Have you noticed a small brown box with a camouflage covering near the trail? This is a camera used for camera trapping; it captures photos and videos of wildlife in the park. Camera trapping is fun and interesting as it shows the natural behaviors of wildlife in the park, and also provides important information. The habits, abundance, health, and range of animals can be discovered through camera trapping.
Why Camera Trapping?
Camera trapping is a great way to observe the Preserve without disrupting natural wildlife patterns. Camera traps are able to last for months with batteries and can be inconspicuous to wildlife. Friends of Edgewood volunteers who set up camera traps avoid areas with sensitive habitats and minimize changes to the environment around the camera trap. If you see a camera trap, please do not disturb it. Someone has carefully set it up in that exact spot in order to discover something about Edgewood’s wildlife.
The Process
Visitors of Edgewood Natural Preserve are not allowed off trail. Camera trapping field volunteers, however, are trained by FoE and licensed by San Mateo County. In their brightly colored vests, they venture off trail and face hazards such as poison oak, ticks, thistles, and rattlesnakes. Field volunteers use their knowledge about habitat and habit in order to decide where to set up a camera trap. They consider how wildlife will use the area in order to capture the perfect shot. Often, volunteers use camera traps in order to discover something specific; one camera trapping project, for example, focuses on how and where animals enter and leave the park. Once a prime location for a camera trap is chosen, a volunteer team of one to three individuals set up the camera. The camera goes to work; it recognizes heat and motion and takes pictures when something warm is moving in its field of vision. When collecting the camera trap, volunteers remove all equipment from the scene. A volunteer reviews the images from the camera’s memory card for any discoveries of Edgewood’s wildlife. Particularly captivating findings are polished and presented to the public. If you are interested in volunteering either in the camera trapping field or as a reviewer of camera trapping results, find out how to become a camera trap volunteer.
What We Learn Through Camera Traps
Image credit: Bill and Kathy Korbholz.
Camera trapping provides both fascinating images and valuable information. For example, although there were suspicions of native foxes visiting Edgewood, the first actual evidence of a fox at Edgewood came from a gray fox in a camera trap. So far, the animals caught on Edgewood’s camera traps include the cougar, coyote, bobcat, deer, jack rabbit, gray squirrel, woodrat, turkey, great horned owl, scrub jay, yellow-crowned sparrow and, of course, the gray fox. If a camera trap is set up to target a certain species, it can uncover the habits of this particular animal: how it interacts with its environment and other animals. The camera trap images have time stamps which provide the date, time of day, and temperature. Seasonal habits of animals and daily habits of individuals can therefore be monitored and understood. Additionally, camera trapping helps monitor the health of Edgewood’s wildlife. Visible conditions such as mange can be spotted on camera traps and inspire more research into the causes of such conditions. Friends of Edgewood volunteers keep track of important findings and send annual reports to the County of San Mateo Parks Department. With data compiled from many years of camera trapping, we can monitor changes in its wildlife over time.
Education and Outreach
One of the core values of the Friends of Edgewood is education. Observing wildlife can be crucial to inspiring conservation efforts. The Friends of Edgewood educate our community about wildlife in the park through camera trapping. Look out for the “Caught in a Camera Trap” section in the Edgewood Explorer newsletters, come to the Education Center, or explore the website to discover our findings.
Privacy Policy
If you are worried that you have been caught in a camera trap, please review this privacy policy. All camera traps are set up well away from neighboring houses. Images of non-designated public use by humans will be treated as confidential; however, if images depicting any of the following incidents are observed, we send the images to San Mateo County Parks rangers:
- Violent crime (assault)
- Vandalism of cameras or natural resources (cutting trees, bending signs, digging holes)
- Evidence of poaching/hunting
- Evidence of camping or fire arms
- Irrigation equipment
- Fires
- Trail construction, other than by staff
Opportunities:
Are you interested in joining Edgewood’s camera trapping team? Learn more about becoming a camera trap volunteer.
By Lena Yasui, 2018