Trail Camera

Researchers at the University of Calgary have been studying the effect human trail walkers have on wildlife in Canada’s parks, and they have found….wait for it…that people scare the animals away from trails.

So while this seems like something we all knew, actually that’s a gross over simplification of what the researchers did. In truth, they discovered the thresholds levels of human activity that cause elk and wolves to change their behavior. And they observed that wolves and elk react differently to people walking on the trails.

By using GPS collars on wolves and elk, and sensors on trails, the scientists found that one hiker an hour kept the animals 50m away from the trail habitat. Two hikers per hour kept the wolves 400m away and the elk began to use the area near the trail as a refuge from predation.

As human traffic on the trails increased to over 2 people per hour, both species stayed 400m away from the trail, resulting in loss of habitat. That’s about a half mile width, or .73 kilometers wide.  Over the length of a trail this would add up to some significant square miles. On a busy 5 mile trail, 2.5 square miles of habitat would be lost due to human presence.

So imagine yourself affecting an area a half mile wide as you hunt. A quarter mile all around you.

They didn’t do research on low level traffic like hunting, where you may be the only human who has walked along this certain ridge all year. But if you are in an area where other people hunt every day you might expect that the critters are avoiding the area. The elk are 1200 feet away, so maybe you need to get off the trail by 400m.

Low level trail traffic must not keep elk and deer away from the trail as much. Otherwise we’d never see any game. The study did mention that wolves like to use trails (“linear features”) when they aren’t often used be humans.

Here’s a link to the original research:

Discussion section of Human Activity Differentially Redistributes Large Mammals in the Canadian Rockies National Parks

Wolverine researcher Audrey Magoun captured two wolverines feeding at a camera trap in Wallowa Mountains of Northeast Oregon. Just five days earlier she had discovered tracks. The photos were taken on Apr 2 and 13, 2011.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/news/2011/april/042511c.asp

Audrey literally wrote the book on using trail cameras to identify and monitor wolverines without capturing them.

Since researchers at Craighead Beringia South have been able to document a rise in lead levels in ravens and eagles during hunting season, it’s gotten a little easier for outfitters and environmentalists to see eye-to-eye, at least on the issue of lead poisioning.

The Jackson Hole News and Guide reports that Kelly outfitter B.J. Hill said recently that he supports the switch from lead bullets to copper bullets. He stated that 95% of his clients have already made the switch to copper bullets on their own.

“Copper is a better-technology bullet to begin with,” he said, in part because there’s less fragmenting than with lead. “It’s a better bullet for harvesting elk, [and] it doesn’t have the poisoning effect.”

Hill is a board member of the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association and a member of Jackson Hole Outfitters.

Researchers from Craighead Beringia South have been doing field work capturing eagles and ravens and sampling their blood, which is then tested for lead levels. They have found that lead levels rise about two weeks after hunting season starts, and then drop off about two weeks after hunting season ends. This last hunting season, the researchers passed out 194 boxes of copper ammo to the hunters who had permits to hunt on the refuge and found that the lead levels in the birds’ blood did not rise as high this year.

When a lead bullet strikes an animal such as an elk, there are a lot of lead fragments.

Lead fragments in a carcass show up clearly in x-ray image

So when the birds feed on the gut pile, they ingest lead.

This is a big problem for California Condors too. The Beringia researchers say that “Each year, more condors are clinically treated for lead poisoning.”

Here is a link to this week’s new hot deals at the Sportsman’s Guide:

Brand New Deals at Sportsman’s Guide

Found an interesting set of trail camera pictures on a Blogger blog. MyTrailCamera captured a coyote pursuing the trail of a rabbit. The pictures were taken 40 minutes apart but you can see the coyote sniffing the ground where the rabbit must have hopped.

See, It’s a game camera, right?

This game camera kit comes fully assembled and ready to go. Features automatic remote Rodent Control(tm). Only $49.95. Squirrel chow sold separately.

Trail Cameras are used by explorers, hunters, gardeners and scientists to take pictures of wildlife without a human having to be present. A trail camera takes photos by itself, being triggered when an animal crosses an infrared beam. They are a great way to scout big bucks, or to finally catch the varmint who is raiding your garden. Scientists use trail cameras to take pictures of rare species deep in the rainforest, or to prove that grizzlies really do exist in the Bitterroot valley.

There are both digital trail cameras and regular old film trail cameras.

Check out this story in outdoor life blogs about how a guy in Ohio caught a burglar parking in his driveway using his trail camera.

Police arrested the burglar and the home owner is pretty happy with his trail cam investment!