Led by Dr. David Drake of the UW-Madison Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, this project aims to learn more about urban canid populations in Madison, WI
Don’t call it a comeback! After over a month of waiting for activity on our bait, we GOT ONE. Thursday morning we caught this beautiful male red fox, outfitted it with a tracking collar, and sent it on its way!
Have you ever seen a coyote den? While we'd bet that some of you have, these canids are very good at concealing their homes. They'll utilize wooded patches of parks, culverts, golf courses, underpasses, digging multiple entrances/exits and multiple dens to avoid detection.
We’re back! To kick things off we wanted to share a paper that was published this summer. By looking at the diets of ancient foxes, researchers discovered that humans have influenced their diet as far back as 42,000 years ago! https://t.co/J0rFKRdWEp
The @wildlifesociety UIUC student chapter a great time last weekend with @CarnivoreLab and @Morgan_Farmer19 setting up red fox live traps with @UWCanidProject ! The foxes evaded us for now, but we'll get 'em next time🦊Got in some bonus telemetry work too!
@papamoon92 Not terribly worried, no! We trap exclusively in urban areas, so these animals are already inundated with human scent, and they seem to actually seek it out to take advantage of food sources. We’ve been able to catch animals consistently in traps set with and without gloves.
Hey folks! Sorry we’ve been so quiet! We’ve hit a bit of a dry spell trapping-wise, so we thought we’d give you the inside scoop on how we set traps and how they work. Check it out!
We want to take a minute to welcome our newest team member! This is @Morgan_Farmer19 and she has joined the project as a PhD student!
She has coyotes on the brain about 90% of the time and studied them in both her undergrad and masters.
Give her a warm welcome, team!
@gabbspalomo We are required by law to check traps every 24 hours. So one of us is up at the crack of dawn every day to check each trap. If we aren’t able to check them or if the temperature drops too low, we close them down temporarily. It’s all about animal welfare!
Time to test your tracking skills! Here are six tracks that can be found in the state of Wisconsin - five of which can be found in Madison. Who can name all six?!
*BOING*
Here's a majestic shot of one of our collared coyotes bounding across a narrow channel on the western edge of Gardner Marsh at the UW-Madison Arboretum! This candid photo was taken by one of two Snapshot Wisconsin cameras located at the Arboretum.
Clomped through some fresh snow this morning to find a nice surprise! We got a fox! A feisty female in great condition. We outfitted her with a new GPS collar, took some samples, made sure she was healthy, and sent her on her way. It was a great morning!
The Odana Golf Course coyote that we captured a few weeks back was caught today over 2 miles from her original capture site! Her GPS collar hasn’t been working properly so we got her a new one and we’ll now be able to receive data from her each night! #urbanwildlife#urbancanids
Fieldwork highlight! Last week I joined David Drake and his team @UWCanidProject radio-collaring and learning about the process. They lead an engaging project in which public outreach and inclusion is emphasized. I’m so fortunate to profile such inspiring researchers in my work
Good news about the Odana Golf Course coyote! A neighbor saw her in his yard and thought she was acting odd, but she was actually (successfully) hunting a rabbit right there in his backyard!
More proof that her injury not impacting her ability to survive. She’s one tough cookie!