P.E.I. wildlife groups boost number of trail cams tracking animals — including elusive river otters

Prince Edward Island wildlife groups are increasingly turning to technology to monitor what's happening in woods and streams across the Island. 

The Forests, Fish and Wildlife division has 40 cameras watching year-round for trends in wildlife species, including coyotes and foxes. 

"We get a lot of neat behavioural photos like coyotes looking at the camera," said Matt Ginn, wildlife biologist. "Also, we've got a few red fox with snowshoe hare, which is interesting. So we know that they're able to find snowshoe hare for food.

"You get families of pheasants, grouse and Hungarian partridge."

Ginn said the trail cameras are an important tool for wildlife officials.

"These species haven't really been monitored, aside from fur-harvesting statistics, on P.E.I.," he said. "It's a good indicator of the presence of these species on the Island.

"It's probably the best way so far that we've had to quantify their occupancy in certain areas and also look at changes in the colonization and extirpation rates."

Ginn said they're starting to see some trends since 2020, including a slight decline in red fox numbers and an increase in coyotes.

Return of river otters

Meanwhile, eight more cameras were added this year to a project by watershed groups from Souris to Miminegash, looking for river otters.

Due to hunting and habitat loss, river otters have been presumed extinct, or extirpated, on the Island since the early 1900s.  

There were only anecdotal reports of tracks and sightings until 2016, when an adult male otter was captured in a beaver trap in the Kensington area.

The first camera was set up in the same area in 2019, and river otters have been seen in multiple photos since then.

The Morell River Management Cooperative said it might have captured a river otter on its trail cam in March 2024, though the image isn't clear enough to confirm the species.

"It was very exciting," said co-ordinator Hannah Murnaghan. "We wish it was a little closer to the camera, but we're holding out hope that we'll eventually capture one if they are in the watershed."

While looking for evidence of otters, watershed groups get to observe lots of other birds and mammals.

Having the cameras out just gives us a better understanding of what different species are using the riparian area, so that we can strategically plan our projects around that.— Hannah Murnaghan

The cameras are triggered by movement, so staff have to go through lots of photos to find the good ones.

"It's always exciting to get to go through the footage in hopes that we do catch a river otter, but it usually is just the usual suspects of wildlife that we get," said environmental field technician Lily Corlett. 

"We have gotten really good images of species, [from] waterfowl to small mammals, like American mink and great blue herons."

To safeguard the privacy of humans, Ginn said the province posts signs along with its trail cams, letting people know they are there, and both he and the Morell group said any photos captured of people or vehicles are deleted.

The Morell group would like to get a few more trail cams, because it's a big watershed and they have lots of territory to cover. 

"Having the cameras out just gives us a better understanding of what different species are using the riparian area, so that we can strategically plan our projects around that and hopefully provide better habitat for them," Murnaghan said.