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USGS researchers at the Western Ecological Research Center are using motion-triggered cameras to study bobcats and other carnivores across a network of nature reserves set in Orange County, California, between Los Angeles and San Diego. Researchers are also learning to identify individual bobcats by their unique spot patterns to learn more about movements of individuals and the status of populations from the photographic images acquired through these camera stations.

Some of the camera stations were within the footprint of the 2007 Santiago Fire that burned in Orange County while other major fires were burning across Southern California. Now with an extensive dataset of images, researchers hope to study how fires impact carnivores in this highly-fragmented and urbanized landscape by comparing data collected in the years before the fire to data collected in months and years following this dramatic event.

The photos and explanatory captions below tell the story as events unfolded at one particular camera site, where the camera and its images survived intact, providing this inside view immediately before, during, and after the fire. After viewing the photos and captions below, click on any image to see a slideshow of the sequence, featuring higher resolution pictures.

A coyote walking in dry creek bed of streamside scrub vegetation dominated by the native plant, mule fat (Baccharis salidifolia), about 20 days before the fire. In their wildlife research, USGS scientists position camera traps along trails and dry creek beds, places that are likely to be travel routes for carnivores. From this particular location in Borrego Wash, the researchers have obtained 32 photos of bobcats and 7 of coyotes since March 16, 2007. Photo credit: USGS.

Movement triggers the camera, and moving vegetation can sometimes trigger a picture. At 09:45 a.m. PST on Oct. 21, 2007, the Santa Ana winds picked up and triggered a photo, followed by additional photos that morning of the windy conditions, including this one at 10:44 a.m. PST. Photo credit: USGS.

At 4:50 a.m. PST on Oct. 22, 2007, a coyote runs into the wash, presumably fleeing from the fires. Photo credit: USGS.

After the photo of the coyote on the run, the next photo on the camera shows high-intensity flames at 9:00 a.m. PST on Oct. 22, 2007. Photo credit: USGS.

At 09:01 a.m. PST, just one minute after the intense flames, the fire seems to have passed this particular point, leaving only the skeletons of the mule fat plant and other streamside shrubs that continue to burn. Photo credit: USGS.

The camera continued to take one photo per minute for 10 minutes after the fire, until this one at 09:10 a.m. PST on Oct. 22, 2007, showing smoke, burnt and smoldering vegetation and windy conditions. The remnants of some field research equipment are lying melted under a nearby tree. Photo credit: USGS.

The next photo on the camera at 11:12 p.m. PST on Oct. 23, 2007, shows a coyote walking out of the wash at night, a day and a half after the fire, heading back in the direction from which the coyote was running on the early morning of Oct. 22, 2007. Photo credit: USGS.