august wildlife news

Mid-summer wildlife findings

Our Wolverine Tracking Project has two main parts this summer season- the Wildlife Camera Survey and the Sierra Nevada Red Fox Scat Survey. We have 18 camera sites up and running this summer and our intrepid camera crews are bringing back great wildlife detections every week! Big and small, plenty of critters have shown up at all of the  various locations. We set up cameras at different elevations, as well as different environments, including woodlands, uplands, and a recovering burn area. We are excited to share some of the highlights so far!  

We also have news from our Fox Surveys! Volunteers have been hiking and exploring the mountain and bringing back data and samples for our research. We greatly appreciate all of their hard work!

camera surveys

First up, we have some smaller mammals; this Western gray squirrel has found a tasty snack!

A rabbit or snowshoe hare leaps around this site! They are most active at dawn and dusk as seen in this photo.

This striped skunk wanders through this site. They are also most frequently seen at night because they are mostly nocturnal, so this is a rare treat!

Before we move on to bigger mammals, there are some large birds to mention! Turkeys are a common visitor at a number of sites this summer. They are sometimes seen alone but also in small flocks. Turkeys eat a large assortment of food- from nuts and seeds, grasses, berries, roots, insects and even small animals like lizards and snakes!

There have been many deer sightings at almost all of the cameras so far this summer. This one looks like it is just about to leap past!

There are also plenty of little fawns closely following after their mothers in the forests, like this one here!

At just two sites so far, there have been elk passing by, like this majestic buck!

Now on to a couple of carnivores! There have been bobcats checking out several of the sites, as they are one of the critters most attracted to the stinky bait that is placed under logs in front of the cameras.

Here is a coyote, also highly interested in the bait at this site. They have been seen at most of the cameras so far, often alone, like this one, and sometimes pairs.

This coyote also checked the bait at this site, then doubled back to an animal trail that is used by many other animals.

The last, but certainly not least, animal is the black bear! They are seen at several cameras on the mountain so far this season. This one looks well fed! Bears eat all kinds of things- nuts, berries, grasses, roots, insects and occasionally newborn deer or elk.

Here's another trundling their way through an old burn. Bear fur gleaming in the sunshine is such a beautiful sight!

Here's a special treat- this is the first bear cub sighting of the year! This mother bear and her small cub investigate the log where bait was placed for this camera. The curious little one jumps right up on the log on their own!

sierra nevada red fox surveys

The Fox Team members have been very busy doing scat surveys all over the mountain. They have collectively covered almost 55 miles of trails and service roads! Not only that, they have brought back eight probably scat samples that will be sent in for genetic testing!

Probable fox scat recently collected by a volunteer for genetic testing.

An incredible scenic photo shared with us by one of our volunteers on a recent survey of the mountain.

We hope you enjoyed seeing some of our most current animal findings! We look forward to seeing who else is running around the forests and mountainsides the rest of the summer!