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Thank you to our trail camera monitoring volunteers that classify their photos in MySnapshot. In the next few newsletters we are going to show you some of what we are learning from the MySnapshot animal classifications. This week our Science Update is all about badgers!
There have been 23 triggers classified as badgers by trail camera hosts and by looking at the photos we confirmed that 14 of those triggers were actually badgers (Photo set 1). The confirmed badger triggers came from 10 different survey blocks. Only 2 (14%) of the badger triggers were taken in the daytime and rest were taken at night and appear in black and white. The triggers that were misclassified as badgers were also interesting and included deer, raccoon, skunk, porcupine, red fox, unknown and human. It can be difficult to correctly identify badger photos even though their stature and features are fairly characteristic. Badgers can move surprising fast through the photo view in some cases and look just like a blur.
Photo set 1. Example photos of badgers from A) Jackson County, B) Dane County, C) Marathon County, and D) Jackson County.
Photo set 2. Examples of photos misclassified as badgers by volunteers on MySnapshot. Misclassifications include: A) raccoon, B) striped skunk, C) porcupine, and D) Bucky Badger! (human).
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Taylor Peltier is a new, part-time Snapshot Team Member who primarily works on volunteer and data management. She received her B.S in Wildlife and Fishery Science from Pennsylvania State University and afterwards worked several wildlife field technician positions across the country before landing in Madison, Wisconsin. Her past work experience includes working in a wildlife genetics laboratory, wolf trapping in Minnesota and using non-invasive hair snares to monitor fishers in California, among others.
Taylor enjoys interacting with Snapshot volunteers and working for a project that uses citizen science to assess wildlife populations and promote wildlife education. In Taylor’s free time she spends time hiking with her dog and horseback riding
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After reviewing your photo batches in your MySnapshot account please remember to press "Review Complete" on the last page. As a reminder, trail camera hosts are only required to flag any photos of humans that may have been missed by our Automatic Human Detection system. Soon we will begin pushing batches through that have been in Review status for 3 weeks or longer. If you log into your account and cannot see your photo batch in "Review Photos" you will be able to see them in "View Photos".
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We are looking for some additional elk monitoring volunteers to help out with checking cameras near Black River Falls, Clam Lake and in the Flambeau River State Forest. If you live near these areas or travel there at least seasonally and are willing to help out please send us an email (DNRSnapshotWisconsin@Wisconsin.gov) with the subject line "Elk Monitoring". Volunteering includes checking the cameras at least once every three months and uploading photos, online training is available.
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Snapshot Wisconsin was featured in the current issue of Grow Magazine which is the alumni magazine from the UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The article is a really in depth piece about the project, covering everything from the trail cameras to the NASA connection. We were thrilled that one of our favorite photos of all time, "Lots of Otters from Sawyer County" was the cover photo of the magazine! Read all about it here: Candid Camera
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In case you missed it we had some interesting blog features over the last month!
Cool Projects and Tools - sharing some of what we learned at the Citizen Science Association conference we attended in St Paul.
A (Fawn)tastic Start to Summer - read all about the effort to capture and collar 100 fawns as part of the SW Wisconsin CWD, Deer and Predator project.
Snapshot Wisconsin opens in 6 new counties - We are now open for enrollment by volunteers on private land in Clark, Dane, Grant, Marathon, Rusk, and Taylor Counties! This brings our total open counties to 18 counties. If you have already signed up from one of these counties we will be in touch very soon regarding application acceptance. If you would like to apply please visit our signup webpage.
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We recently had the opportunity to visit one of our camera locations when we led a Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin field trip in Iowa County. It was a beautiful day to visit the property and see lots of native plants and birds of Wisconsin. Read all about it on our blog.
This field trip also allowed Snapshot Wisconsin to connect with another great program offered by the WDNR, the Landowner Incentive Program. This program helps private landowners create and manage habitat for species that are rare or declining. If you are a landowner in the Driftless area of Wisconsin and looking for management advice as well as cost sharing opportunities find out more details on their webpage.
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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 was submitted by one of our Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera hosts in Dodge County. He submitted the photo for Spotlight Photo of the Month because it's a beautiful deer and great picture/moment caught on camera. We agree, thanks for sending it in!
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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