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Disciplines: Fine Art, Photography,Visual Arts.
Region: Borderlands, Sky Islands
Chapter: Tucson
Dr. Melanie Culver and a team of biologists at the University of Arizona have been monitoring Jaguar and Ocelot migration with motion sensor cameras for nearly 15 years. I recently joined her team of citizen scientists and have been installing cameras in three mountain ranges near the US/Mexico border due to recent research indicating potential corridors for apex predator movement. Many borderlands ecosystems are threatened due to mining and border fence construction, and data from my cameras will be used to study their impacts on wildlife activity. Additionally, footage demonstrating the presence of endangered species will be used to bolster arguments for federal protection of these environments.
In addition to acquiring new data, I will obtain historical footage from previously installed motion sensor camera sites to study changes in wildlife habits over time. I will overlay selections of motion sensor imagery during specific timeframes, allowing viewers to observe fluctuations in wildlife activity levels in relation to changes to the larger ecosystem. I will also augment the visual information from my motion sensor cameras by creating panoramic depictions of the sites where they are installed. Panoramas will be made from the same perspective, allowing me to insert motion sensor footage in to a larger landscape view and provide expanded context for the data. By rotating the vantage point of my motion sensor cameras at regular intervals, I will capture wildlife movement over a wider area and reveal activity through migration corridors in a manner that has not been previously recorded.
