Big Bend National Park Camera Project

To allow for collecting more information about current and future wildlife conditions in the park, Big Bend National Park set up a grid of 12 trail cameras in the Chisos mountains.
Specific goals for the wildlife camera project include the following:
1. Determine spatial range of major wildlife species in BIBE (black bear, mt. lion, deer, elk, javelina, feral pig, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, badger)
2. Index population size of major wildlife species in BIBE
3. Assess reproductive efforts and survival of their young by major wildlife species in BIBE
4. Assess impact of environmental disturbances (drought, fire, climate change, etc.) on abundance, distribution and reproduction of major wildlife species in BIBE
5. Monitor presence, abundance, and distribution of invasive species in BIBE, specifically feral pigs, elk, Barbary sheep
6. Detect presence of potential, but undocumented, wildlife species in BIBE (ocelot, jaguarundi, coatimundi, etc.)
7. Determine habitat preferences for major wildlife species
8. Determine seasonal and daily activity patterns of major wildlife species
9. Determine interspecific spatial distributions (avoidance/attraction) of major wildlife species
10. Estimate population size of individually identifiable species (such as bobcat) in BIBE.
11. Provide data that maybe useful in predicting potential areas of human/bear/lion/coyote conflict (e.g., population fluctuations of predators and/or prey, lack of reproductive effort in prey, etc.)

Deployment of cameras was based on finding a location in a 16 km2 cell (4km x 4km) so that it has the highest probability of detecting all wildlife species that occur in that cell. This is the 3 x 4 cell grid centered over the Chisos mountains. The 12-camera grid has some specific objectives beyond the 11 outlined above. In addition to those general goals, the Chisos Mt. grid will allow:
1. Vigilance for invasive species moving into the Chisos Mountains, specifically elk and feral pigs.
2. Movement of wildlife ranges higher into the Chisos as climate change alters environmental conditions for the wildlife and their food items.