Meet foxes, coyotes, deer and other wildlife neighbors
Penn Vet’s Accessing Urban Nature Initiative is documenting Philadelphia’s wildlife through trail cameras, and shares its findings after a year of monitoring.
2 min. read
Images of some of the city’s least seen but most remarkable residents were the headliners at the recent first summit meeting of Penn Vet’s Accessing Urban Nature Initiative (AUNI). The project shared findings of the first year in its ongoing effort to document and learn more about the wild creatures that inhabit Philadelphia.
A red fox in Philadelphia caught by a trail camera last winter in Penn Vet’s Accessing Urban Nature Initiative.
In addition to revealing some of Philadelphia’s most intriguing inhabitants, AUNI researchers are using project findings to explore issues like how different aspects of urbanization—proximity to humans, type of ground cover, and other environmental factors—affect animal species and biodiversity.
There are now 20 cameras, spaced at least one kilometer apart, capturing images of urban creatures for one month during each of the four changing seasons. The ultimate goal is to have a total of 35 field cameras deployed across the city.
One camera caught a portrait-like shot of a red fox surrounded by snow. There were coyotes. And a majestic great blue heron. Some photos gave evidence of health issues with members of some of the species—for example, foxes with mange, and a deer with ticks embedded in its coat.
“I think we will be able to do some work here, looking at the health of these animals as well,” says Julie C. Ellis, wildlife ecologist and leader of AUNI and associate director of Penn Vet’s One Health. “We will compare what we see across different parts of the city to better understand how urban environments affect the wellbeing of wildlife populations.”
AUNI has also started branching out into other new, local research projects. In the early stages is an acoustic monitoring program in collaboration with Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program.
“The nice thing about the acoustic study is it will round out the biodiversity data that we’re collecting with the trail cameras,” Ellis says. “Trail cameras are going to get us mostly mammals. Acoustic monitoring will be able to tell us about bird diversity in green spaces in Philadelphia, too. Birds are environmental indicators, and many populations have been in decline over the past few decades.”
This story is by Rita Giordano. Read more at Penn Vet News.
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