What kinds of animals live at the Arboretum, and what are they up to? Students in Dr. Frances Buderman’s wildlife and fisheries science class (WFS 409) are studying animals and their behavior using game cameras in the botanic gardens and in the Hartley Wood. These motion-activated devices are an invaluable tool for wildlife ecologists, allowing them to record animals without the disruptive presence of human observers. Unlike people, cameras are always on the job, recording even in bad weather, at night, or in the early hours of the morning.
Sharp-eyed observers may spot game cameras in the botanic gardens, and cameras paired with track plates (small, rectangular tubes that animals walk through, leaving identifiable footprints) down in the Hartley Wood. (Worried that cameras might record your trip to the gardens? Don’t be! The cameras are pointed away from the Arboretum’s walking paths.)
Over the years, game cameras have captured images of animals we see every day, like rabbits, red-tailed hawks, and gray squirrels. They have also recorded animals that we don’t often see, usually because they are active where or when people are not. While people are sleeping, animals like white-tailed deer, red foxes, gray foxes, and raccoons are roaming the gardens and the woods.
The cameras mostly capture pictures of animals moving from place to place. Occasionally, they record something more exciting, like the moment a red-tailed hawk pounced on a small mammal or a gray fox checking out a groundhog burrow. We are looking forward to seeing what they will reveal this year!
Game cameras will be in the Arboretum between February and March of 2026.