This project is part of the Animal Evidence week for Crystal Cove State Park’s Virtual Jr. Ranger Program! Click Here to learn more about Animal Evidence!
Native habitats in Southern California have been heavily impacted by human use, and open spaces like Crystal Cove State Park are often diminished and fragmented by urban development. Because we are cut off from most other large open spaces in Southern California, we want to know if Crystal Cove State Park is providing adequate space and suitable habitat to support a healthy population of larger mammal species such as coyotes, deer, and bobcats.
How You Can Help!
Now we need your help! You can help us identify mammal species from photos taken by motion activated camera traps in Crystal Cove State Park’s Moro Canyon.
Step 1: Learn about how we study mammals in Crystal Cove State Park.
Start by watching and listening to the Monitoring Mammals slideshow with Kaitlin on Voicethread, which will introduce you to the project.
Step 2: Practice identifying animals.
See if you can use our Animal Field Guide to identify the mammals and reptiles in the photos in our Identifying Animals Slideshow.
Step 3: Help us identify mammals in camera trap photos.
Then visit our project on Zooniverse to start identifying the animals captured by our camera traps!
Thank you for your help! If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact us by emailing kaitlin@crystalcove.org.