Snapshot 2026 - fieldwork complete

We just completed our eighth year of Snapshot USA (https://www.snapshot-usa.org/) - a nationwide synchronized camera trap study of wildlife. Being our first year doing these surveys west of the Mississippi (prior surveys were in Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Ohio) we were excited to see what we’d find.

As expected, the mammal communities are much different. As for ungulates, camera traps captured loads of mule deer, piles of elk, a few moose, and a single white-tailed deer. The predator set included red fox, coyotes, long-tailed weasel, American marten, American badger, black bear, and … a mountain lion! Small herbivores included snowshoe hare, white-tailed jackrabbit, least chipmunk, deer mice, and a million red squirrels.

My personal goal was to get a mountain lion. We ended up getting two captures on the same camera about a month apart!! It’s probably the same one, but who knows.

See a few of the better photos below.