2nd Mammal Rally Finland

 

Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) our first species

At first, a bit of history:

Two years ago, the Finnish Mammalwatchers got an idea to arrange a Mammall Rally. The rules are almost the same as in Bird Rallies, the main difference is that in Mammal Rally, you are allowed to use mechanical and electronic aids, and also scents, to attract mammals.

The first ever Mammal Rally in Finland was held in June 2021, almost during summer solstice. It was a surprisingly bad timing at that time, twilight and night were too short, and the grasses were already too long, even large mammals, like Roe Deers, completely disappeared in them. We thought that by now in August all the fields would have been mowed and there would be a lot of young animals, i.e. more to see than in 2021.

Well, how was 2022? The fields were only half mowed and even the Roe Deers again disappeared into them. There were plenty of mammals in the fields, but the range of species in the fields was very limited; European Brown Hares, White-tailed Deers and Roe Deers. Besides, the pitch-dark night was already far too long, about 9 hours. Also, the hunting season had already started, which scared many mammals away.

This year, the 2nd Mammal Rally Finland was held on 26th -27th of August, from 6pm to 6pm. I joined to rally with my sons Petro and Roni. We had fun and we saw lots of mammals, especially European Brown Hares (Lepus europeaus), total of 140 of them! We found also 29 Roe Deers (Capreolus capreolus) and 26 White-tailed Deers (Odocoileus virgianianus). In addition to them we found 8 Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris), 1 Moose (Alces alces), 2 Red Foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 1 Raccoon Dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides ussuriensis), 1 Bank Vole (Clethrionomys glareolus), 2 Yellow-necked Mice (Apodemus flavicollis), 2 Northern Bats (Eptesicus nilssonii), appr. 10 Moustached / Brandt's Bats (Myotis mystacinus / brandtii), appr. 20 Daubenton's Bats (Myotis daubentonii), 1 Brown Long-eared Bat (Plecotus auritus), and 1 Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx) ! The Lynx was already the 3rd for me this year!

European Brown Hare (Lepus europaeus)

Most of the mammals we found between 9 pm and 3 am. During next day I saw only couple of red Squirrels, even though I spent whole afternoon in the forests, looking for shrews, voles and mice.

Our species count was 14, and it was enough for the 1st place in this rally. 5 of our species were species the other participant did not manage to see. He was Tom Ahlström and he participated solo. Tom's count was 10 species, and he managed to find one species we missed; Nathusius' pipistrelle (Pipistrellus nathusii).

So, there were only two teams in rally this year. Last year there were eight teams. What went wrong this year? I assume it was a wrong weekend, as the last weekend of August is always the Venetian Festival weekend.

Based on these two rallies, spring could be the best time, when the animals can't hide so easily, and in mid May the night / dusk would be suitably long. And in this case, e.g. predators are actively still on the move, looking for food for their puppies. Also all the bats are already in the flight.

And then it will be, the Mammal Rally Finland 2023. Come along, the ranking is not the most important thing in the rally, at least in the opinion of the winning team of 2022, but it was really nice to be on the move with my group and see many nice species.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Writer

Olli Haukkovaara
Valkeakoski
Finland