Monitoring urban wildlife at the Nature Boardwalk

[Gloria]

The Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo has a blog and a few cameras set up to capture the night life as well as what is seen during daylight hours. As each new creature is caught on camera a bit is learned about their urban lives.

Black crowned night herons the latest entry.
Nature Boardwalk at Lincoln Park Zoo

Coyotes in the night
Christmas-Morning Coyotes

Photos like these aren’t limited to Nature Boardwalk. The Urban Wildlife Institute uses motion-triggered cameras to study biodiversity throughout the greater Chicagoland area. We use the cameras to see which animals are out and about when people aren’t around. They give us an inside look into what’s happening in the urban habitat around us. For more info on how UWI uses cameras to study biodiversity, you can read about the project here.

Who Lives In Our Neighborhood?

[Gloria]

Painted turtles year round at the Nature boardwalk in Lincoln Park Zoo.
What Do Painted Turtles Do in Winter?

Their body temperature drops to approximately that of the surrounding water. Their metabolism slows to a crawl, and they won’t come up for air until spring. Even though they abstain from breathing, they still have some minimal oxygen requirements, which they meet by taking up oxygen from the surrounding water through their skin. It’s therefore important that the dissolved oxygen content in the pond’s water is adequate all winter so the turtles can take in oxygen.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about all this is that even with their metabolisms practically shut down—their body temperatures nearly freezing—the turtles do in fact move around. Last year we tracked them through the winter using radio telemetry. While the turtles stuck to the edges around the island in the pond, they did mosey their way around, often making small, but perceptible, movements from week to week.

[Gloria]

Cold, Hard Science

Barred owl 4th picture down in night shot above link.

We have cameras at over 90 sites around Chicago, and we capture images of animals we never expected to see. Mink, flying squirrels and even the barred owl above have all visited our camera stations, in addition to the usual suspects: raccoons, coyotes, foxes, opossums, white-tailed deer and squirrels.