Wildlife abundance on Copeland Creek

Wirtz et al 2019: We compared species abundance along two areas of Copeland Creek, Fairfield Osborn Preserve and SSU using wildlife camera photography. Our research question was: Will there be a difference in wildlife presence between the two locations due to human activity? We hypothesized that there would be more species present along Copeland Creek at Fairfield Osborn Preserve than SSU because there is less human traffic. To carry out this experiment we set up two wildlife cameras along Copeland Creek at Fairfield Osborn Preserve and two along Copeland Creek at SSU and left them capture for 2 weeks in April, 2019. We considered any animal life we saw in this study for the comparison to determine which location provides less of a disturbance from human activity. We found more diversity on the SSU campus than at the Preserve. 

Dansie 2019: I analyzed 6,000 wildlife camera photos taken along Copeland Creek on the Sonoma State University campus. I found that the location nearest Petaluma Hill Road is more diverse and has more effective species, which makes sense because it was close to water and had very little human activity.

Project Results

Title	Format	Download	Students
"Comparative analysis of species abundance in a natural and urban setting"	poster	Wirtz et al 2019 Wirtz et al 2019	Kimberly Wirtz, Kendra Wolf
"Wildlife Cameras: Background & Analysis"	presentation	Dansie 2019 Dansie 2019	Addy Dansie