You're on candid camera, Marin critters Wildlife cams seem to show county's carnivore population is in good shape

Click through the slideshow to see other wildlife candids! (Photo courtesy of Marin County Parks) Raccoons forage for snacks in the Gary Giacomini Preserve in this photo from the Marin Wildlife Picture Index. The One Tam project set up motion-activated cameras in the Lagunitas Creek watershed and on Mount Tam to capture wildlife activity in the area.(Photo courtesy of Marin County Parks) less Raccoons forage for snacks in the Gary Giacomini Preserve in this photo from the Marin Wildlife Picture Index. The One Tam project set up motion-activated cameras in the Lagunitas Creek watershed and on Mount ... more Photo: Marin Wildlife Picture Index Project Photo: Marin Wildlife Picture Index Project Image 1 of / 55 Caption Close You're on candid camera, Marin critters 1 / 55 Back to Gallery

In the wilds of Marin County, scores of hidden video traps are catching animals day and night — on film.

Marin's open-space preserves have the largest array of wildlife cameras in North America, and the images they're capturing are piquing scientists' interest. Some of the animals that have been photographed are not where they should be, Lisa Michl, a wildlife biologist with Marin County Parks, said.

Badgers, for example. The American badger is a grasslands-loving creature, but it has been snapped in eastern Marin and Marin forests.

River otters normally are found in creeks and lakes, but they are showing up in photos taken at a significant distance from any waterway.

Michl explained that the photos indicate that otters and badgers are migrating within the county as they stake out new territory.

The cameras have also snapped spotted skunks, much less common than the striped variety.

Mountain lions, the holy grail of motion-activated wildlife cameras, are almost never photographed. Only two have been captured on film over the last 2-1/2 years that the county has been gathering data — on Marin Municipal Water District land and at Samuel P. Taylor State Park.

Michl said Marin has at least two pumas that are known to inhabit Point Reyes. Mountain lions are wide-ranging predators, but scientists are unsure if they travel into areas in the eastern portion of the county, which have denser human populations.

The most common critter captured on camera? Black-tailed deer, the lions' natural prey.

While the data is preliminary, so far it appears that Marin County has robust numbers of medium-sized carnivores including raccoons, bobcats, coyotes and gray foxes. And that's good news for wildlife habitats.

"If you have enough herbivores to support a healthy population of medium-sized carnivores and enough vegetation to support the herbivores, then you know you have a happy ecosystem," Michl said.

Every now and then, a photo will turn up that surprises even an experienced scientist like Michl.

One was a shot of a mother bobcat trailed by two kittens.

"The cameras caught a bobcat with two babies. It's so rare," Michl said.

Then there was the image of the coyote carrying a deer leg from a fresh kill.

"Scientists are like, coyotes eating, that's so cool!" she said, acknowledging that the general public might not share her enthusiasm for such a graphic display. (Note, the image is included in the above slideshow.)

The data collected by Marin's cameras will analyzed via the Wildlife Picture Index, a global scientific protocol developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Zoological Society of London to assess the health of local wildlife populations. Findings from the first three years of the project are expected to be announced Oct. 26 at a wildlife symposium at the Marin Art and Garden Center.

Sifting through millions of photos in search of animal shots is a daunting task. Some 250 volunteers, including many students from local high schools and colleges, are helping catalogue the images.

A selection of the photos are presented in the above slideshow. (More photos can be seen at the the Marin Wildlife Picture Index's Flickr site.)

The One Tam project, whose cameras are used for the wildlife candids, coordinates the volunteer effort. If you'd like to volunteer, check out the One Tam calendar to view volunteer opportunities, or contact Rosa Schneider at rschneider@onetam.org.