Tools and Techniques

Checklists of plant and animal species one might see in a particular place make useful notebooks for recording sightings.  Sometimes called life lists, such notebooks take the place of the stamps, coins, and arrowheads collected by others.  Though their objects are different, all collectors want to protect their collections.  They are all curators or conservationists.  Checklists are one of the basic tools for nature conservation.

The photograph shows a Rock Squirrel on a fence post.  Normally seen serving as sentries atop boulders, this one lives in a colony near the Agua Fria River in Dewey-Humboldt, AZ, an area lacking boulders.