Have you a seen Coyote or Bear in Seattle? Researchers want to know.
Woodland Park Zoo and Seattle University have launched a new online tool called Carnivore Spotting, inviting greater Seattle residents to report sightings of wild carnivores like coyotes, bobcats, and black bears. The tool, which also works on mobile, lets users submit the animal, location, time, and even photos, videos, or audio clips.
The initiative is part of the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project, which already uses dozens of remote cameras across urban and rural zones of the region. Citizen-submitted sightings will complement that camera data, helping researchers better understand how carnivores move through and interact with urban environments. The project is also connected to the Urban Wildlife Information Network, the multi-city research collaborative tracking urban wildlife patterns across North America.
Researchers are keen to address public misperceptions about carnivores. Coyotes, for instance, are rarely dangerous to humans. On average, only about two dozen people are bitten by coyotes per year across the entire United States. The bigger concern is small pets, and the zoo recommends keeping cats indoors and dogs on leashes, particularly at dusk and dawn when urban wildlife is most active.
