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Snapshot Wisconsin is celebrating its two-year anniversary
this month! The first Snapshot Wisconsin cameras were deployed in Iowa and Sawyer counties in June 2016. Having cameras out for this length of time allows us to make year-to-year comparisons in these areas. One interesting result is that the
observations of does and fawns was higher in 2017 than in 2016. This is likely due to multiple years of zero antlerless quotas and mild winters. Data like these provide good information and feedback
for CDACs (County Deer Advisory Councils) when considering how their management
recommendations affect the deer herd.
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The Snapshot Wisconsin team wants to give a shout out to Jeff Pickerign and his students at Elmwood High School. They have been traveling from Elmwood up to Clam Lake (almost 3 hours one way!) to check 4 elk monitoring cameras once every 3 months since last fall. They did their spring checks last week and struggled through waist deep snow to successfully reach all 4 of their cameras.
Thanks very much to the students, Mr. Pickerign and the administration at Elmwood High School for your dedication to our project.
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The warranty end date is coming up soon on all of our
Version 2 cameras which is what most of our volunteers have been using. If you think that your camera is not
functioning properly please send an email to DNRSnapshotWisconsin@wisconsin.gov. Some examples of common problems include
taking thousands of blank photos in a short time frame (not due to vegetation),
blurry or pink photos, and resetting the date/time multiple times in a batch. If you have experienced these or other issues
with your Snapshot Wisconsin camera please let us know. |
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A new feature in our newsletter is sharing back with
volunteers and supporters how the data gathered from our cameras are used for wildlife management decision support.
One primary goal of the project is to improve the efficiency of data collection for wildlife management decision making. As the project grows Snapshot has the
capacity to supplement many existing surveys and replace other methods.
Currently, the confirmed wolf observations from
Snapshot Wisconsin’s cameras are being supplied to the WDNR Wolf Management
Team. This information is used to direct
volunteer tracking effort and supplement data used to determine minimum winter
wolf count. As more Snapshot cameras are
deployed across the state the DNR will have even more data about the wolf
population and know if wolves are moving into new areas.
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Thanks to all of our Zooniverse volunteers who helped to
finish up Season 7 by March 20th so we could get a new season
launched for an event on March 22nd.
It was incredible to see so much activity and excitement on our
site. As folks who classify our photos
know the end of the season frequently features the more difficult photos that take longer to be retired. We held a SnapAThon at the Wisconsin
Summit for Natural Resource Volunteers on March 22nd and wanted to
have a fresh season of photos available. With the help of all of our dedicated volunteers we were able to have a
successful event! |
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Training season for Snapshot Wisconsin is in full
swing! We added a lot of new volunteers
when we opened in 8 new counties this January. This month we are traveling to Vernon County
on April 10th, Ashland on April 25th and Sauk County on April
30th. At this time only
accepted Snapshot Wisconsin volunteers are invited to our training sessions. If
you have been accepted recently but haven’t completed trail camera host
training yet please check your email (and junk mail folder) for an invite to
one of these training sessions. Our in
person training sessions last approximately 2 hours. We also have online
training available. |
Another new feature in our newsletter is Ask the
Researcher. Do you have questions for
the Snapshot Wisconsin Research team? If
so please email your questions to DNRSnapshotWisconsin@wisconsin.gov
with the subject line “Ask the Researcher”.
We will answer as many questions as we have space in the newsletter each
month and we will keep your personal information confidential. Please limit your questions to Snapshot
Wisconsin, Wisconsin wildlife, and trail camera research. |
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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 comes from one of our educators in Vilas County. The photo
was taken on February 26 at 10:28 PM. The camera has been in place for 9
months and this is the first bobcat captured! Every picture of the bobcat is
preceded by either a snowshoe hare or grouse. The students at at the school have been helping with data collection and were very excited to
see these photos.
Other interesting photos from our cameras can be viewed and classified on our Zooniverse page!
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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