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This month is the final installment from our elk update for Clam Lake in 2016. For previous elk updates please refer to our April and May newsletters.
Bulls, antlerless, and calves were seen at different cameras
throughout the study area. Antlerless animals were seen at the most cameras 35 (29% of
active cameras), followed by bulls 31 (26% of active cameras), and calves 20 (17%
of active cameras). The image below shows camera
sites where bulls, antlerless, and calves were seen (purple circles) and not
seen (open circles) from a grid of 120 active trail cameras centered near Clam
Lake, WI. Active trail cameras recorded photos for at least one day between
01-01-2016 and 12-31-2016. The images indicate that the bulls are using more of the area available to them (and likely beyond the camera grid) while the antlerless and calves are staying in the more interior area of the camera grid. In the future we hope to use this type of information to better understand why the elk are using certain areas over other areas. The town of Clam Lake is near the center point of the elk grid area shown.
John Clare
is a PhD student in the department of Forest Wildlife Ecology at
the University of Wisconsin - Madison. He received his BA in
Environmental Science - Ecology from Bates College before spending several
years as a wildlife technician in various locations between Minnesota and
the Pacific coast. He received his MS in Natural Resources -
Wildlife Ecology from the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. Much
of his experience has dealt with sampling low-density species using
non-invasive techniques (e.g., trail cameras, track-plates, hair-catches,
scat-collecting dogs) in order to better understand species distribution
and abundance. John's work with Snapshot Wisconsin includes developing methods
to estimate population parameters while accounting for observation error,
and investigating how seasonal changes influence the space-use of animal
species and the structure of animal communities. Outside of the office,
John spends his time playing and watching basketball/music, hiking, skiing, and
most anything else that is active and/or outside. |
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If you have ever wanted a behind the scenes look at what is involved in becoming a Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera host sign up for our upcoming field trip (our
trip is #111 - click "REGISTER NOW" at the top of the screen and use
passcode JoinNRF if you aren't already a member). We will be visiting a Snapshot Wisconsin camera site in Iowa County on June 26th. This is a great opportunity to learn about our project and see a property that has had extensive prairie, oak savanna and stream restoration work done. The image shown here is one of many beautiful photos that we have captured on this property!
Membership with Natural Resources Foundation is required to signup but discounted first time memberships are available when you register for the field trip. NRF is a great local organization that raises funds for conservation work throughout Wisconsin.
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We recently added Clark, Dane, Grant, Marathon, Rusk and Taylor counties to our list of counties open for enrollment by volunteers on private land. This brings our total number of counties to 18! (See the full list on our webpage.) We will begin reviewing applications from those counties on July 1 so apply now! We hope to offer in person training sessions in each area later in July. If you already have applied we will be in touch soon via email to check to see if you are still interested in participating.
Check out these recent news articles for more information on participating in Snapshot Wisconsin.
Operation Migration
DNR Weekly News
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Season 5 of Snapshot Wisconsin is going strong but we need your help to get the season finished! Please visit our project page and help classify photos from our trail cameras that are located across Wisconsin. We recently hit the 10,000,000 photos captured milestone and we can't look at all these photos ourselves! When you are there don't forget to check in on the talk boards to interact with other volunteers and the research team. You can also find out more about what the research team has been up to lately on our blog. |
If you recently received a Snapshot Wisconsin camera or haven't checked your camera recently this message is for you. Please make sure that your camera(s) are deployed and operational by the end of June. We will be using data captured by the cameras in July, August and September to calculate fawn to doe and calf to cow ratios. The more cameras that are deployed and working during that time period the more data we will have to work with. This will help us to get our best estimate for these important deer and elk metrics. For more information about how we use the photos to calculate fawn to doe ratios please refer to our January 2017 newsletter. |
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May was a busy month for the Snapshot Wisconsin team! We started out early in the Month with elk camera deployments and elk monitoring volunteer training in the Flambeau River State Forest. Next we traveled to Hudson for our first training in St. Croix County and on to St Paul for the annual Citizen Science Association conference. We finished up last week with our first training sessions in Marinette and Oneida Counties. Read all about it on the Snapshot Wisconsin blog!
We are taking a travel hiatus to recover during June but will back on the road in July for training sessions for our new counties!
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Are you interested in learning more about Woodland Wildlife Management and sharing your knowledge with others? If so consider applying to participate in the Wisconsin Coverts Project. Applications are due by June 15th and accepted applicants will attend a free 3 day workshop at Kemp Station in August. This is a great opportunity to improve wildlife habitat on your property, connect with other like minded property owners and learn from the experts!
Wisconsin Coverts is a project by the UW Forest and Wildlife Ecology department and UW-Extension.
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We will share one awesome animal photo each month. To enter one of your favorites from a Snapshot Wisconsin camera please send the image as a jpeg attachment with the animal classification, county location and date taken along with the reason why you love the image to DNRSnapshotWisconsin@wisconsin.gov.
This month's image of a Barred Owl was captured on a camera hosted by an educator in Marquette county just a few weeks ago!
Tune into the WDNR Facebook page for Snapshot Saturdays to see more interesting photos every week!
Contact Information for Snapshot Wisconsin
Phone: 608-572-6103
Participate on Zooniverse: www.SnapshotWisconsin.org
Find out more details on our webpage:
dnr.wi.gov Keyword "Snapshot Wisconsin
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