We’ve finally wrapped up our data collection & collation. Amazing to have over 900 camera-nights run across 60 different sites. Almost half of these (27) were on back-yard chicken coops with the rest split evening between back yards without coops and nearby woodlands.
Below is a table of the wild animals most frequently detected on these cameras.
| Grey Squirrel | Raccoon | Cottontail | Opossum | Deer | Gray Fox | |
| Sites | 46 | 27 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 14 |
| Pictures | 933 | 221 | 127 | 86 | 178 | 39 |
And here are a few photos, and notes about each species.
Eastern Grey Squirrel in a Back Yard
#1. Grey Squirrels were the most common species on our cameras, not surprisingly, and were found much more frequently in yard cameras than out in the woods.
A raccoon trying to break into a chicken coop.
#2. Raccoons were common at all sites, and were the only species observed actually trying to get into chicken coops.
Back-yard bunny
#3. Eastern Cottontail Rabbits were also more common in yards than wooded sites, probably because of all the succulent greenery we like to grow around our houses.
Virginia Opossum
#4. Virginia Opossums were also more common near houses then out in wooded sites, benefiting from food we cast aside, and cozy sleeping sites under our porches.
White-tailed deer fawns
#5. Although we did get a few White-tailed Deer in back yards, most pictures came from wooded sites.
Gray fox sneaking through a neighborhood
#6. Gray Foxes were found in yards and woods. One of our most surprising findings wasn’t how common the gray fox was, but the fact that we got ZERO pictures of red foxes.
I am surprised feral cats are not on this list. Did they show up outside of these top 6??
Good question about the cats (and dogs). We did get plenty of cat pictures, but most were owned cats (from what we could tell) and not feral. Because it was hard to distinguish, I didn’t include them in this list. We did detect cats at 30 sites (341 total picts), in 24 yards and 6 wooded sites.