Snapshot USA

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Snapshot USA project is a huge collaborative effort to sample mammal populations with camera traps across all of the United States. The study is designed to sample sites in all 50 states stratified across habitats and development zones (suburban/rural/wild/urban) with an objective of at least 400 trap-nights in site.

 

UPDATE: For it's 3rd year (2021), Snapshot USA data management is moving to Wildlife Insights. Find out more about Wildlife Insights Here

With this change, all NEW AND RETURNING collaborators MUST Register.

Registration for this year's project is now open Here! 

Registration to Wildlife Insights website will also be required at a later date

Sneak peak of Snapshot 2020 data

In 2020 over 100 collaborators set up 1458 camera sites and detected 81 mammal species across The United States

Snapshot Rules

1. Each collaborator selects one combination of setting (Urban, Suburban, Rural, Wild, Other) and habitat (Forest, Grassland, Desert, Alpine, Beach, Anthropogenic, Other) to focus on when deploying camera traps.                                    
                                    
2. Between 10 and 40 camera traps will be deployed across 10 to 40 locations matching the selected setting-habitat combination. The location, start date, end date, and camera make and model for each deployment must be recorded.  *Minimum of 10 cameras with preference of 15+*                                                                                                      
                                    
Approved cameras are Browning (Strike Force Elite HD, 2017 Strike Force HD Pro, or camera of equal or greater quality), Bushnell (Trophy Cam HD, Essential, Aggressor, or camera of equal or greater quality), Moultrie (M-999I, M-1100i, or camera of equal or greater quality), Primos (Proof Cam 02, Proof Cam 03, or camera of equal or greater quality), Reconyx, (all models), Spypoint (Solar, Force 10, Force 11D, Force GM, or camera of equal or greater quality), and Stealth Cam (G45NP Pro, G42NG, or camera of equal or greater quality).                                    
                                    
3. Cameras should be placed so that they are 50 cm off the ground and with regular orientation.                                    
                                    
4. The deployed cameras must be at least 200 meters away from other cameras (but no farther than 5 kilometers).                                    
                                    
5.  No food bait or scent lure will be used.                                    
                                    
6. While cameras can be placed on trails or logging roads, this must be indicated by the collaborator.                                    
                                    
7. Once field work is complete, the collaborator will upload images and metadata to Wildlife Insights. Our intent is to have all data uploaded by December 1st and a final report to participants shortly after that time. We encourage collaborators to identify their favorite pictures, so that we can highlight these in this collection.                                                                        
                                    
Data accessibility and co-authorship: Data accessibility and co-authorship: there will be no embargo on any data contributed to project outside of usual eMammal restrictions on endangered species. Any scientific paper produced by CO-PIs, or any other co-participants, would offer authorship to all contributors during the manuscript preparation phase.

The Snapshot 2019 paper is now published!

In 2019, Snapshot USA was established to sample wildlife across different ecoregions across four development zones. This effort resulted in 166,036 unique detections of 83 species of mammals and 17 species of birds.