Wildlife Tracking Research
Fall 2012 Semester
Context
Wild landscapes are always changing. Natural processes have drastically reshaped the entire region of New York State for thousands of years since the last ice age. In the 1800s humans altered the landscape significantly across the southern tier of New York by clearing hundreds of acres of productive agricultural land. Within the last century many of these farms were sold and succession began. As a result, old agricultural stonewalls are now ubiquitous landscape features throughout the successional forests of the Ithaca area. I found stonewalls to be a fascinating feature of the local forested landscape and wondered how their presence affected the activity of wildlife. With some past knowledge of animal activity and the tendency of animals to use heavily traveled pathways, I intuitively thought that stonewalls may be one such main avenue of travel.
Focus
I focused on studying stonewall areas by looking for evidence of bobcats and their prey species.
Hypothesis
Stonewalls would be a very likely travel pathway or hunting ground for local carnivores such as the Bobcat.
Methods
-Tracking plates: Collaborating with another student working on tracking plates, we used an experimental tracking plate design which involved painting a mixture of denatured alcohol and plumbers chalk onto 12” x 12” vinyl tiles. The alcohol evaporates and the black chalk left behind is simply Carbon. We placed the tiles along stonewalls and in control areas away from stonewalls. When an animal steps onto the tracking plate a negative impression of the print is left behind.
-Motion sensor cameras: I placed wildlife motion sensor cameras facing the stonewalls as well, so as to catch any animal which may have avoided stepping onto one of the tracking plates.
Conclusions
Much of this first semester’s work was trial and error which contributed to my second semester being much more successful. For example, the motion cameras were very old and unreliable, with a 60 second delay between pictures. This meant the cameras failed to capture many animals at all. Also, as winter approached (which is October in Ithaca…) I found that the tracking plates were very often getting ruined by snow and ice, leaving me with little tracking plate data.
Spring 2013 Semester
"Monitoring Medium-Sized Carnivore Activity Using Non-Invasive Tracking Methods"
Goal
How can we observe daily routines of animals without disrupting their behavior?
Methods
Testing non-invasive tracking techniques:
1. Tracking plates
The tracking plate method was the same as first semester, but only employed after the harsh winter weather had passed.
2. Wildlife cameras
For this portion of the project we ordered new Reconyx motion sensor cameras which were far superior to the cameras used first semester. The cameras took accurate, rapid pictures of any animal movement. I placed the cameras in areas facing the tracking plates on the ground. The purpose was to begin to create a working catalogue that matched individual animal prints (on the tracking plates) to pictures of that individual animal at known locations throughout Ithaca College’s Natural Lands.
3. Substrate tracking
In the first semester I discovered that tracking plates are simply not viable in winter. To adapt to this challenge, I used the usual fresh snowfall in Ithaca as a natural tracking surface. I used a GPS unit to follow animal tracks and ultimately make a working map of animal routines and behavior on Ithaca College Natural Lands. I not only mapped the lines of routine animal trails for species such as Red Fox, Grey Fox, Opossum, Raccoon, Rabbit, Skunk and Bobcat but also other sign such as scat and eating sites.
Conclusions
Given the recent finding of the bobcat, I have changed the shape of this research project to focus on locating that bobcat again. I plan to radiate out from the sighting location in hopes of finding it in the surrounding area again. I want to know where it is coming from and where it is going. Of particular interest is if it routinely crosses 96 B, which divides Ithaca College property. This project has also shown that these methods can be used more readily by average trackers in comparison to methods like radio-collaring which can only be done by professionals. I believe that a combination of all of the techniques would be the strongest because of sure confirmation of species occurrence. Combining GPS tracking, tracking plates, and cameras also lays the groundwork for the compiling of a wildlife catalogue that matches individual animal pictures with tracks and a precise location.