By: Christena
Nature Stories, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Best Camera Trap Captures – May 2016

I’ll be sharing the best camera trap captures from each month in 2016. These images are from the field research I’m conducting for 3 Rivers Foundation, so I’ll be presenting these captures all the way back to January 2016.

These images are selected to show here are based on the animal behavior captured, as well as the uniqueness of the capture.

May 2016 – Best Camera Trap Captures

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Nine-banded armadillo rooting during the early evening hours. Did you know armadillos can swim?  Plus they are almost blind and deaf.
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A young white-tailed deer buck.
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Are you ready for your close-up? This Rio-Grande Turkey walked right in front of the camera trap.
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Camera traps not only provide evidence of animals and their activities, but also vegetation growth and die-off at the research site.  Yellow-evening primrose was in full bloom, along with wooly plantain.
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Captures like this one is priceless.
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A raccoon was captured either washing his dinner or his paws. There’s a good possibility he was just playing in the water at the Beaver Pond.
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How many feral piglets do you count?
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These piglets were all in for their selfies at this moment. Feral hogs are hard to control but when you see these many babies all at once it does make it seem hopeless to eradicate them.
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Red-tailed hawk. One of my favorite captures for many reasons. One – at the time this image was captured a pair of red-tails had just had two babies born near the Beaver Pond. This parent was probably scouting for a meal to take back to their young.  Two – it’s rare to see such a majestic bird like this captured on a camera trap. Three – notice the green vegetation in front of the camera? It’s called cocklebur. These plants have no wildlife use and grow rapidly. Thankfully, their burrs don’t really hurt like goatheads.  These plants are in the sunflower tribe and are toxic. Toxic agent is carboxyatractyloside, a sulfated glycoside which when ingested induce vomiting, muscular weakness, prostration are among the few signs.

Photographs – © Christena Stephens