Camera Traps: Taking Care of Your Space in Nature

Like so many places in the US, the wildlife of High Mountain Preserve has yet to be fully documented. Students with camera traps are changing that.

I’m constantly amazed by the opportunity for adventure and conservation, even in the most unexpected places.

This summer I had the good fortune to visit High Mountain Preserve to learn more about research into threatened northern long-eared bats found there. High Mountain is owned by The Nature Conservancythe state of New Jersey, and Wayne Township. It’s situated in northern New Jersey, about 20 miles from New York City and right in the backyard of William Paterson University.

“People that live nearby, if they take care of their space, they take care of that wildlife,” says Laura Botero who spent the summer of 2016 with friends and fellow students Samantha (Sam) Craig and Dan Hansen camera trapping in High Mountain.

The students were inspired by Lance Risley, Professor of Biology’s passion for conservation science and wanted to lead a project with his guidance. Risley suggested that the students set up motion-activated camera traps to learn more about the wildlife on the preserve and see if cats are frequent visitors.

For two and a half months the students moved two camera traps around the 1,260-acre preserve, exploring every corner along the way. On average, they moved the cameras every two weeks. While setting the cameras up they were entertained by wildlife sightings including an owl being harried by smaller birds and a flying squirrel climbing up a nearby tree.

[simplechart id=”61484″]

Like so many places in the US, the wildlife of the preserve has yet to be fully documented. While the students didn’t find anything unexpected, their observations confirm that the preserve provides a refuge for foxes, turkeys, chipmunks, deer, and even rarer visitors like coyotes. They only saw two cats during the course of the project, one with what may have been a bird in its mouth; this was a lower incidence of neighborhood and feral cats than expected.

It made me more aware of myself and how I impact my surroundings — the way we take care of campus protects that forest.

Laura Botero

But data doesn’t have to be surprising to be valuable to science – the students showed that the preserve contains a wide array of wildlife typical of the region and is therefore of interest for further ecological study. Sometimes people assume that wildlife or nature are things to travel to see, overlooking the richness of natural areas and “common” species nearby.

“Every day that you’re hiking and you’re not hearing cars, you notice more,” says Laura. “I can’t believe all of this is here. It made me more aware of myself and how I impact my surroundings — the way we take care of campus protects that forest.”

Raccoon at High Mountain Preserve.

For Laura, the importance of the project is not just in the record of wildlife found, but in realizing that even in the city our actions have the chance to help or harm wildlife. You don’t have to be an ecologist or professional conservationist to have an impact. For instance, the campus community helps keep High Mountain Preserve healthy by recycling, picking up trash, and taking steps to keep water clean — all things that we can each contribute to in our own neighborhoods.

Trail camera studies of wildlife aren’t limited to universities; you can participate too. Several citizen science projects rely on the public to identify wildlife from camera trap photos, and trail cams have gotten inexpensive enough that many people are setting them up on their property or in their neighborhood park (with proper public permits) to get a candid shots of the wild things that come out when we’re not around.

Camera Trap Highlights

Deer at High Mountain Preserve.
Fox at High Mountain Preserve.
Skunk at High Mountain Preserve.
Turkeys at High Mountain Preserve.
Deer at High Mountain Preserve.
Coyotes at High Mountain Preserve.
Cat at High Mountain Preserve.

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15 comments

  1. Mary J. Neu says:

    Beautiful photography and wonderful to educate the students (well really all of us) on the importance of protected our wildlife we can all do our part for the sake of our environment. Thank you

  2. Jamie Kincaid says:

    That was a brilliant idea to set up cameras and knowledge for everyone

  3. Lawrence S. Swanson says:

    A feral cat, with one of the millions of songbirds and/or small mammals they kill each year. People who value feral cats over native species have no real perspective, IMO.

  4. Lauren @ Pure Text says:

    This was wonderful! It’s true: sometimes nature is closer to home than we realize. We just don’t think about it. I have to make more time for nature, for hiking. Luckily, Concord, NH, where I live, has numerous trails.

    Love the chart and the pictures.

  5. Judy says:

    There is one picture of a deer that shows its rib cage. That isn’t good for the deer. What can you do for it and others in that shape

    1. Lisa Feldkamp says:

      Hi Judy, Thank you for your concern! Here is some interesting information from the Michigan DNR on malnutrition and starvation in wildlife: http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10370_12150_12220-26946–,00.html
      For the record I’m not sure that this deer is malnourished or starving, it may be underweight without meeting the criteria for those conditions.

  6. Eve Ilsen says:

    Beautiful! Thank you—
    Eve I.

  7. Dan O. De Ment says:

    Great work, my friend.

  8. Virgene Link-New says:

    Wonderful pictures and a great idea. Isn’t nature wonderful. Something we all need to refresh us and fill us with wonder and appreciation.
    Looks to me like a rodent in the cat’s mouth. More blame game?
    Thanks.

  9. Stephen Bailey says:

    Great photos, great subject, great projects- just one request PLEASE-
    PROOFREAD YOUR TEXTS BEFORE PUTTING THEM OUT!
    For many people, and I happen to be one of them, incomplete sentences, spelling errors, omitted words, etc, are significantly disturbing, distracting, and create doubt as to veracity, validity, and the competance of the writer. PLEASE, CHECK YOUR WORK! Know also that your works are MODELS for the kids and younger ones (for all of us, really), and they NEED to see competent work, whatever form it may take.
    I see so much faulty text, much of it in docs that are VITALLY crucial to our very survival as a species, much less all life on Earth (many petition sites, political, conservational, sites that one would think would ALWAYS, UNFAILINGLY BE PROOFREAD), and I am truly shocked at the obvious lack of attention given to work that MILLIONS OF PEOPLE are going to be reading! The operational word here is NEGLECT, and this haphazard treatment of important texts says, in so many misspelled words, I REALLY DON’T CARE, I’M NOT REALLY CONCERNED how my faulty work affects my readers, or my degree of success in getting my message across.
    Enough said, more than enough maybe, but in this case I believe that too much is better than not enough. I’m going to sign off AS SOON AS I CHECK MY TEXT!

  10. Stephen Bailey says:

    Lisa,
    I’m the guy that just criticized your failure to PROOFREAD your previous article. So I go to this article, and thankfully, find the text error-free. Then I read (just above) that you have a PhD in LITERATURE AND LANGUAGES! What am I missing here??? Are you giving a draft to someone else to enter into the article and THEY aren’t checking their work? Bottom line, ANYONE with your creds should be certain that their PUBLISHED (on-line or otherwise) WORK is error free! If for no other reason than that of maintaining your professional reputation!
    Nuff said-
    Sinserelee, and with all due Respekt,

    One truly enthusiastic fan!