Wildlife - Field work - Using and placement of trail cameras

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Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be a part of a scientific study on the behavior of wildlife in the field? Have you ever been curious about setting trail cameras to document the activities and the movement of wildlife at night while you slept? The Urban Wildlife Research Project (UWRP See www.urbanwildliferesearchproject.com/) is conducting such work on the behavior of the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus). The research being conducted is vital to understanding their behavior and their ecosystems.

As such, we need a volunteer or two who lives locally in the Santa Clara Valley, California and who can commit to being in the field twice a day: Once in the early morning at around 5:30 AM and then later in the day at around 3:00 PM. You will be directly working with Bill "The Fox Guy" Leikam, president of the UWRP.

Interested applicants for this position should have some college work completed preferably in ecology, conservation, biology or related fields or roughly the equivalent of those preferred requirements. Some prior field work experience is an advantage but not necessary. Your task will be to learn the use of trail cameras, sometimes called camera traps, how to document the video data taken from the previous night and more. The purpose of this program is to fill in for Bill when he cannot be out in the field due to travel to make presentations, attending meetings, etc. This means that once you have learned the procedures, then you need not be in the field until called upon unless you want to on a regular, daily basis.