Poems and Thoughts    by Frank Maurer

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Campangol. (Campanyol) My study creature of choice in graduate school Was the ubiquitous Meadow Vole, Microtus pennsylvanicus. My base study area at Cornell was an open field laced with hay bales. To be really efficient, in addition to the use of traps, Was to quietly approach a bale and suddenly flip it. Then there was a dive and a scramble, Scooping up whatever was moving. Proper mothers and offspring were often collected together, Preserving the accurate genetic line in one fell swoop! Many years later, I find myself in California, Surreptitiously meeting a professor studying the large Microtus of the West. We hit it off, friendship wise, as biologists often do; with.us, the binding Microtus! And, of course, as I have learned in my now home of 45 years, Our belov-ed tiny mammal in Spanish is Campangol (Campanyol) (the mouse of the field)! Frank Maurer 26 December 2022 0940 AM