Over the last few weeks, we have been setting up cameras around grounds, hoping to catch nocturnal life. Unfortunately, aside from a few people walking dogs and a lot of foot traffic, we have only captured a deer and an opossum. We have come up with a few possible reasons regarding why we have not gotten photos of as many animals as we had hoped, and also possible solutions to these problems. First, our goal to find nocturnal life around grounds is difficult to accomplish because streets surround much of the green areas. With so many streets, it may be unlikely that wildlife would go in these areas, especially when cars are frequently driving by. Because of this, we decided that it would be more beneficial to focus on putting the cameras near wooded areas instead. Hopefully this will help us catch images of more animals.

Another issue that may be preventing us from catching images of animals is the positioning of the cameras. It is possible that there are more animals that pass by the areas where we’ve set up the cameras but the cameras just don’t catch them. To fix this, we decided to place two cameras in the same area in different positions and at different angles in the hope of catching an animal that only one camera may have missed.

Finally, to encourage more animals to come into the area, we have decided to add bait, such as peanut butter, near the camera. While this won’t be a completely natural sighting of nocturnal life, it will give us a better idea of what animals are living in the area. We have decided that we will only put bait near a few of the cameras so that we can compare how effective it is.

Due to the lack of images, we have decided to move the cameras to new areas. The first new area will be near Hereford and Runk where we have been told many students see foxes during the day. We will be placing two cameras in this area, in the hope of catching images of these foxes at night. Another area we will be placing the camera is the community garden near Hereford because we have been told that they often have problems with rabbits eating the plants in the garden. Hopefully we will be able to catch images of these rabbits or possibly something else. The camera that was placed by the Dell Pond did not catch images other than a few ducks and a lot of foot traffic, so we decided to move the camera near the stream behind the pond. This will hopefully reduce the amount of foot traffic which could increase the chances of catching images of nocturnal life.

Post by Kelsey Grant, Second-Year, Media Studies