply means that the ground remains below 32º F for at least two years. Do not confuse this term with ground ice, which may or may not be present in permafrost. A rock that remains below 32º F for at least two years is in permafrost. Frozen ground extended southward to the North Carolina border with isolated patches of permafrost, and intense deep seasonal frost continued even further south. Deep seasonal frost is a periglacial environment too.

South Jersey is a unique landscape, being the only ice marginal, periglacial coastal plain in North America. Its great biodiversity and unusual cultural adaptation can be attributed to South Jersey's great geodiversity – a periglacial heritage.

S-M

Pineys “know that their environment is unusual and they know why they value it”
John McPhee 1968: 56

Geodiversity – Valuing and Conserving Abiotic Nature
Gray 2004​

 

[bobpbx]

Thank you Mark. It seems you answered my question. The below phrases mean the same thing:

..."landforms were generated under cold, nonglacial (periglacial) conditions"

...."landforms were generated under cold, periglacial conditions"

 

[Spung-Man]

The below phrases mean the same thing:

..."landforms were generated under cold, nonglacial (periglacial) conditions"

...."landforms were generated under cold, periglacial conditions"

Bob, the periglacial domain is a difficult concept! Large areas of the Earth's land surface have been dominated by cold, dry, windy, and dusty—periglacial—conditions for much of the last couple million years. That's the planet's normal. Icebergs floated off the North Carolina coast. Europeans have studied this discipline for over a century and have written thousands of papers on the topic.

There has been much less interest in periglacial geomorphology on this side of the puddle, being the Rodney Dangerfield of the geomorphology field (don't get no respect, I tell ya...). Most people think of ice sheets during the Pleistocene, evoking dramatic pictures of giant rock-crushing glaciers. Periglacial processes are much more nuanced, much like the Pine Barrens landscape. But you know that this place is not just a flat monotonous plain, but a surprisingly complex but subtle ecosystem with curious, often perplexing landforms.

Link to more information:

http://loki.stockton.edu/~demitrom/geodiversity.html ​

 

[manumuskin]

A lot of lichen-dominated open areas in the Pinelands are are windblown sand piles like dunes or coversand (flat sheets of sand). These landforms were generated under cold, nonglacial (periglacial) conditions during the Pleistocene when an immense ice sheet parked in North Jersey. My house is built on a barely perceptible proto-dune, which raises it a couple feet above coversand.

Here's a possible origin of the excavations. I’ve seen squirrels, raccoons, and skunks dig next to the house for underground black mushrooms that to my untrained eyes look just like truffles leaving patches like those above. Critters would dig up the snapdragons to get at the earth candy. I would love to show some to a good mycologist. Wouldn’t it be cool to train a pig to forage for truffles? I could give the porker a name like Arnold Ziffel, instead of the customary Cool Ham Luke or Makin’ Bacon.

Pigs are used to hunt truffles but the big problem with pigs is that they will eat the truffles if your not on top of em to snatch it away from them.Dogs are trained as well to hunt them and the dogs will not eat them but they are not near as good at it as the pigs are.

 

[smoke_jumper]

Pigs are used to hunt truffles but the big problem with pigs is that they will eat the truffles if your not on top of em to snatch it away from them.Dogs are trained as well to hunt them and the dogs will not eat them but they are not near as good at it as the pigs are.

I was thinking possibly pigs too. I do know there are populations out there but I think most aren't in the pines.

 

[manumuskin]

I have a friend who is big into mushrooms and I"ve been reading up on them and going shrooming with him a lot lately and just read a good article on truffles and this is where I got the info on dogs vs, pigs in truffle hunting.The short of it was pigs are better at it but you have to fight them for the truffles.Dogs somewhat inferior but have no interest in eating them.

 

[BenIsAlive]

Thank you for the Periglacial explanation. I've herd the name thrown around and never really new what it meant.

In Florida I've seen areas totally tore up by wild boars. This reminded me of it. I doubt there are boars here though. if anything it wasn't destructive enough to be a boar. The area is too remote for domestic animals I presume.

I've seen skunk digs, and they look nothing like this.

If it was coyotes, what would they be hunting for?
Some people voted coyotes, but I can't find much on the internet about digging behavior in coyotes.

 

[manumuskin]

coyotes will dig snakes,mice even for insects.Skunks dig holes,the shape of these is more shaped like a dog scratch.

 

[Pinesbucks]

I have sometimes seen deer clear the leaves and needles to make beds to lie in. Put a trail camera up there. We will find this mysterious digger.

 

[Gibby]

Look for prints or dig marks next time. I have seen raccoons, skunks, fox and 'yotes digging the same way. Don't put off the idea of bears either. I have seen bear tracks on Haines property and Parker Preserve.