Bainum, III,M., K.E. Sieving, R. McCleery, & D Wald.2015. Demonstrating camera trap techniques and their application for identifying feral cats across a college campus. University of Florida-Journal of Undergraduate Research, 16 (3)
Urban and suburban wildlife can be difficult to study through traditional wildlife techniques using direct, in situ human involvement. The use of remote sensing technology like trip cameras (or camera traps) can allow researchers to obtain high quality photographs of target species to be used to confirm the presence of species and even indentify individuals of a local population. A study at the University of Florida campus employed eight camera traps at four sampling locations to attempt to identify individuals of the feral cat (Felis catus) population as well as survey local mesopredator diversity. High-resolution photographs were used to select distinguishing characteristics of each cat in order to assign it an identification code and determine if individuals were moving among the sampling sites. Ten individuals were identified out of 118 total photographs with confirmed feral cat appearances. Only one individual appeared at more than one sampling site. The trip cameras captured photo evidence of four other species, all of which appeared at sites alongside cats suggesting some degree of resource competition may exist between these opportunistic predators.
Urban and suburban wildlife can be difficult to study through traditional wildlife techniques using direct, in situ human involvement. The use of remote sensing technology like trip cameras (or camera traps) can allow researchers to obtain high quality photographs of target species to be used to confirm the presence of species and even indentify individuals of a local population. A study at the University of Florida campus employed eight camera traps at four sampling locations to attempt to identify individuals of the feral cat (Felis catus) population as well as survey local mesopredator diversity. High-resolution photographs were used to select distinguishing characteristics of each cat in order to assign it an identification code and determine if individuals were moving among the sampling sites. Ten individuals were identified out of 118 total photographs with confirmed feral cat appearances. Only one individual appeared at more than one sampling site. The trip cameras captured photo evidence of four other species, all of which appeared at sites alongside cats suggesting some degree of resource competition may exist between these opportunistic predators.
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