Dale Lauterback
- Sep 17, 2022
- 2 min read

Tracking Animals for Photography: Final Results - Mammals

Updated: Jul 6, 2023

It's been a year since I started this project last September of 2021 which included four seasons, well if you can call it four seasons in California. Even though it doesn't seem like four seasons, nature still follows a schedule. The natural schedule of things has an extra layer of complication added to my research area. This extra layer is the availability of water, and when spring the busiest time for nature comes around the water starts to disappear.

The limited water source made it easier to narrow down the game trails to the most active ones. In this area, all the game trails led to one main game highway which was used by Raccoons, Foxes, Bobcats, Deer, Coyotes, Cougars, Bears, and People. This was a hiking trail that led to a small rural community of homes a few miles south that in turn had water and food sources.

Having spent a fair amount of time hiking the game trails and learning what animals are in the area I was able to figure out their travel patterns and routine. With this knowledge, I was able to hang out in certain areas at certain times to see the animals, and for the elusive ones like the Mountain Lion and Bear, I was able to place game cameras on the trails I knew they traveled on. In some cases, I was able to even recognize some of the animals like a pair of Coyotes and a Doe. I was also lucky enough to see their offspring in late May. Both the Coyotes and Deer had two offspring each. As for the elusive ones like the Mountian Lion and Bear it took months of game camera footage before I was able to see results for the Mountain Lion in late July, but no luck for the Bear.

Mammals in the area:	Confirmed
Black Bear Bobcat Brush Rabbit Cotton Rat Cotton Tail Rabbit Coyote Deer Mouse Gopher Gray Fox Gray Squirrel Ground Squirrel Leafed-nosed Bat Mountain Lion Mule Deer Opossum Pocket Mouse Racoon Skunk Vole	Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No	Tracks Tracks, Scat, Visual, Photo, Game Camera Tracks, Visual, Photo - Tracks, Visual, Photo Tracks, Scat, Visual, Photo, Game Camera Game Camera Signs Tracks, Scat, Game Camera Visual Visual, Photo Visual Tracks, Game Camera Tracks, Scat, Visual, Photo, Game Camera - - Tracks, Game Camera Game Camera -