Audubon workers at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary have been utilizing distant cameras outfitted with movement sensors to check the totally different species and numbers of mammals on Sanctuary land for over a decade. This previous fall, additionally they carried out a particular research over two months as a part of the SnapshotUSA program, a large-scale initiative began in 2019 to higher perceive mammal inhabitants numbers nationwide.
Overview of SnapshotUSA
SnapshotUSA, a program supported by the Smithsonian Establishment and the North Carolina Museum of Pure Sciences, collects knowledge nationwide yearly in September and October. Via this system, they’ve made greater than 1 million mammal observations and 67,000 chicken observations to this point.
The 2025 SnapshotUSA effort included submissions by companies, organizations, and faculties and universities representing quite a lot of habitats, with 3,320 cameras deployed throughout 49 states and Puerto Rico. With cameras positioned all through the wetland habitats, the Sanctuary is within the “Subtropical Division” and is one in every of greater than a dozen places in Florida. Whereas the Sanctuary’s location is taken into account “wild,” different SnapshotUSA members positioned cameras in rural, suburban, and concrete environments.
Findings From the Sanctuary’s Cameras
Following SnapshotUSA tips, Audubon workers deployed cameras in 20 places at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary at the start of September. As soon as all the photographs are retrieved from the cameras, they’re uploaded to a machine studying device that identifies and catalogs photos and knowledge. Whereas Audubon analysis workers and volunteers affirm the identification for each picture, the device saves a whole lot of hours of assessment by filtering out repetitive photos, blanks, and those who present solely wind-blown vegetation.
Of the 164,307 photos collected by the Sanctuary’s cameras in the course of the 2025 research, the net device recognized 14 species of mammals, with a whole lot of photos of white-tailed deer, bobcats, and wild boars, which had been probably the most quite a few mammals. It additionally detected 18 sequences of Florida black bears and seven sequences of Florida panthers. However the cameras additionally captured photos of many different animals, together with birds and even bugs.
“This type of research encourages us to consider the ecosystem as an entire,” says Audubon Analysis Affiliate Darienne Purtz, who was answerable for overseeing the info assortment for this challenge. “Because the cameras are on the market on a regular basis, they seize behaviors, interactions, and species that go unnoticed when we aren’t within the discipline,” she provides.
As a part of the challenge, the workforce made an thrilling statement. A photograph of a King Rail captured the chicken carrying plant materials. Rails are very secretive marsh birds, and since this was throughout nesting season, it might be an indication that they’re nesting in or close to the Sanctuary.
The place Do We Go from Right here
SnapshotUSA aggregates all challenge knowledge on-line, accessible by all members and the general public. The hassle offered a superb alternative for Audubon to collaborate and contribute knowledge to large-scale mammal research. It may additionally probably pique the curiosity of researchers learning mammal biodiversity or habits that might advance conservation efforts at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary sooner or later. Rigorous science performs a pivotal function in documenting the consequences of local weather change and biodiversity loss on birds, landscapes, and other people—and in devising revolutionary, inclusive options to mitigate and counter their results.
