U.S. Forest Service researchers in Montana set up 30 trail cameras in burned over areas to capture images of carnivores willing to climb a tree to dine on road killed deer. Below is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Ravalli Republic.
There was no way of knowing what kind of critters might venture through the charred trees left last year in the wake of a wildfire in Soldier Creek.
“The ground was basically dust,” said Bitterroot National Forest biologist Andrea Shortsleeve.
Far up in the head of the West Fork drainage not far from Devil Creek, a team of Bitterroot National Forest researchers led by the biologist decided to set a photographic trap in an effort to see what might show up.
So they tied a leg taken from road-killed deer high up on blackened tree with a stout piece of wire. And then they carefully placed a series of stiff wire brushes into the bark of the tree to capture some fur from passing carnivores.
After that was done, they attached a trail camera to a nearby tree with its lens pointed at the bait…
