Season 2…

Two seasons of Snapshot Wisconsin are now in the books! As you may recall, the first two seasons focused primarily on images from concentrated camera grids located around two focal areas where elk exist.

Elk reintroduction areas in Wisconsin, USA.

Both areas are predominantly forested, but differ slightly in terms of climate and vegetation species.   Animal-wise, we would also expect some minor differences in community:

…and we find a few things.  One surprise is some indication that Cottontail rabbits were photographed more frequently further north. This may be a case of confusing rabbits and hares in their summer coats, but results above have not yet been filtered by any agreement metric.  Less surprising: there were more elk pictures at the northern Wisconsin site  (elk herds are just getting going in central Wisconsin), and also more bear and snowshoe hare pictures up north as well.  (Of course, deer are predominant).  Generally speaking, these two areas are fairly similar, and one exciting development (forthcoming next season) is project expansion across a broader extent of the state.