Wildlife Tracking Basics with Pathways for Wildlife

Wildlife is all around us in the Bay Area. Diverse species of animals filter through our urban landscapes, crossing the boundaries of our homes, cities and the protected landsthat surround our region. Whether you are visiting your local parks and preserves on the San Francisco Bay, the coast, the Santa Cruz mountains or the Diablo Range, there’s a great chance you’ll see wildlife, or at least signs of them. But how many of us can accurately identify these signs of wildlife, or use these signs to paint a picture of what’s going on in nature? Join Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen) and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority (OSA) as we welcome local wildlife researchers Tanya Diamond and Ahiga Snyder of Pathways for Wildlife to share practical wildlife tracking skills with our community. They will share knowledge of how to identify various types of common wildlife tracks and other signs, and deepen your understanding of the wildlife communities living in our local landscapes. Through Pathways for Wildlife, Tanya and Ahiga are conducting groundbreaking wildlife research on the Peninsula, in the South Bay and further afield with a variety of nonprofits and public agency partners, including POST, Midpen and OSA. Using camera traps, wildlife collaring technology and other methods, Pathways for Wildlife is constructing a complex picture of how wildlife move across our landscape, and what we need to do to enhance the health of these animal communities. Wildlife tracking is one of the many skills in Tanya and Ahiga’s toolbox as they survey the land and help organizations like ours plan for the health of our local wildlife. These two, 1 hour webinars are a rare chance to learn tracking from two local heroes of wildlife research. Wildlife Tracking Part 1 Friday June 11 – Tracking Basics and a story about Badgers  We will learn a basic framework for where and when to look for wildlife signs, the different types of signs to look for and some of the basic tracks you might see from a variety of local species. Tanya and Ahiga will also share some stories about how they are successfully tracking and monitoring one of the most elusive creatures in our region: the American badger! Wildlife Tracking Part 2 Friday July 9 – Advanced Tracking and Wildlife Connectivity We will expand on what we learned in Part 1 with more specifics about how to identify signs from some of the more challenging local species to track, and other tips for how to spot wildlife movement in our area. The Pathways for Wildlife Team will also share some details about the extensive wildlife movement studies they are conducting along major wildlife corridors in the region.