Story by Sophie Scholl and Antonio Diego F.R. | Photos by Sophie Scholl and Kris Callis
This past spring semester, a group of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology students participated in an accelerated semester program led by Professor Dana Winkelman at CSU Todos Santos in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Students engaged in a variety of field-based classes, including “Design of Fish and Wildlife Projects” and “Wildlife Data Collection and Analysis,” where students were asked to design a capstone research project applying the field techniques and statistical analyses they had learned about in their classes and through local research examples done at CSUTS with the Mexican Commission for Natural Protected Areas using camera traps in the Sierra de la Laguna (results of this study to come).
One of the projects conducted this past semester by Kris Callis and Sophie Scholl* looked at variation in nocturnal mammal activity and detection in proximity to human development. Kris and Sophie used a combination of track plots (plots that were sprinkled with flour to see the tracks/footprints of different species and baited with dates and seeds) and camera traps to collect data about nocturnal mammals. Photos, taken near CSU Todos Santos, captured gray foxes, black-tailed jackrabbits, desert woodrats, and a variety of other rodent species.
A gray fox (top and bottom right) and a black-tailed rabbit (bottom left) were just two of the animals caught on Kris and Sophie’s cameras.
A gray fox (top and bottom) and a black-tailed rabbit (middle) were just two of the animals caught on Kris and Sophie’s cameras.
After some statistical analysis using RStudio and MARK software, Kris and Sophie tentatively determined that gray foxes were detected with less frequency closer to human development, potentially indicating they avoid areas with heavy human disturbance. Meanwhile, the total number of detections of all mammal species observed and the number of detections of rodent species were highest at intermediate distances from human development. While future studies certainly need to be conducted to confirm these results, these results are important for providing a basis for beginning to understand how nocturnal mammals are impacted by human development and disturbance.
Some of the photos and videos were also used as part of a Junior Biologist Workshop the students created and implemented in a local school to teach children about a day in the life of a wildlife biologist.
*In a fun, full-circle moment, Sophie, who returns to Todos Santos as a CSU Biology student, was part of the first generation of Kids Do It All, an arts and theater camp for kids held in Todos Santos for the first time in 2013.
