{"id":22409,"date":"2026-10-22T13:57:49","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T17:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/?p=22409"},"modified":"2026-10-22T14:50:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T18:50:26","slug":"watching-rhode-islands-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/news\/watching-rhode-islands-wildlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Watching Rhode Island\u2019s Wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Motion-activated trail cameras at two Rhode Island locations are helping graduate student Madalyn Stoltz and the University of Rhode Island contribute to the Smithsonian\u2019s Snapshot USA, a national effort to track how wildlife communities change over time.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 Oct. 22, 2026 \u2013 A deer pokes its nose toward the lens. A coyote pauses, ears perked up. A fisher\u2019s eyes flash in the dark. For University of Rhode Island researchers, these fleeting wildlife sightings are important data points in a growing national picture of how animal communities change over time.

The cameras capturing them are part of Snapshot USA, a nationwide wildlife-monitoring program coordinated by the Smithsonian and North Carolina Museum of Natural Science since 2019. Madalyn Stoltz, a master\u2019s student in URI\u2019s Biological and Environmental Sciences<\/a> program, leads the university\u2019s participation.

Working with Professor Kathleen Carroll in URI\u2019s Quest Lab<\/a>, Stoltz oversees two locations for data collection for the project from September 1 through October 31: the 225-acre North Woods adjacent to URI\u2019s Kingston Campus and a site in Little Compton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

North Woods has been part of Snapshot USA since the project began. The Little Compton site grew out of URI\u2019s collaboration with the Stonewall Stewards, who purchased cameras to support the research.

Where the stone walls meet wildlife <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Little Compton site also connects to Stoltz\u2019s own research<\/a>. With Carroll and Professor Shelby Rinehart, both faculty in URI\u2019s Department of Natural Resources Science<\/a>, Stoltz is investigating how Rhode Island\u2019s historic stone walls compare with natural features in supporting wildlife biodiversity, a question that has not yet been studied extensively in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are tons of stone walls in Little Compton so we were able to get some great camera spots over there to both contribute to Snapshot and continue our work with stone walls,\u201d Stoltz says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Rhode Island sites share the same habitat classification under Snapshot USA. As part of the work, Stoltz will examine how wildlife uses features within them, including stone walls, downed logs, and other structures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previous work of Stoltz\u2019s drew on camera-trap data from a long-term study conducted by the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and URI. The preliminary findings suggested that stone walls may serve as indicators of wildlife biodiversity, particularly for small mammals and species such as deer, foxes, and coyotes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the wildlife trail <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choosing a camera location for the Snapshot USA data takes more than pinpointing a spot on a map. Researchers consider land ownership, habitat, and accessibility before heading into the field to look for signs of wildlife activity.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Images from URI’s North Woods contribute to a national effort to track how wildlife communities change over time.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cMore often than not we end up moving the camera site to a better spot,\u201d Stoltz says. \u201cThere\u2019s no way to know from a map where good camera spots will be, but it\u2019s a helpful starting point.\u201d

Each camera must also follow Snapshot USA\u2019s standardized protocol, ensuring that data collected in Rhode Island can be compared with results from sites across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cameras remain in the field for at least a few weeks before the team replaces batteries, retrieves memory cards, and reviews the images. The photos are uploaded to Wildlife Insights, a platform used by Snapshot USA participants, where artificial intelligence helps identify animals. Researchers still review every image themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not every image yields a wildlife sighting. \u201cGrass and leaves are often the banes of our existence when it comes to camera trapping,\u201d Stoltz says. Windblown leaves and passing shadows can trigger the cameras, generating hundreds of images without a single animal in view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curious animals can cause trouble, too. \u201cWe also get some curious animals who come right up to the cameras or even mess with them (raccoons are naughty),\u201d Stoltz says. \u201cWe also get a lot of animal butts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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Isabella Noonan (left) and Stoltz.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Stoltz mentors undergraduate students who help with fieldwork and image identification, including Isabella Noonan, Raven Szewczok, and Ava Watjko.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From camera traps to bigger questions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientific payoff lies in the thousands of images that accumulate each year. Because every participating site follows the same methods, researchers can study which species are present, biodiversity, population trends, and how animals use different habitats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou can answer so many questions with this kind of data, especially since we will have access to the data from all the other Snapshot projects across the country,\u201d Stoltz says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That consistency becomes even more valuable over many years. By returning to the same sites, researchers can distinguish real changes in wildlife communities, such as responses to development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The images don\u2019t stay with the research team, either. Once uploaded, they join Snapshot USA\u2019s national dataset, free for anyone to explore through Wildlife Insights<\/a> \u2014 raccoon close-ups and all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Motion-activated trail cameras at two Rhode Island locations are helping graduate student Madalyn Stoltz and URI contribute to the Smithsonian\u2019s Snapshot USA, a national effort to track how wildlife communities change over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1089,"featured_media":22410,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1089"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22409"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22419,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22409\/revisions\/22419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/cels\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}