Vancouver Cat Count is soon to be completed
With February coming to a close, so too does the 3rd deployment period for the winter outdoor cat count in Vancouver. If you remember, we started this phase back in November 2020. We are now preparing for the final 3 weeks of outdoor cat monitoring, which will run from February 18th to March 11th.
For each of our monitoring periods (in summer and winter), we continue to use the same locations to collect more robust data and allow for easy comparison across seasons. It is crucial that this work gets replicated during the winter to account for local ground foraging birds. Here in BC, we have a relatively high abundance of wintering birds that feed on the ground (such as sparrows, juncos and chickadees), making them susceptible to predation by cats.
Luckily, the count is going well, and no cameras were stolen or vandalized. So far, we have monitored over 80 locations, and we plan to monitor additional 30 sites.
This would give us a combined total of 110 sites monitored over the course of 12 weeks across the City’s primary land use areas (residential, commercial, industrial and parks/greenspace). It is only because of the collaboration with residents, volunteers and other community partners that we were able to conduct this monitoring on a large spatial scale with over 1 million images collected in seven months.
Celebrating Black History Month
February is Black History Month, so we want to discuss black history in the making. It is important and necessary to recognize the efforts of the black community and black people making history now.
The Vancouver Cat Count is the first and largest urban wildlife camera project for a major Canadian municipality. It is being carried out by one of Vancouver’s only black urban wildlife ecologists, Jaylen Bastos. We are proud to support black people in STEM and celebrate their achievements.
Be sure to check back with us in March to find out how this project will end. Out of the 29 locations being monitored in our final deployment, 25 of them are new! This means we will have some exciting never before seen footage for you soon. Until then, stay curious!
Written by Jaylen Bastos, Vancouver Cat Count Researcher
Stay Connected!
More information about Vancouver Cat Count is on our Cats and Birds Research Projects page.
