Monday, August 6, 2012

An Experiment in Animal Behavior

Work over the last week and weekend has not afforded me any time to outside during daytime.  I had been noticing on the trailcam shots that there is no shortage of raccoons this year.  The young ones have been very fun to watch; rolling, jumping, playing and scrambling up and down the trees.

Animal behavior fascinates me and after a couple of weeks of the camera in the same location, I moved about 25 feet and put in the mix a new object of three pieces of limb tied together in a  teepee fashion.


The deer were the most spooked by the new object in the territory, standing back and sniffing with an outstretched neck and eyeing warily.  The fox showed some interest but no concern.

The young raccoons, as I expected, regarded it as a piece of playground equipment.  I was treated to several games of "King of the Teepee".

2 comments:

Rolandisimo said...

Hi Paula, I like your camera trap pictures. You and your readers might be interested in a new camera trapping project in North Carolina, we are looking for volunteers, we provide the cameras, see more details here: http://chickencoopstakeout.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/help-us-launch-emammal-run-camera-traps-in-western-north-carolina/

Nature Girl said...

Thanks. It is alot of fun just seeing what is out. I will definitely check the site out.