| NC Candid CrittersSummer 2019 Newsletter |
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| | | The Summer Season is Complete!Candid Critters citizen scientists have done a great job deploying cameras and capturing wildlife photos across the state! With your help, we have provided important information about local wildlife’s whereabouts for scientists all over North Carolina to use. So, what have we seen from the summer deployments thus far? For one, here are the top ten animals spotted on our camera traps this season: | |
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| | Based on current submissions (keep uploading your summer photos!), 72 volunteers set 93 camera traps this summer! These traps have taken OVER 1,297 DETECTIONS of 19 species across the state, including a hen turkey and her chicks! | |
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| Wild turkey, Craven County, June 2019 If you would like to see everything our camera traps have found, eMammal allows you to download data from the project here, or you can view Candid Critters’ favorite photos on our project’s Best Pictures Page. | |
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| Critter Catwalk!Take a look at some of our favorite photos from this season! | |
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| Black bear, Bertie County, June 2019 | |
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| Bobcat, Bertie County, June 2019 | |
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| Coyote, Wayne County, June 2019 | |
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| White-tailed deer, Richmond County, June 2019 | |
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| Honorable Mention: Red fox, New Hanover County, March 2019 | |
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| Third Annual Fall Fawn Frenzy! | |
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| It’s that time of year again! We’re heading into the Fall Camera Trap Season as well as our Third Annual Fall Fawn Frenzy. We’re looking for citizen scientists to run trail cameras in ten specific counties so we can get an overall understanding of North Carolina’s deer population. Starting now and going through February, we will especially be looking to correctly identify deer, and will take extra care to detect fawns! You can use this field guide to ensure you are correctly identifying deer based on their age. | |
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| More pre-selected camera trap sites have been added to the Site Selection Map, so take a look soon to pick a place to set up a trail camera for Fall Fawn Frenzy! Candid Critters scientists truly enjoy seeing the wildlife photos citizen scientists get from their deployments! If you do not wish to participate in Fall Fawn Frenzy but still hope to run cameras for Candid Critters, you are more than welcome to set up a camera in a county not participating in FFF. Either way, make sure you either choose pre-selected sites from our Site Selection Map, or submit a Site Description Form for your own chosen location. Either way, please make sure you follow the project’s Deployment Schedule when setting your camera. Also remember that you do NOT need to return cameras at the end of each season - you can hold onto them so you can set up more camera traps for Candid Critters! However, if you don’t plan on using your camera again, please return it to the library from which you borrowed it. | |
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| What’s New in Critter Country? We have a new database! Candid Critters has migrated all of its volunteer and deployment information into a new data management system. For the most part, this new system should not affect our citizen scientists, but we thought we would let you know that forms and emails may be a bit different from this point on. Furthermore, if you have completed training, submitted a site description, etc. and have not heard from us in a while, please inform us at info@nccandidcritters.org. Our semi-annual webinar is approaching!Keep an eye out for the continuation of our webinar series scheduled for mid-August! As always, Candid Critters staff will come together to update you the project and provide insights into wildlife findings. | |
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| The webinar will be played LIVE from our studio at the Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh. Stay up-to-date on Candid Critters’ Facebook, Twitter, and emails to learn more about the details of this event. Help us learn more about wildlife on private lands!Candid Critters has partnered with private landowners around the state who are interested in learning more about the wildlife that can be found on their property. Setting cameras on private properties can help scientists learn how animals are responding to different land and wildlife management practices, as privately-owned lands are governed differently than public parks and game lands. For example, we can discover how deer are responding to various hunting pressures across public and private properties, and if animals use private properties the same way, or differently. | |
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| | If you’d like to help us find out what animals can be found on private lands, choose one of the private land sites on the Site Selection Map! | |
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| | | Please use the OLD version of the desktop application! | |
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| Make sure to always double-check your coordinates! | |
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| | Roland’s QuizThe Nightlife of Wildlife While some of us may hit the pool or hide indoors in the air conditioning during the heat of the day, animals don’t have these options. One way that animals deal with the heat is by coming out later in the day or at night. Over half of North Carolina native mammals exhibit nocturnal behaviors. Most of the images caught on our camera traps are taken at night. These nighttime images give us a glimpse of the wildlife present that may hide away during the day and would otherwise elude our inept nighttime human senses. From the chart below, you can see that 27,277 of 65,535 photos of wildlife from Candid Critters camera traps were taken at night – that’s almost 42% of all the photos in the project! Thus, wildlife cameras are one of the best ways for scientists to obtain photos and learn about nocturnal species that can’t be studied during the day. | |
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| What kind of nightlife activities could wildlife be up to at night? Often, animals are attempting to avoid us. In fact, more animals are seeking refuge in the night and not just to escape the heat but to escape people. As human encroachment on wildlife habitats occur, wildlife is forced to adapt to city life, and one of those ways is increased nocturnal behavior [1]. When do you think white-tailed deer might be the most active? Morning, afternoon, at night? Check the last section of the newsletter to find the answer! | |
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| | About the Project North Carolina’s Candid Critters is a three-year statewide camera trap survey made possible by a collaboration between NC State University, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, NC Wildlife Resources Commission, State Library of NC, NC Cardinal, Public Libraries of North Carolina, and Smithsonian. If you would like to join our project and help us learn more about the wildlife in our state, please visit NCCandidCritters.org. Funding for the NC Candid Critter Program was partially provided through a Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Grant. The purpose of this Act was to provide funding for the selection, restoration, rehabilitation and improvement of wildlife habitat, wildlife management research, and the distribution of information produced by the projects. Funds are derived from an 11% Federal excise tax on sporting arms, ammunition, and archery equipment, and a 10% tax on handguns. The program requires the state (NC Wildlife Resources Commission) to cover at least 25% of the project costs; the Grant provides the remaining 75% of the project expenses. Please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!! | |
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Northern raccoons, Watauga County | |
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| | Thanks again to all of our wonderful citizen scientists! Roland's Graph Quiz Answers |
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| White-tailed deer aren’t more active at just one time of day, but two! We see that this species typically exhibits crepuscular behavior, which means that they are more active at dawn and dusk. From the graph above, we can tell that the white-tailed deer are caught on camera most often during the hours at dawn (6am) and dusk (6pm). This type of behavior allows animals to avoid the heat of the day, but also to be active while there is still some daylight available for better visibility of their surroundings. Interestingly, activity patterns can also be affected by the deer’s location. In the graph below, you can see that deer are much more active in the morning in people’s yards versus when they are in the forest, and are even less active during the day than usual. This even more extreme push towards crepuscular behavior may be due to human activity, and deer may be coming out more in the mornings in order to avoid people. By using camera traps, we are able to learn more about different activity patterns of wildlife in ways like these so that we can better understand how we and the species’ environment are affecting their behavior. | |
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White-tailed deer, Craven County |
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| | North Carolina's Candid Critters 11 W. Jones St, Raleigh, NC 27601 www.NCCandidCritters.org You received this email because you signed up to participate with North Carolina's Candid Critters | |
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