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SHUTESVILLE WILDLIFE

GAME CAMERA PROJECT

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Black bear home range: 19,2000 acres and the Corridor, it seems is full of them. With Core habitats in the Worcester Range to the east and the Green's to the west and enough forest land in between, bears are doing just fine. Big bears, little bears, bear cubs. The first bear on camera in 2020 was March 31st. The last bear on camera in 2019 was November 3rd. 

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A male bobcat's home range is  between 6,000 and 17,000 acres for a female and male respectively. Habitats are diverse and are generally dense with vegetation  providing cover primarily for desired prey; mice, voles, grouse, squirrel but also from others like coyotes and humans. 

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Our cameras are mostly in the forests where turkey spend time to find beech nuts, berries, seeds and other insects. Turkeys are mostly found in flocks and we have few Tom's here strutting during spring. 

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Coyotes abound in the Corridor and we're happy to have them as a major top predator. Having recently colonized the northeast in the 60's, the coyote is now ubiquitous and occupies most habitats; forests, fields, and wetlands. Coyotes breed in the late winter and pups are born in late April or May. 

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The fisher, though small requires large unfragmented forests with abundant prey resources. They can cover 20 miles in a day in search of small mammals on the ground or in a tree. Fisher are excellent predators of porcupine but are considered an omnivore and generalist and taking advantage of opportunities.  

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Porcupine need forests for food, eating the fresh growth (bark, leaves, buds, needles) of trees and shrubs, and for cover. Porcupine will den in trees or rock crevices.  A slow mover, porcupine rely on their sharp quills for defense. 

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Becoming more common in the Corridor, gray fox is a similar to the red fox, lacking the white tipped tail, and having a shorter snout. Gray fox are more likely to be found in fragmented landscapes with both forests and fields using the dense edges for hiding from prey.

Shutesville Wildlife Galleries, by species

Explore galleries below 

Eight Reconyx 900 game cameras were set up in the Shutesville Wildlife Corridor in Spring 2019. The cameras are installed in representative habitats within the Corridor hoping to capture wildlife within that use these habitats.

Generally, game cameras are excellent tools to sample forest dwelling mammals that are medium to large: deer, bear, coyote, porcupine. Smaller individuals and non-mammals tend to be underrepresented in game cameras. While a species might be common, observations of smaller mammals (mice, voles, ermine), reptiles, amphibians and birds are infrequent  

Cameras are visited quarterly throughout the year and photos we're Id to species and cataloged. 

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