Jennifer George lives on the outskirts of San Diego. Her house is in the desert and there are no fences here – all living creatures can roam freely if they are not afraid of a person. The latter just interested the woman when she found incomprehensible footprints in the backyard. And then she decided to conduct one experiment.
California is a dry place, so water is the best magnet here. Clean drinking water in a large bowl can be approached by any animal. The bowl is set up in the backyard, on the border with the desert, and a camera trap is attached above it, which records who comes to drink it.
Initially, George only thought about the coit family – she thought that the water would not definitely be useful for them. But it turned out that everything is much more interesting and complicated in practice! Different kinds of animals, birds and even reptiles have visited the watering hole!
Most of all the source of moisture was loved by the birds, which not only drank, but also bathed all day long. Animals came more often at night as human habitation is not the most hospitable place. The woman was surprised to discover how rich the animal world of California is!
Now this is a whole show for George, she watches the recordings in the morning with great interest and makes bets on which animal came at night. Like a very curious reality show with unnamed actors! To identify some of them, I had to ask the specialists. So through this the woman learned about the long-tailed weasel and the western tanager.
George is now partnering with Wildlife Care of Southern California and transmitting camera data to them in order to monitor the wildlife.
