| The difference between rat and mouse | ||
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| Rat Rattus norvegicus Bergenhout, 1769 | ||
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| Mink Mustela vision Schreber, 1777 | ||
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This mink was shot in Tórshavn 01.10.2011. It is believed to have traveled from Hirtsals in Denmark to the Faroe Islands onboard the ferry Norrøna. The shooters were excellent as you can see. So was the taxidermist, who stuffed the mink. The eye-teeth's on the mink were broken, so the mink has most likely escaped from captivity. Photographs are sent to an expert, so we are just waiting for his reply. |
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Wild mink does not exist in the Faroese nature, and let's hope, it stays that way! |
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| Ringed seal puppy Phoca hispida seen near Suðuroy | ||
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| Soprano Pipistrelle Bat Pipistrellus pygmaeus | ||
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18. April 2011 Siggert Patursson found a Soprano Pipistrelle bat Pipistrellus pygmaeus (55 KhZ ) in Tórshavn. |
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| Soprano Pipistrelle bat Pipistrellus pygmaeus is only found once earlier in Faroe Islands, in Sandoy November 1993. | ||
| N.B. Until now 2 bats are found in Faroe Islands in 2011. Hans Meinhard í Eyðansstovu found the first in Mykines 24. February. The species is not determined yet. | ||
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Parti-Coloured Bat Vespertilio murinus |
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12. September 2010 Trygvi Midjord observed a Bat on the neighbor house. Rúni Thomsen photographed the Bat and caught it. |
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14. september 2010: We must have a regular Bat-invasion at the moment! According to Hjørdis Hávarsá at least 3 or 4 Bats fly around in Norðoyri on Borðoy. Simultaneously at least 4 Bats fly around in the village of Nólsoy. |
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14. October 2010 20 persons have observed at least 30 different Bats, seen in the Faroe Islands so far this year. |
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| Nathusiu's pipistrelle Bat Pipistrellus nathusii |  |
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Sound recording of Nathusiu's pipistrelle Bat in Nólsoy September 2010  |
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| Sheep eating seaweed to get salt and iodine | ||
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| Nathusiu's pipistrelle Bat Pipistrellus nathusii found on Nólsoy 16.01.2010 | ||
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16. januar 2010 Mikkjal Holm found an almost dead Nathusius’s Pipistrelle Bat hanging on the wall of the grocery Matvørubúðin, owned by Hervør Hansen, Nólsoy. It was a male with the weight of only 5.5g. This is the second Nathusius’s Pipistrelle Bat ever found in the Faroes in January - the first was found in Sumba, Suðuroy 09.01.1992. |
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| Bats are seen in the Faroe Islands the whole year except from in April. | ||
| The research of the Faroese mice continues | ||
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| Dr. Yingguang Frank Chan (CV) works with mice at the Max-Planck-Institut in Germany. | ||
| In one year M.Sc. Emilie Hardouin will be finished with her Phd project about mice from the Antarctic regions at the same Institute. Visit Emilie Hardouin's website | ||
Dr. Eleanor Jones' (see below) research showed, that the Faroese house mouse is very special. On some islands they are very big, inbred and have very little variation in the DNA. Dr. Chan needed these mice in his work, so he came to the Faroe Islands together with Emilie Hardouin to catch some of these mice, which they brought back with them to Germany. There they will cross-breed them with German lab mice. Ms Hardouin will also do some research with their adaptability in hard environments as in the Faroes. |
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| It will indeed be very interesting to see the result of this research! | ||
| I think it is a very interesting detail, that 2 mice died very fast after entering Germany because of the luxury junk diet. Many of the others mice were in poor condition as well, but after changing the diet to "Faroese proper mouse food" they recovered immediately. | ||
| Frank Chan's photo gallery on Flickr | ||
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Very interesting research called Of mice and (viking?) men |
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| 1. October 2008 we read on the news from BBC, that a very interesting article was published about how DNA from mice could prove, how people had settled up through Great Britain. | ||
| All my life I have been interested in mice - as so many other things. Late in 1970 I started to collect Faroese mice for later research. Through Dánjal Petur Højgaard I came in connection with Eleanor Jones in the autumn of 2005. She is studying at the University of York, and that's how Faroe Islands were included in this "Viking-mice-investigation". Eyðfinn Magnussen were included as well as 2 of his pupils, which later wrote their BSc Thesis - of course about the Faroese mouse - in cooperation with the University of York. Eleanor Jones has visited Faroe Islands, and she spent one day in Nólsoy, where I handed over my gift to this DNA investigation - 2 kilos of Faroese mice. |
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| At the moment Eleanor is looking into the connection between the mice from among other Orkney and those from the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland and New Foundland. We are of course looking very much foreward for the result of this investigation. | ||
Old pregnant Grey seal dead in Nólsoy |
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| 17. September 2008 an old pregnant Grey seal crawled ashore in Halgatoft in Nólsoy and lay down to die. The biologist Bjarni Mikkelsen says, that he has seen seals, that were 27 years old, and their teeth were in splendid condition compared to the teeth of the poor animal on the photographs. I estimate the age of this Grey seal to be somewhere between 30 to 40 years. I have never before seen such worn teeth on any seal. The length of the mother was 195 cm from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail. The unborn puppy was 87 cm. long. |
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Nathusius' pipistrelle bat caught in Nólsoy |
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Average size: Body length 46 - 55 mm, weight 6 - 15,5 g, ear length 10 - 14 mm, wingspan 220 - 250 mm. |
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Tuesday 15. September 2008 people on Nólsoy observed at least 2 Nathusius' pipistrelle bats flying around in the village. "The fat was in the fire", but then Jens-Kjeld came upon a good idea - he took of the net of his "fleygastong", which is a ketcher used to catch birds with in flight and mounted this on a net with much smaller meshes. The day after a local hunter - René Hansen, succeeded in catching one of the bats. It is necessary to be very careful, when you are handling living bats, since they could be infected with rabies. |
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The first Nathusius' pipistrelle bat was registered in the Faroe Islands in 1987. Since then it is registered 7 times, so Nathusius' pipistrelle bat is the most common bat in the Faroe Islands. |
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| Most probably they reach Faroe Islands, because they get off course during their migration. They can fly long distances, since a marked species did fly as far as 1600 km. | ||
| And - bats are not blind, they rest in the day and are active in the night. They observe any movement and obstacles in the night with their ultrasound. | ||
| Nathusius' pipistrelle bat is rare in Western Europe and more common in Eastern Europe. It spreads from Eastern Europe to Ural, Caucasus and Western Asia Minor. It is observed in Scandinavia, though rarely in Sweden and is more common in Mid-Spain and Southern Portugal. It was not known to breed in Great Britain until as recently as 1997. | ||
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The hare in Nólsoy |
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| It is very important to set out hares from the other islands to avoid inbreeding among the hares in Nólsoy. This young female hare came from Oyri in Eysturoy in 2004. She was marked with a plastic earring, so that we could recognize her, in case she was shot. We haven't heard from her yet, so hopefully she is still running around somewhere in the field in Nólsoy. |  |
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Stranded Grey seal puppy Halichoerus grypus |
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| Saturday evening 29. December 2007, this starved Grey Seal puppy was seen in Stokkvík in Nólsoy. Grey seal breeds in November and December, and we estimated the age to be approximately 1 month, since the puppy still had some of the white fur. Most probably the puppy was washed out from the breeding cages for the seals during the last storm, wherafter it has been cut off from the mother. The read painting/patent on its head and body most likely comes from the net from a salmon farm. |  |
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Harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena visiting Nólsoy in 2007 |
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Harbour seal Phoca vitulina visiting Nólsoy in 2001 |
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Walrus Odobenus rosmarus visiting Nólsoy in 1998 |
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| Observations of Walrus Odobenus rosmarus in Faroe Islands | ||
There are 17 observations of Walrus in the Faroe Islands since about 1810. We believe, there have been 14 different animals, whereof the 3 were observed on Nólsoy. |
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Bearded seal Erignathus barbatus visiting Nólsoy in 1995 |
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| And Eysturoy in 2010 | ||
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This Grey seal puppy Halichoerus grypus payed Nólsoy a visit in 1986 |
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| Grey seal is very colorful. The males are dark/black with various amount of white spots (some of the males on the photographs have a lot of white fur all over the body). The females are grey/silver colored on the back and they have a lighter breast with spots. The younger seals are lighter in the colour, but they can be brown - as you can see on the photographs. The photographs below show the distribution and various age in a seal population: mostly young seals of various age, some few males and approximately 20-25% females. |
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| Author: Bjarni Mikkelsen, biologist | ||
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Hooded seal puppy "Blue bag" Cystophora cristata visiting Nólsoy in 1984 |
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