Have you seen any wildlife on Wild Basin’s trails? If not, you are not alone. Wild Basin hikers occasionally catch glimpses of native wildlife, such as grey fox, roadrunners, or deer. But by and large the preserve’s wild critters prefer to avoid trail areas when humans are present. Paul Finch, a St. Edward’s University biology student (’21), was curious about how wildlife use the trails when humans are not present, and how human foot traffic influences their trail use behaviors. In May of this year, Paul began a study of wildlife trail use by installing motion-triggered game cameras along preserve trails. Paul is working with Dr. Barbara Dugelby, Wild Basin’s Director, and his research is supported by funding from an NSF grant as well as Wild Basin research funding.
Paul worked with two St. Edward’s freshmen students, Edere Ohwobete and Delilah D’souza, to install 13 motion-triggered cameras at key locations along Wild Basin’s trail network. The study hypothesis is that wildlife activity will be lower at camera locations where human foot traffic is high. Likewise, Paul predicted that remote trails further from the trailhead with low human foot traffic would have higher mammal relative activity. Preliminary findings from summer data are supportive of the study hypotheses.
Between May and July, 13 cameras on different trails yielded 1,093 images of humans (knees and feet only) and native wildlife species. Coyote were the most frequently captured large mammal, followed by fox and white tailed deer. Coyote and fox were captured at most of the camera stations in WBP. Humans were the most captured species overall, and were captured at all stations throughout the preserve. Among small mammals, squirrels were the most frequently captured, and were the most frequently captured of all mammalian wildlife species.
Other interesting preliminary results include that the camera on Yaupon Trail, which is the furthest from the trailhead, captured the highest number of wildlife and the lowest number of human hikers. Overall, wildlife mammal activity along trails was positively correlated with distance from the visitor center and trailhead. Therefore, it does appear, at least on the trails farthest from the trailhead, that many wildlife species respond to the lower levels of human traffic by using the trails more frequently.
Paul and Dr. Dugelby will continue the study until next summer, and hope to analyze the trail camera data alongside pre-existing off-trail camera data to assess how human foot-traffic may be impacting wildlife behavior in the preserve. Paul hopes the results will help build a better understanding of how human activity can affect wildlife behaviors such as nocturnality, hunting, and interspecies competition.
Paul Finch is a St. Ed’s biology major planning to graduate in May 2021. He hopes to pursue a Master’s in Ecology or Conservation Biology.
