The California Ringtail Project: capturing ringtails on wildlife cameras towards conservation efforts

While the methodologies that will be used for this project are described in multiple areas of this proposal, it would be helpful to have a summary of these protocols to quickly see what the proposed/expected timelines are with this project...

February 2025 - The California Ringtail Project launches at the 72nd Annual Meeting of The Western Section of The Wildlife Society. 

February 2025 - The Experiment website for initial funding goes active.

March 2025 - Purchase of equipment to implement project (if fundraising is successful). Initial camera packages (wildlife cameras, rechargeable batteries, SD memory card, camera strap) are mailed to collaborators with instructions for selection of specific locations and camera set-up recommendations.

May 2025 - First one-month deployment cameras returned and photo files downloaded. Processing through Wildlife Insights. Remaining files sorted for presence of ringtails. Specific camera deployment location identified as Presence of Ringtail(s) or Ringtail(s) Not Detected. Information shared with the State Wildlife Grant (SWG) biologist.

May 2025 - After return of first month deployment cameras, those cameras will undergo maintenance processes and refitted with new rechargeable batteries and blank SD card for redeployment to a new area. This process will be repeated throughout the project - if a request for a wildlife camera is present and the camera is in-hand, they will be available for deployment.

June 2025 - Repeat of above May 2025 protocol excepting this being associated with the first of the two-month deployments.

2025-2027 - Collaboration with the SWG biologist is on-going and the collaboration with the Report Ringtails and the California Ringtail Project iNaturalist websites will continue past these dates.