—Caroline Savage (Mentor: Remington Moll)
In our increasingly developing world, wildlife has fewer spaces to live and raise their young, particularly in heavily urbanized areas. This lack of space often puts competing species in direct conflict with one another. Through the Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP), mentored by Dr. Remington Moll, I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to study this phenomenon firsthand. This city is ringed by extensive green spaces known as the Cleveland Metroparks, which provide undeveloped habitat for wildlife and human recreation. Since 2016, there have been about 200 wildlife cameras monitoring activity throughout this park system, which were originally installed as a part of Dr. Moll’s PhD work. A den site in one of these urban parks was used by multiple wildlife species between spring 2021 and spring 2023. Cleveland Metroparks Wildlife Ecologist Jon Cepek had monitored this site with wildlife cameras as an extension of the existing camera network. In Cleveland, I began analyzing the video and image data captured by the cameras at this site to determine which species had been using the den and the periods of time they were occupying it. I concluded that at least four species were using the den: red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), raccoons (Procyon lotor), woodchucks (Marmota monax), and Virginia opossums (Didelphis virginiana). Red foxes produced offspring at the site in 2021 and 2023, but coyote (Canis latrans) presence during those time periods indicates that they may have killed the fox kits.
