eMammal International Lesson Plan

Authors: Stephanie Schuttler, Tavis Forrester

Camera Trapping Science

Some of the fundamental questions of ecology are how organisms are distributed in time and
space and how species interact with each other. Why are there so many species in one area
and not another? Why are species increasing or decreasing over time at a single location?
Answering these questions involves collecting data on species location and abundance.
Mammals are especially interesting to ecologists because many can move large distances, are
intelligent, have social interactions, can learn, and some are keystone species. The are also
important to people for economic reasons, wildlife viewing, hunting, and fascination.

Unfortunately for scientists, most mammals are secretive, and many are nocturnal, which make
them difficult to study. Two technological advances have helped scientists overcome these
obstacles, (1) radio and GPS collars that let researchers accurately track and locate individual
animals and (2) camera traps, motion-and-heat-triggered cameras that captures photos of
animals that move in front of the camera.

Camera traps are now used by researchers around the world to study mammals and other
wildlife. Before cameras were used, survey methods included records of tracks and other animal
signs, but these surveys required a high degree of expertise and signs were often missed or
misinterpreted. Populations of secretive or low density mammals, like threatened species and
most carnivores were underestimated or often undetected. Camera traps were developed to
solve some of these problems, but the first cameras were heavy, sensitive to damage, and were
limited by film. Now camera traps can run for 6+ months off of 12 AA batteries, take thousands
of photographs, and even record HD video. It is possible to identify all terrestrial mammal
species larger than 100 grams (the size of a chipmunk) present in an area, record behavior and
interactions, and for animals that can be identified individually (such as striped or spotted
animals), estimate population size.

Camera trap surveys can be used to gather baseline data about an area or answer specific
questions that a scientist may have. Baseline data are usually collected for long periods to
monitor changes through time. For camera traps, they typically address what mammal species
are present and the types of habitat they live in. Baseline data are especially important for
conservation questions such as effects of human development on mammal species or how
climate change affects mammals.
Examples of the types of questions you can ask with camera trap data:
Which habitat type has the most mammal species?
How are mammals affected by road density?
What mammals live in suburban areas? How does this compare to rural or wild areas?
What kinds of habitat are associated with many detections of coyotes?
Once a question or hypothesis is generated, the cameras are placed across the area of study to
maximize data collection to answer the question. For example, to answer the example question
about coyotes posed above, we could count the number of coyote detections across different
kinds of habitats for a certain period of time. Therefore, we would find different habitat types and
place cameras in those habitats. Scientists usually have at least 20 (but around 50 is best)
camera locations per area of interest to generate enough data to be able to compare habitats. In
the case of camera traps, the pictures are the data. When an animal triggers the camera trap, it
takes a series of photos for every photo (eMammal uses 5 or 10 bursts of photos). Through
eMammal software, these bursts are separated into sequences. Animals that are separated for
more than one minute apart are inferred to be different individuals. In the software, we count the
number of animals for each sequence. One animal in one sequence is a detection. For
example, if you have two coyotes in one sequence, you have two coyote detections. You would
add up all of these detections for each habitat and would compare them. You could infer that the
habitat that has the most coyote detections is the one preferred by coyotes. This could lead to
more questions by students. Why is this? Is there more prey in this habitat? Less humans? Are
there less predators in this habitat? A key to science is answering questions leads to asking
more questions.
Below are some of the ways to quantify camera trap data for analysis:
Relative abundance - the number of detections divided by the number of days the camera trap
was in the field
Species richness - the number of species at a site
Diversity index - reflects the number of species and the composition of the species within
community
Occupancy - the probability of a certain species occurring in a site (requires sophisticated
analysis, not feasible for the classroom)
Activity pattern - Accumulating detections for each hour and plotting; allows you to see what
time of the day the animal is active

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 eMammal Research
We encourage you to encourage your students to think like scientists, which involves asking
questions. While the camera trapping that your students conduct will provide valuable data to
eMammal, and the students will be participating in authentic research, it is important that in
order for them to fully understand science, that they ask questions themselves. The activities
below are not designed for a specific scientific question, but they can be easily adapted to do
this in the classroom.

Currently, the overarching question of eMammal research is:

How do mammals change across the urban to wild gradient?

If you think of a city as an onion, for many cities, in the center you will have the most urban
areas, followed by a layer of suburban, rural, and exurban neighborhoods, and then finally wild
areas with very few or no people. The goal of eMammal research is to sample (collect camera
trap images) across these different gradients to see how the mammal communities change.
There may be differences in the number of detections of species, the types of species or the
activity patterns. We want to relate these findings to variables within the cities, for example,
housing density or green space.

As it is impossible for one class to sample across a city, you can adapt this question to your
school: Will the species richness/animal activity patterns of species change as cameras are
closer to human-developed areas? Students can set cameras in habitats close to the school and
farther away from the school

Dr. Stephanie Schuttler is also specifically investigating the weekend effect of animals. She
will use the data collected from the eMammal middle school data sets to see if such a pattern
occurs. As schools are highly centralized areas of human activity, and animals usually avoid
human activity, she is looking to see if animals change their activity patterns on the weekends,
when there is no or reduced human activity.

This research questions can be investigated at your school with your school data set. To do this,
simply modify the animal activity worksheet. Students will create a graph that will only have
data from school days on it and a separate graph that has weekend patterns (or one graph with
two series). Students can then compare these two patterns to see if there are any differences.

Remember there are many questions to ask with eMammal data and we encourage you and
your students to develop your own research questions. eMammals is constantly updating its
website and soon you will be able to download data from sites other than your own and access
data analysis tools to investigate questions at a larger scale. Check eMammal.org regularly.

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 eMammal Predictions of Mammals

TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS

Students will complete the table before they view camera trap photos for the first time.

Materials:
eMammal Predictions vs Observations table worksheet (p. 8), 1-2 per student
eMammal Predictions vs Observations table worksheet for master list of class; can be created
on large poster board or projected on screen

Student Activity:
Day 1
Print off a copy of the eMammal Predictions vs Observations table.
Have students work alone and individually predict what mammal species they will find
on the camera traps. They will list them in the first column of the table.
o This activity can be done for each camera location, for example if you wanted
compare animals at a pond compared to a forest at your school, or for all of the
cameras run at a single site, such as all of the cameras at your school.
o Students will think of non-mammal animals like reptiles, amphibians, and birds.
Explain that birds can be captured by camera traps, but that our project focuses
on mammals. Because birds can fly above camera traps, camera traps are not
the best option for studying birds. Observations through binoculars and listening
to songs are the most common methods.
o Students may think of small mammals (mice, moles, bats, etc.). Explain that
these are an important part of the mammal community, but camera traps do not
often capture images of these animals because they are small and largely live
underground or fly (bats). Limit predictions to species larger than a chipmunk.
Organize students into small groups and have students compare their lists, adding
species to their list when there they agree or removing species from their list that they
may not agree with. For example, a student may have thought of a raccoon and another
student may not have and they will agree this is an appropriate species to add to their
list. Or a student may have a grizzly bear on their list and they will have a discussion on
whether or not grizzly bears live in the area, and may remove this animal based on their
discussion.
Reunite as a class and fill in the table together with the teacher creating a master list.
Ideally the sheet will be posted in a place in the classroom for all students to view and
be left up for as long as the camera traps are running. The teacher will ask for a species
from each group until there are no unique species added. There may be species brought
up that do not live in the range of the camera traps and discussion should be had on
why these species will not be found on the camera traps and whether or not they

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 should be added to the list. If the students worksheets are messy, the teacher may want
to provide another copy of the worksheet for students to duplicate the master class list.
Have the students count the number of animals in their predicted list. Write this
number in the space next to Predicted Species Richness at the bottom of the table.
Explain that animals have activity patterns. For example, humans are diurnal, they are
active during the day and sleep at night. Define the following vocabulary for students:
o nocturnal - active at night
o diurnal - active during daylight hours
o crepuscular - active at dawn and dusk
o ultradian - active throughout a 24-hour period
Leave the columns Present, Detection Date, and # of Days blank.
For each species listed, have students predict whether they think the animal will be
diurnal, nocturnal, crepuscular, or ultradian. Have students choose one option for each
species and place a P in the box they think will best represent the predicted activity
pattern for that species.

When Uploading Photos to eMammal

When students are uploading photos to eMammal, they will create a list of new species
that the identify. After the uploads have been finished, the students will meet as a class
and fill in the eMammal Predictions vs Observations table. Whenever a new species is
identified, if it has been predicted by the class, simply write a 1 next to the species in the
Present column. If it was not predicted, add it on the list and add a 1 in the Present
column. Write new species that were not predicted in a different color, or draw a line
separating the rows between new species additions from the ones that were predicted
so students will know which ones are their original predictions and which ones are
additions that they did not think of.
Write the date on which the species was first detected (found on camera trap image).

When ALL Photos Uploads are Finished for the School Year
After all photos are collected, conduct Species Richness and Activity Pattern worksheets
(p. 9 and 13)

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 eMammal Predictions vs Observations

Name ________________________ Date ____________

Camera Location:______________________________________________________

Mammal Species Predictions Present (1) Activity Pattern

Absent (0)
Diurnal Nocturnal Crepuscular Ultradian

Predicted Species Richness

Actual Species Richness

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 eMammal Species Richness
TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS

Students will conduct this activity after all eMammal images have been collected and uploaded.
*Note camera traps should still run to collect data. This simply provides a stopping point for
students to analyze the data collected from the school year.

Materials:
eMammal Species Richness worksheet (p. 10)

Background Information:

Species richness is the number of different species that inhabit a given area. How the area is
defined will change the number of species that are present, and usually bigger areas have more
species. This is especially true when comparing the same habitat type (a small desert versus a
big desert). Whereas in different habitat types, a small area may have many more species. For
example, a small rainforest will have more species than a large desert.

Camera traps only collect data on mammals, and only mammals larger than 100 grams. In the
eastern US this includes animals larger than an eastern chipmunk (Tamias striatus), but
excludes bats. Most of the diversity within mammals is in small mammals and bats, so species
richness calculated by camera traps only represent a subset of the mammal diversity.

Often ecologists attempt to estimate species richness in very large areas. There are probability-
based species richness estimators that calculate a range of species richness values based on
how many species are captured in different sub-areas. Those methods require complicated
statistics, so only the basic known species richness is presented here. Often ecologists may
start with a list of expected species from past research or local knowledge.

Student Activity:
Students complete the eMammal Species Richness worksheet (p. 10). They will need to
refer to the eMammal Predictions vs Observation Table to answer the questions.
o The questions of the worksheet should first be completed by students alone or in
small groups. They answers they provide can be discussed as a class for the
questions within the activity should be discussed as a class so that they
understand that species richness varies across ecosystems naturally.

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 eMammal Species Richness
Name:________________________________________ Date:_______________________

Refer to your filled out eMammal Predictions vs Observation Table.

(1) What species did you predict correctly? List and count them here:

(2) What species did you detect that you were not expecting to see? List and count them
here:

Transfer the following information from your eMammal Predictions vs Observations Table.

Location:_______________________________________________

Predicted Species Richness___________________

Using the column Present, sum all of the numbers. Enter your total in the space next to
Actual Species Richness at the bottom of the table and also in the space below:

Actual Species Richness:___________________________

(3) Compare your Actual Species Richness value to your predicted. Which is higher?

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 (4) What do you think it means to have a high species richness?

(5) Is a higher or lower species richness value better? Why or why not?

(6) Would different ecosystems have different species richness values? Why or why not?

Below are pairs of ecosystems. Circle which one you think will have a higher species richness of
the two when including all animal species (not just mammals).

(7) Coastal dunes Swamp

(8) Tundra Rainforest

(9) Pine forest Cave

(10) Deep sea Coral Reef

(11) National Park City park

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 eMammal Species Richness Teacher Answers
*Note Questions 1-3 will be unique to each data set.
(4) What do you think it means to have a high species richness?
Having a higher species richness means you have more species in that area. Note that you can
have a high species richness value, but not necessarily have an equal representation of each
species. For example, you may have 10 species present, but have only seen 9 of them one time.

(5) Is a higher or lower species richness value better? Why or why not?
If comparing animals in the same habitat type and in the roughly the same geographic location,
then having a higher species richness value is better. It means that you have more species in
the area and have not lost species (likely because of human intervention). However, some
habitats naturally have more species than others. For example, very few animals are specialized
to live in cave habitats, and therefore a low species richness value in a cave habitat compared
to other habitats will not be mean that it is a worse habitat. The most diverse habitats are those
that are warm, wet, and with a consistent amount of light (tropical rainforests, coral reefs).

(6) Would different ecosystems have different species richness values? Why or why not?

Yes, because ecosystems have different climates that make life easier or harder to flourish. In
deep sea oceans, there is very little light and fewer organisms will have evolved adaptations to
survive in this habitat. In the desert, organisms have to evolve to deal with high temperatures,
but also little water. These ecosystems which are more extreme in temperature, light, and
nutrients will have a lower species richness.

Below are pairs of ecosystems. Circle which one you think will have a higher species richness of
the two when including all animal species (not just mammals). Correct answers are in red.

(7) Coastal dunes Swamp

(8) Tundra Rainforest

(9) Pine forest Cave

(10) Deep sea Coral Reef

(11) National Park City park

*Note Question 11 is open to debate and subject to conditions such as geographic location.
One may argue that a large, city park in tropical area could have a higher biodiversity than a
national park in the artic. Typically, cities are thought to have reduced biodiversity because
many species are sensitive and do not thrive well in human development, however, humans
also inadvertently increase biodiversity through invasive species (e.g. landscaping with
ornamental plants).

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 eMammal Animal Activity Patterns

TEACHER INSTRUCTIONS
Students will conduct this activity after all eMammal images have been collected and uploaded.
Activity will be conducted after eMammal Species Richness activity. *Note camera traps
should still run to collect data. This simply provides a stopping point for students to analyze the
data collected from the school year.

Materials:
eMammal data from your class. This is to either be downloaded from the eMammal
website (as of August 15th, 2015, this option is currently unavailable, but scheduled to
be implemented within the year OR email Stephanie Schuttler to receive the data at
Stephanie.schuttler@naturalsciences.org). This will be an Excel file.
eMammal Animal Activity Patterns worksheet (p. X), 1 per student or group
Graph paper or Excel for students to create graphs
eMammal Predictions vs Observations table

Background Information:
Wildlife cameras record each picture with a time and date stamp, which allows researchers to
understand what time of year and what time of day animals are most active. The time of day
animals are active may shift throughout the year, as animals change activity to breed, raise
young, or even hibernate. Nocturnal, diurnal, and crepuscular animals all have different activity
patterns, and activity lessons can be used to introduce the concept of circadian rhythms as well
as most aspects of animal natural history.

Cameras are great tools to measure animal activity, and pictures can be used to create animal
activity graphs. Researchers typically use probability density functions for this, but activity
graphs are just as easily made using a bar graph. The activity below can be used to make an
animal activity graph. This generally works better with data from more cameras, using one or
two cameras may not have enough data to give detailed graphs. Activity graphs are usually
created for an individual species to determine what type of activity pattern that species has.
Often, activity patterns between species are compared. Scientists often compare species that
they think might be in competition with one another or to investigate predator prey
relationships. In both scenarios, one species will try to avoid the other species to be more
successful and therefore would be expected to have a different activity pattern.

Activity patterns can also be created for all species. In the case of schools, it may be interesting
to see if animals respond to the school day. If this were true, we would expect animals to
mostly be active during the night when people are not present at the school. This would require
a thorough investigation of the types of species that were used to create the activity patterns
though, as some species are naturally nocturnal.

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Student Activity:
Students complete the eMammal Animal Activity Patterns worksheet (p. 15). They will
need to refer to the eMammal Excel data that has been collected by the class and will
be provided through eMammal (either through the website or through Stephanie
Schuttler).
The students or teacher will choose one species to create an activity pattern graph for.
This can be done individually, in partners, or in small groups. It is important to choose a
species that has enough data collected for it. If there has not been enough data
collected by the class, the teacher may contact Stephanie Schuttler at eMammal to get a
data set from another area.
Students will refer to the original data and draw tally marks any time that species is
detected and will put the tally marks in the appropriate time frame within the table.
When they have gone through all of the detections, they will add up their tallies and pu
this number in the column n.
Students will then use this information to create a bar chart of the species activity
pattern. The student can do this using graph paper or on excel. The time of the day will
be plotted on the x-axis and n (the number of detections) will be plotted on the y-axis.
An example graph is provided on p. 17.
Have students answer the question on their table. Note that some animals may be
difficult to interpret and they may not have one clear activity pattern. This is okay!
Science is sometimes messy.

Extension:
Students can choose a different species that they think might be a competitor or
predator/prey of this species and repeat the activity with a new eMammal Animal
Activity Patterns worksheet. Before they begin this activity, have them answer the
following questions and fill in the following statements:

o I predict that ________________ (species 1) is a predator/prey/competitor

(choose one) of _______________(species 2).

o Based on this relationship, I would expect _________________(species 2) to

avoid/be attracted to (choose one) _______________________(species 1).

o I would expect ______________(species 2) to have the same/different (choose

one) activity pattern of ________________(species 2) .

o Have students compare the results of their activity patterns to what they
predicted.

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 eMammal Animal Activity Patterns
Name:________________________________________ Date:_______________________
Location: Time of Day Count (Tally) n

Species: 00:00-00:59

________________________ 01:00-01:59

02:00-02:59

03:00-03:59

04:00--4:59

05:00--5:59

06:00-06:59

07:00-07:59

08:00--8:59

09:00--9:59

10:00-10:59

11:00-11:59

12:00-12:59

13:00-13:59

14:00-14:59

15:00-15:59

16:00-16:59

17:00-17:59

18:00-18:59

19:00-19:59

20:00-20:59

21:00-21:59

22:00-22:59

23:00-23:59

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Use the data from your table to create an activity pattern graph for your species. To do this, the
Time of Day will be on the x-axis. On the y-axis, will be n. Label your y-axis Number of
Detections.
Answer the following questions:

(1) Is your species nocturnal, diurnal, crepuscular, or ultradian? Write your answer and
justify it below by looking at the patterns from your graph.

(2) Is your activity pattern the same or different from what you predicted for this species?
Refer to your eMammal Predictions vs Observations table.

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Example eMammal Animal Activity Pattern Graph

*Note time intervals differ from those in actual sheet provided

Time n
00:00-01:59 12
02:00-03:59 6
04:00-05:59 4
06:00-07:59 5
08:00-09:59 1
10:00-11:59 0
12:00-13:59 0
14:00-15:59 0
16:00-17:59 1
18:00-19:59 3
20:00-21:59 10
22:00-23:59 5

The species above is nocturnal because most of the detections occur during night. There are
very few collected during daylight hours.

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