University of Missouri professor of Natural Resources Christine Brodsky leads two students into Baskett Forest in Southern Boone County. The path is covered with plant life and they have to stop every few feet to hold a branch back for the person behind them. It’s a damp and humid morning and they keep checking themselves for ticks.
Brodsky’s team is one of 130 across 18 states working with the Smithsonian to conduct a study of the ways in which wildlife now differs since the Lewis and Clark expedition. She said it’s a way of measuring humans' decisions to remove and introduce animals into the environment.
“In that time period we’ve also changed the mammal community ourselves. We’ve taken out bison, we’ve taken out gray wolves, so that also is going to see what carnivores are here now when we’ve taken out those particular species," she said.
Smithsonian project coordinator Brigit Rooney describes the survey as a comparison of America, 220 years after the initial Western observation that was required by Thomas Jefferson following the Louisiana Purchase.
“With the idea being that we can compare modern day data from around the trails specifically of mammal species but including all species captured by the cameras, and compare that data against the historical observations that were recorded by the Lewis and Clark expedition members in their journals," Rooney said.
The Smithsonian also made it a priority to acknowledge the importance of Native Americans in the initial Lewis and Clark expedition and gave financial support to 15 students at nine different tribal colleges so they could participate in the research project.
Brodsky said other than Mizzou students doing research, Baskett Forest has no human activity, making it one of the most accurate areas to survey animal behavior.
Graduate research assistant Adar Reed said it’s an opportunity for scientists to have more access to data without information being withheld.
“I really believe that researchers should share their research more often," he said. "A lot of people just keep their camera data to themselves so that they can publish or get what they need done, but this way we can have one big collaborative database that anyone can use to do research.”
Researchers were directed to leave the cameras up for two months, but the Smithsonian let them decide which months they felt would generate the most accurate and beneficial data. Brodsky’s team started their cameras on June 11.
When KBIA interviewed Brodsky again after the 15 cameras had been taken down, she said she was pleasantly surprised to find young animals.
“We saw some young turkey, young coyote," Brosky said. "So those populations are definitely doing well out there.”
At the end of the project, Brodsky’s team had gotten photos of eight different mammal species, including coyotes, white-tailed deer and two species of squirrel, as well as eight different bird species.
