A new research initiative from Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine aims to track and understand how animals live and move throughout Philadelphia’s evolving urban environment, writes Hailey Hilsabeck for The Daily Pennsylvanian.
The Accessing Urban Nature Initiative, led by Penn Vet ecologist and professor Julie Ellis, is deploying about 35 motion-activated cameras across Philadelphia’s parks, cemeteries, forest preserves, and roadside green spaces. These will help in exploring how urbanization influences animal behavior and how wildlife adjusts to life in densely developed settings.
Each camera captures between 100 and 600 photos in a two-week period, with the team checking them quarterly to observe how animal behavior shifts with the seasons. The project is expected to continue for roughly five years.
The project aims to determine which species inhabit the city, how they navigate and utilize different habitats, and how they adapt to challenges such as heat, artificial light, and constant noise. Researchers are also examining why certain species thrive while others struggle and what these patterns reveal about wildlife’s overall response to fast-paced environmental change.
So far, the cameras have recorded foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, songbirds, groundhogs, herons, and a mink, along with other small mammals.
Read more about Penn Vet’s Accessing Urban Nature Initiative and how it will map animal life locally in The Daily Pennsylvanian.
