Mammals found along some forested streams in northwest Iowa in the winter and summer of 2004.

The feeding time was 1 AM.	The most abundant mammals caught in our camera traps were white tailed deer. The fawn above and the one on the right were from Oak Grove State Park.	The raccoon in the bottom was from a same glade as the buck on top.

This forested glade is also the one where the feeding fawn above was found.

This male wild turkey was captured on film in the spring at Oak Grove State Park.	This turkey may have been attracted to the mulberry tree that is about four feet in front of it.

The wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo  Linnaeus, 1758, is a classic example of a species whose return has been helped by conservation efforts on both the federal and state level.  The Pittman-Robertson Act in 1937 [see the national wild turkey federation link] provided an excise tax on sporting equipment that provided the resources need to set aside good habitat and to translocate wild turkey to new areas. In this area the Iowa DNR has bought land along the river corridors that have provided good habitat (turkeys need trees to roost) for these birds.

The cameras were setup to capture on film and confirm location of some of the cougar that are dispersing into this area (Sioux, Lyon, and neighboring counties).  Travis Pollema as part of an individual studies on the cougar in this area did the initial camera work.

The above images can be used for educational or non profit use with permission of the author.  Higher resolution images are available.