Milestone

Some of you readers know that we've been hosting a Snapshot Wisconsin camera here at The Platz. 

This project utilizes volunteers to help identify and count the animals recorded on these trail cameras. 

Crowdsourcing the data of where and when each photo was taken will hopefully lend further understanding of wildlife population distributions across Wisconsin and how these distributions change over time. Snapshot Wisconsin is a consistent mechanism to monitor all types of wildlife throughout the year.   

Wisconsin started as a pilot program in only two counties in 2016 but expanded statewide in 2018. Today, there are more than 1,800 volunteers, monitoring over 2,100 trail cameras across the state. Furthermore, the Snapshot program receives approximately 45,000 photos per day from all these cameras. Just stop and think about how incredible that is!

The Bushnell Snapshot camera we host was deployed at the end of October 2018 and it continues to faithfully and patiently gather photo documentation of the critters here.  

Snapshot Wisconsin recently reached an important milestone - 

The 50 millionth photo! 

As a thank you to everyone who has helped the program out or followed its success (and to celebrate the 50 millionth photo milestone), the Snapshot Wisconsin team selected some of their favorite photos from the first 50 million and used them to build an interactive map of Wisconsin. This tool highlights each photo and tells a short story about the photo itself or the species shown. It serves as a “snapshot” of how the program has grown over the years.

Rare species sightings, unusual animal behaviors, species facts, and even a few multi-species encounters can all be seen in the interactive map.   

Check it out!

Here is one of our favorite Snapshot photos - a bald eagle - April 13, 2019