DO ANIMALS USE URBAN STREAMS AS CORRIDORS?

Wildlife are increasingly found in urban environments. However, it is not clear how wildlife moves around the urban landscape. The purpose of our project is to determine whether animals use urban streams as corridors to move through town. We speculated that animals use the town’s streams as a corridor to cross into residents’ yards. To test this hypothesis, trail cameras were set up alongside the creeks at Hidden Creek Nature Sanctuary, Anderson Park, Oakdale elementary, and North Blair Drive in Normal, Illinois. The cameras were used to collect data between September 2021 and September 2022. The footage was reviewed on a weekly basis and the images were routinely uploaded onto Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) Access database. Information identified by visually inspecting the images was then used to create graphs. The input data consisted of the animals’ species, location, and time of day. Results from the camera images and our graphs indicated that ducks and dogs are the predominant animal species at Anderson Park, raccoons and squirrels are the predominant species at Hidden Creek Nature Sanctuary, raccoons and cats are the predominant species at Oakdale elementary, and rabbits and birds are the predominant species at North Blair Drive. Different animals were active during different times in the day. We also saw herons, chipmunks, dogs, foxes, opossums, and rabbits. There was seasonality in animal activity. The data collected through the trail cameras support our hypothesis; animals do use streams as passageways through town. By inspecting the trail camera footage and noting wildlife location and direction of movement, we observed various native species using the streams to travel through town.