The overall objectives of the Community Science Activities are:
- Involve Island residents and visitors in the cataloguing of Island
- Develop educational content for Groups, Nature Camp, Education Committee, and Nature Center exhibits.
- Provide a center for science learning for Island residents and
- Have community members develop their own proactive conservation ethic in anticipation of any external impacts such as climate change and habitat loss.
Current Projects:
Middle Bass Island Camera Trap “Island Critter Cam”
- Cameras installed May 2022
- 4,255 subject sets (12,765 images) were captured from May-November 2022
- Zooniverse crowdsourcing image classification application launched January 17, 2023
- 79,000 image classifications made by the general public in less than 24hrs
- 40% of classification had unanimous animal
- 26 likely detections of LEWS activity
- LEWS activity near hibernacula during daylight in October
- Other animals captured: Eastern Fox Snake, Eastern Gartersnake, White-footed mouse, Fox Squirrel, numerous bird species.
- Results presented at OHPARC annual meeting in
- Images of snakes uploaded to Ohio Herp Atlas
- 2023 Plan:
- Parks and Watercraft collection permit valid through November 2023
- OHPARC has agreed to lend cameras for additional year
- Installation at same location to replicate LEWS activity
- Installation occurred Friday May 19
- Community Science impact
- Image analysis provided by public
Insect Sampling – Phenology of North American Insects
- Collaboration with over 50 state, federal, educational, and non-governmental
organizations to record insect activity in response to temperature and land use changes.
- Lead investigator Peter Dunn at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with main focus on insect prey for breeding Tree Swallows.
- Spoke with Paula Zeibarth – sampling will take place at Scheeff East Point near Tree Swallow and Purple Martin nest grid
- Project has a strict sampling timeframe:
- May 17, June 6, June 18; 72hrs each
- We are free to sampling additional times at will
- Insects captured will be preserved and will need to be sorted
- All insects for the specific project dates need to be shipped to Milwaukee
- Community Science Impact
- Plan on bug picking workshops/days
- Plan on additional sampling to create our own collection for LEINWC
Bat Monitoring
- Had meeting last fall with Purdue researchers and North American Bat Monitoring Program coordinators.
- Contacted ODW Bat Biologist Eileen Wyza about bat monitoring on the islands
- ODW loaned us acoustic monitoring equipment
- Sampling protocol was developed to follow the NA Bat monitoring program (nabatmonitoring.org)
- Three monitoring stations on SBI, 1 each on MBI and NBI
- Monitored for 4 nights
- Locations on each Island TBD
- Eileen will run raw files through acoustic software and provide us with species
- Data will be provided to NA Bat program
- No hard option for community science….yet
OSU REU student
- Juan Flores, Senior at Notre Dame
- Installed bat detectors and analyzing call data
- Analyzed mammal images from MBI camera data
- Sight-observed White-tailed Deer on SBI
- Community Science & Outreach Impact
- Developed an iNaturalist Bass Island Mammal Observation Project
- Wrote a Facebook post on mammal observation activities on the Islands
- Created online photo submission app via Google Sheets
South Bass Island Mammal Camera Trapping
- Goal: to establish a network of camera traps on SBI to estimate species diversity, population structure, distribution, and habitat occupancy of mammals
- Target species: White-tailed Deer, Red Fox, Northern Raccoon, Eastern Gray Squirrels (including melanistic)
- Camera trapping protocols in wildlife ecology call for at least 1 camera along a 1km transect of a specific habitat.
- Goal is 20 cameras
- 2 each in 5 preserves
- 1 each on 10 private properties
- Selection of sites will be chosen on probabilistic sampling design (likely stratified by habitat type, land use, or proximity to shore)
- Winter ice coverage – reposition cameras to ice routes (ie near Buckeye Island)
- Budget
- Spypoint cameras $100 each ($2,000)
- SD Cards $7.73 each ($154.60)
- Rechargeable Battery Set $22.36 each ($447.20)
- Needed: $2601.80
- Community Science Impact
- Cameras on private property
- Image analysis completed by the REU student
- Can assign species to different working ‘groups’ that will compile data.
Potential Projects: