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takyon writes:

North Carolina libraries will begin to lend out motion-activated cameras for citizens to track backyard wildlife as part of the Candid Critters program:

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports organizers of the Candid Critters program hope to have the camera traps at 20,000 to 30,000 locations in backyards, state and national parks, game lands and forests over a three-year period. The cameras will be camouflaged and use an infrared flash so they don't disturb the animals when they go off. "For a long time, scientists have wanted to collect this kind of large-scale data using camera traps," said Roland Kays, the head of the Biodiversity Research Lab at the state Museum of Natural Sciences. "But it's daunting to do by yourself. We basically have built an e-Mammal data management system so that researchers can see and use the information that comes from citizen scientists' camera traps."

Kays said scientists are especially interested in studying the distribution patterns of deer across the state, and how that relates to the number of coyotes. Coyotes aren't native to North Carolina, but they have increased in recent years. Kays said scientists also hope the project will yield new information about bears, skunks, chipmunks, feral hogs and other animals.

Also at WUNC.

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