Tracking wildlife to preserve habitat

The Sky Island Alliance Tracking Program Makes a Difference

Shar Porier

The Sierra Vista Herald/Bisbee Daily Review

DRAGOON — To any passerby, an indention in the soft sediment goes ignored. But to a trained eye, that is the track of an animal.

Over the weekend, nine people were scouring the area in and around Jordan Canyon in the Dragoon Mountains. Brought there by Sky Island Alliance for the second half of a tracking workshop, they found numerous tracks from bunnies to bears on a four-hour hike.

SIA is a group that seeks to keep corridors and linkages open for the migration of wildlife and tracks what kinds of animals are found in various places in the southwest.

“At Sky Island Alliance, we work to protect the world-renowned biodiversity in our backyards by preserving and restoring habitat for our native wildlife through a wide variety of programs,” said Jessica Lamberton, wildlife linkage coordinator and wilderness outreach associate. “We work to educate the public and work with policy-makers. We keep our membership and public informed and involved through a variety of on-the-ground volunteer programs and informative events.”

One of those events is the two-part workshop where SIA signs up folks interested in knowing the critters who live around them and how to tell one species from another. Sometimes, the participants will take the workshop a second time, just to brush up on skills and to see new environments and the animals that call them home.

The first part of this workshop was held in Gila Hot Springs, N.M., which has different varieties of animals than what are found in this part of Cochise County.

Sunday, after a nice breakfast cooked by Lamberton’s mom Karen at the Amerind Museum’s lodge, the group led by Lamberton and Sergio Avila, the SIA northernMexico conservation program manager, started up the road to Jordan Canyon and in minutes, someone spotted animal tracks. After assessing the position of legs and size of the tracks, it was determined that these were rabbit tracks.

 The two larger imprints were ahead of two smaller footprints making identification relatively easy.

Further down the road, another set of barely noticeable prints were found. As Avila bent down to inspect them, he pointed out the four toes and the slight raised “x” that indicated it was a sort of canine. In this case the small tracks fit the profile of a gray fox rather than a coyote. And nearby was another sign of the fox — a pile of scat that had insect legs and a few bits of fur in it.

Scat, the waste of an animal, can be just as important to identifying an animal as finding tracks.

One person in the group picked up a few pieces of a strange material that at first glance might be identified as rabbit scat. But instead of being brown, these pieces looked like tiny, bright green hand grenades.

“So what kind of animal made this,” Avila asked. “You’ll never guess it. This is caterpillar poo.”

Foxes, bobcats and coyotes are the top predators of the lowlands where mice, rabbits and other small prey are in relative abundance, said Avila. Get into the mountains and the top predators include mountain lions and bears.

Walking up a wash, it was evident that there were a number of whitetail deer by the tracks they had made crossing from one side of the canyon to the other.

It was also evident that a mountain lion and her cub and a bear called this canyon home.

The tracks of a mountain lion were found, followed by a second set of smaller cat tracks showing that she had a cub walking with her. It was a thrill for everyone to picture mama and baby walking down the wash.

Not far up the canyon, another set of tracks were found. These were large bear tracks and they were in the vicinity of a juniper tree and oak tree. A few steps further and the remnants of a bear dinner was found. The big pile that contained acorns, berry seeds and other seeds.

At each spot where a track or pile of scat was found, it was measured, the location noted through GPS and the type of terrain surrounding it was recorded on a special report form. That report is then added to the SIA database, explained Lamberton.

“We’ve been adding these entries to our database to show the public the diversity of wildlife in the sky islands. It’s a big project,” added Lamberton.

These outings help boost that database while training others to become trackers and help keep an eye on the wildlife.

A remote camera placed there by volunteers back in 2009 was located and the image card replaced. It had been checked just a month before, so viewing these photos would mean these animals passed by during the past month.

After downloading the photos from the card, the tracks the group had identified in the canyon were confirmed. Not only were there many shots of deer, but there was one of the big bear and the lion mountain mama and her cub. The group was ecstatic.

In SIA’s effort to save corridors so that these large animals have the room to roam, staff and volunteers work to curtail development of sensitive areas. Fragmentation is one of the biggest threats to the survival of important species like mountain lions, jaguars, ocelots and bears, wolves and their prey, said Lamberton.

Lamberton and Avila lament the difficulty in accomplishing that goal. When the corridors disappear, wildlife can be brought closer to humans. Generally, that spells trouble for the big cats, wolves and bears. 

With ranchers wanting the predators eliminated and land developers scooping up whatever real estate they can, the SIA staff and volunteers have a big job ahead of them.