It has been about a month since I first began the Stough Canyon Urban Wildlife Study. During this time I have captured a total of 23 animals. The data is coming in more consistently now that the rain has let up. I'd like to give you a sense of Stough Canyon Nature area. This mountain has been my outdoor office for the past few weeks. I have spent a lot of time here checking on my cameras, taking pictures, speaking with hikers and observing wildlife. The View and the Old Youth Campground are popular destinations for day hikers. This is a view I see often on my visits to Stough. While at this outlook I see the 5 freeway packed as usual. I notice the neighborhood of Burbank buzzing below with activity. At this vantage point I always think about the following: P-22 (P= Puma, 22= 22nd in NPS Study) lives in Griffith Park. He crossed the 101 and the 405 freeway to get to Griffith and survived. He lives in the smallest known range for a mountain lion, less than 8 square miles. He is the only mountain lion living in that area. P-41 lives in the Verdugo Mountains (my study area). P-41 is also in a fragmented habitat. This 14 square mile range also inhabits uncollared female pumas. Thankfully, P-41 isn't alone. The 210 freeway is a major barrier for dispersal for these mountain lions. I imagine a time long ago when mountain lions could easily wander from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Verdugo Mountains, from the Verdugos to the San Gabriels, and so on. Life must have been a lot easier without all the urban development. Yet, these cougars live peacefully in our city and no one seems to notice them unless they get hit by a car on the freeway or make the cover of a newspaper (P-22 is quite famous for his travels). Mountain lions live on the outskirts of major urban development and many people have no idea these beautiful animals are their neighbors. I feel a bit of magic when I am up here in their territory.
For the most part, January was a pretty rainy month. This calendar shows the highs and lows for Burbank, CA during the month of January. Keep in mind mountain temperatures vary from the lows you see on this image. According to weather.com, Burbank received 5.60 inches of rain in January. The data started off pretty slow. I bet that the rain kept a lot of animal activity down. There was even a large mudslide about 10 feet away from Camera #1 this past week. I heard from Adrine at the Stough Canyon Nature Center that a cleanup crew had been out servicing the fire road. I walked up the trail hoping that the large tractors didn't crush my camera. After all, I call Camera #1 my "wildlife highway" camera for a reason. It has produced most of the data in the study thus far. When I arrived at the location I was relieved to find my camera in tact- close call! As soon as the weather cleared I managed to capture many critters on my camera. I personally love the rain. Lately I've been thinking more about the fact that I lose data when water falls from the sky. Patience is key I keep telling myself. Below is a simple table and graph of the 23 animals observed so far in the study. I am pretty sure that one of the Unknown's was a raccoon but I can't be certain so I will not confirm it. No mountain lions yet!
The cameras have imaged some alluring creatures that I am happy to share with you. You can differentiate which camera captures an image by looking at the information stamps located in the white bar at the bottom left of every image. C1 is Camera#1 and C2 is Camera#2. A little information on locations: Camera#1 is placed at 1800 feet in elevation and Camera#2 is at about 2100 feet.
As you can tell from the video, a lot of night shots are blurry or not very crisp images. Keep in mind that this study is less about the arts and more about data collecting. Remember that upon motion triggering the sensor, the camera takes 3 images and a 15 second long video. There is a 1 second interval before the camera begins recording video. By this time a lot of the animals have already scurried off. This leads to a lot of back end shots of animals or no video footage at all. If I had more time I could have the camera take only video so that I could capture the animal moving. I would then be able to take a still from the video for images. This would be impractical for Camera#1 and Camera#2 at their current locations. These locations are frequented by hikers and the amount of data I would need to sort through would be overwhelming. The images give me a clear, quick way to sort through the data at the cost of not capturing them all on video. Also, the video doesn't include all of the information stamps I need for the study. I plan to reposition Camera#1 at a different angle but keep it at the same location. Perhaps this will produce better quality images. I got poster cards printed for the Stough Canyon Nature Center to help spread the word about the research. These are free and available to the public inside the center. At the moment I am need of more resources such as batteries and additional memory cards. Perhaps the poster cards will help with additional funding. As always, thanks for visiting!
