Thank you to our trail camera hosts who classify their photos in their MySnapshot account. This month's science update is all about Bobcats!
As of May 2017 Bobcat photos were captured in survey blocks in the Black River Falls (102) and Clam Lake (57) elk areas,
and in the following counties: Sawyer (20),
Iowa (12), Jackson (8), Trempealeau (4), Iron (3), Vernon (3), Waupaca (3),
Grant (2), Juneau (1), Lincoln (1), Oconto (1), Oneida (1). Note
that this is not representative of bobcat
populations because we do not have an even distribution of trail cameras across
all counties.
Bobcats were detected most often on Snapshot Wisconsin trail
cameras in March and October. The lowest amount of activity was in April
through July. Bobcats were detected least often between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. and were detected fairly evenly at other hours of the
day and through the night.
Six survey blocks had photos with young bobcats. When multiple
bobcats are pictured it can be difficult to tell juveniles from
adults. It is
also difficult to tell if we’re seeing the
same individual bobcat or different bobcats on the same camera, since it is
hard to tell individuals apart based on leg
striping and body marking patterns.
Image set 1. Example
Snapshot Wisconsin photos with bobcats pictured clearly: A) Black River Falls 22-FEB-16, 09:47:07; B) Black River Falls 21-JAN-16, 01:12:57; C) Grant County 07-JAN-17, 07:56:10; D) Black River Falls 18-AUG-16, 17:48:25.
Image Set 2. Photos with bobcat young present from each of the sites where kittens
were detected: A) 3 bobcats, age difficult to determine, Black River Falls,
26-FEB-17, 21:17:45; B) 1 adult and 2 kittens, Black River Falls,
06-AUG-15, 03:25:12; C) 1 adult and 1 kitten, Black River Falls,
26-SEP-15, 16:52:00; D) 4 bobcats, age difficult to determine, Clam Lake, 08-OCT-15, 20:06:42; E) 1 adult and 2 kittens, Iowa County,
14-JAN-17, 06:54:41; F) 4 bobcats,
Iowa County, 01-MAR-17, 09:02:03.
Image Set 3. Bobcat Activity Patterns
|
|
Vivek is a Natural Resources Technician/Educator for the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources. His primary responsibilities include preparing
Snapshot Wisconsin data for classification/analysis and volunteer outreach. His
interests lie in large mammal ecology and conservation. He received his
Master’s degree in Environmental Science from the University of Wisconsin
Madison and his Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science Engineering from
Vishweshvaraya Technological University, Karnataka. In his free time, he
likes to bike, hike and watch birds.
|
If you live near or frequently visit the Black River Falls area please consider signing up to help monitor elk cameras. We are expanding the elk monitoring area in Jackson County in order to better cover the area where the elk are located. Please email us at DNRSnapshotWisconsin@Wisconsin.gov with the subject line "Black River Falls Elk Monitoring" for more details. We need private landowners as well as those willing to monitor cameras on public land. |
|
|
|
|
Thanks to everyone who has classified photos on our Zooniverse site Season 5 is now officially complete! We are busy uploading new photos for Season 6. We will send out a quick announcement when the new season launches, hopefully before Thanksgiving.
We have a big back log of photos to work through so we have made some changes to the photos sent to Zooniverse including reducing the retirement rules for photos of deer and squirrels.
|
|
|
The Snapshot Wisconsin team recently attended the 4-H Fall Forum in Green Lake. We had a great time at the event talking to 4-H kids and leaders about how to get involved in Snapshot Wisconsin.
If you are involved in a group such as 4-H and are interested in hosting a Snapshot Wisconsin camera please signup! We consider groups such as 4-H to be educators and we are open statewide for applications from educators.
|
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 Bull Elk in velvet was submitted by an elk monitoring volunteer who monitors cameras near Clam Lake. The volunteer likes the photo because of the composition of the image and because he knows that life is not easy for the mature bull due to the marshiness of the area and because he saw wolf tracks while doing his camera checks, yet the bull just keeps trudging along.
Other interesting photos from our cameras can be viewed on our webpage!
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
|