Capturing Predators on Film
Imagine her surprise: a bobcat going about her nightly prowling business in the Santa Monica Mountains stumbles upon a delightfully stinky can of sardines. Being a cat, she can’t resist and takes a mouthful.
Suddenly, a flashbulb goes off and the bobcat’s snack--along with her physical characteristics and distinguishing features--is recorded for posterity by a point-and-shoot camera.
This is the dream scenario the National Park Service has in mind for a new program designed to track the numbers and habits of carnivorous creatures in the Santa Monicas and surrounding parkland.
In coming weeks, biologists will hide 50 cameras with automatic tripping devices in park locations ranging from the Conejo Grade in Ventura County to Liberty Canyon in Los Angeles County.
They also hope to trap up to 35 coyotes and bobcats, which will be fitted with radio collars and released back into the wilderness so that biologists can literally chase them through the mountains, seeing what they do and where they go.
The park service, with the help of a grant in money and equipment from Canon U.S.A. Inc., will spend two years tracking the animals. Ideally, the study will give scientists a better idea of how people--and the houses and cars that come with them--can coexist with animals.
Biologists say the information the study yields could have a national impact, giving new direction to how the park service prioritizes land acquisition and how much development can be allowed near wildlife habitats without affecting the viability of species. It will also give a better sense of the overall health of the Santa Monica Mountains ecosystem.
“I can’t underestimate what the importance of this study is,” said Arthur E. Eck, superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
A crucial question biologists hope the study answers is if and how the animals negotiate the Ventura Freeway. Do they actually cross the busy freeway or are their breeding and hunting grounds simply shrinking as development and roadways encroach on their territory?
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“We don’t know,” said Ray Sauvajot, an ecologist with the National Park Service. “We need to know that information. The only way to find out what the animals are doing is to take their pictures.”
Road kill suggests they are trying; in the last few months, biologists have found a coyote and a bobcat--both killed by cars--on the side of the freeway near Liberty Canyon. Because it links the Santa Monicas with the Simi Hills, Liberty Canyon is considered one of the most likely crossing spots. An old cattle tunnel under the Conejo Grade will also be monitored for crossings.
Sauvajot said the study is focusing on larger animals--bobcats, coyotes, gray foxes, badgers and mountain lions--because their well-being is a good indicator of the health and activities of all the animals that live in the mountains.
“If you have enough open space to protect carnivorous species, you tend to have enough open space to protect other species,” he said.
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Information from the study could also help alleviate public fears about wildlife, he said. As suburbs push up against wild hillsides, animals have a tendency to occasionally appear in backyards. The park service gets a steady stream of calls from terrified people reporting mountain lion sightings, for instance. But Sauvajot said there have not been any incidents of mountain lions attacking humans in the Santa Monicas.
“There is a lot of misunderstanding about wildlife and the threats that wildlife actually pose,” he said. “Their daily routine is generally not running around in backyards chasing house cats. I think everyone would agree that more information would be helpful.”
Some cameras will be baited with lures like cat food or sardines. Others will be placed alongside paths and crossing areas so that animals will trip the cable simply by walking by. Park officials said the photographic tracking system has been used worldwide, from tracking tigers in Asia to looking for migratory birds in the Northeast United States.
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Biologists plan to use the radio collars only on bobcats and coyotes because the two animals represent two ends of the spectrum in terms of activity and interaction in developed areas. Coyotes make frequent forays into civilization, while bobcats tend to be shy.
After the animals are released, field biologist Eric York will be able to track them using radio telemetry. The collars are marked with distinctive tape, so the individual animals will eventually get nicknames based on the patterns: the triangle bobcat, the circle coyote.
“We’ll know who’s who and who’s where,” York said.
The park service is operating on a slim $75,000 budget, most of it donated by Canon. But York hopes to make a few trips by plane to track the animals as they race through the mountains. He’ll also do a lot of footwork and some overnight trips, using a global positioning system to figure out where he and the animals are. All that information will be funneled back into a central database at the Park Service.
