Determing of the big mammal animals and identification of population ecology by camera traps in Eskişehir

With this study 13 different species of big mammal wild animals has been detected at the field of study. Before the stage of placing camera traps and determining the transit point, rest areas, marking and feeding points in the field of study; first of all, with the foot prints, feces, nutrition, scratching, friction left overs of the animals, such places as nest, cave have been detected. After that, the camera traps are placed considering the kind of animals structure of land, seasonal conditions, type of stand, elevation and by taking the records of coordinate. Trophy cams were checked every 15 to 60 days and the footage taking from the cams were transferred to the computer. These footages were classified on the basis of district of a kind, time, elevation, stand, month and the number of animals. Because the conditions of field of study does not have a homogeneous structure, nearness of the trophy cams differ from each other according to the geographical and ecological conditions. While placing the cams there were no method followed or they were not kept in fixed point. The study started with the 4 cams at first. Afterwards the number of the cams reached 14. But as a result of failures and stealing of cams, the study was completed with 11 cams. During the study, at 142 different points, 6380 camera trap days, 3730 photographs and videos records have been recorded. At the end of the study, the most recorded animal species are wild boar, hare, fox, wolf and jackal. Lynx, wild cat, jungle cat and eurasian otter ranked as a rare species. The chart of the determined big wild mammals during the study are listed below. Scientific Name Turkish English Name Canis lupus Wolf Ursus arctos Brown bear Lynx lynx Lynx Vulpes vulpes Fox Canis aureus Jackal Meles meles Badger Martes foina Beech marten Felis silvestris Wild cat Sus scrofa Wild boar Cervus elaphus Red deer Lepus europaeus European hare Lutra lutra Eurasian otter Felis chaus Jungle cat