Backyard Conservation || Camera Trap Surveys

 

Picture of a coyote captured on trail camera

A lot of people have access to trail cameras. Some cameras are much more advanced than others with the ability to send instant notifications and some you have to go out and get the SD card, plug it into your computer and check. Regardless of the kind, utilizing trail cameras in any way to monitor wildlife is a camera trap survey. A lot of hunters and conservationists use this method to monitor areas without causing too much disturbance. 

Lets say you are starting out with camera trapping. It can be daunting to know where to begin. You have a goal to see where and at what times coyotes are most active at a place, lets call it "Creekside" because a creek flows through this property. You have 5 trail cameras and you want to develop this project but where do you start?

Map of where cameras are placed, labeled with a number

The first thing you need to do is locate frequently used paths or trails that your target animal would use. If you just want to see what is in that area and don't have a species in mind, regular game trails are a great place to start. For squirrels you may point the cameras at trees you find with squirrel nests in the branches, for beavers you should put them at creek banks instead of deep in dense forested areas. In this case, coyotes are cosmopolitan animals, which means they like to roam pretty much everywhere, a game trail or mowed path would be a perfect place, and maybe 1 of the 5 cameras you can put along a creek bank for when they get a drink. To determine the best paths and places they would likely stop for a drink it is good to first look at the animal tracks in the area. It is the beginning of February and coyotes are in the middle of their breeding season, you know they are pretty active so you have high hopes you will have pictures. After placing all your cameras, you wait and leave the area undisturbed for a week or two before you retrieve your SD card. 

Okay, pretend 2 weeks have gone by. You get all the SD cards and review the images on your computer. A lot of this is blowing snow, leaves drifting in the wind, deer...and coyotes! Well, there is a lot of coyote pictures, that's good, but how do we make a study from this. Here is how: 

Google sheet with data from pictures

Open google sheets and make a column for date, time, how many coyotes you see in a picture, what trail camera it is that took the picture (It is best if you label this and label it on the map when you place them. It is also a good tip for not forgetting where they are.), and weather conditions- maybe you can find a pattern. I want to point out something to you on how we can count individuals. Do you see 2/4/22 at 1:27 and 1:29? There is 1 coyote and then 2, in regular math that would be 3 total, but not necessarily here. It is very likely that 1 of those 2 in the same picture is the same coyote that was pictured alone at 1:27, that makes only 2 coyotes in that area at that time. Yes, it could be 3, but since we don't know that for sure a conservative estimate is going to be the smaller number. 

Google sheet with more generalized data for the graph

Now condense this data into an easier table, round the times to hours and have trail camera number at the top (camera number tells us the location). Now you tally those conservative numbers we got from the table above and sort out the closest hour and at what camera there were coyotes. Now you have a data table showing how many coyotes at what location at what time! Then, you can make a graph so it is a little easier to see. 

Graph showing where and when coyotes are most active

From this graph, we can tell that dawn and dusk were active times for coyotes at "Creekside" and 1 and 2 AM were active times. Trail camera 5 had the most consistent activity and trail camera 3 showed the most individuals. Trail camera 4 picked up the least amount of coyote images which could mean it isn't in a very popular place for coyotes to move around in. 

There is a lot that you can do with trail cameras in your own backyard. Maybe you use this information to hunt, or photograph wildlife, maybe it is important to you because you want to build something on your property without disturbing too much wildlife, in this case maybe location 4 would be best for that. Maybe, to you, it is a way to just learn the patterns of wildlife which is an incredibly fun hobby. There is a lot of things you can learn from a simple survey like this one.