Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Fieldwork Begins

Tomorrow, for the first time, bait stations will be set up in conjunction with trail cameras for the sole purpose of photographing a jaguarundi in Alabama.  Three Tasco Model 119223C trail cameras (available at Wal-Mart for $50, not counting a $15 4GB memory card and batteries) will be employed on a large, densely forested private tract on Wolf Bay in south Baldwin County.  Bait will be fish suspended 6-7 feet off the ground (out of reach of coyotes).  The cameras will be left in place for a full week and checked on September 9.  Results will be posted here in a little over a week.

Thanks to Dr. Bill Summerour for advice on methods, for relaying his own 1963 possible sighting in Barbour County, and for passing along a recent report from a competent observer who watched with binoculars for five minutes at a distance of about 50 yards what he was virtually certain was a jaguarundi.  This was in 2005, and on an overgrown woods road near Weeks Bay, roughly 15 miles from where the cameras are to be set up tomorrow.

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