A New Penn Vet Study is Finding Where the Wild Things Are: Right Here in Philly!

Two raccoon kits play hide-and-seek. A giant heron strikes a stately pose. A mink takes a solo stroll. Where were all these wildlife wonders found? Right in the city of Philadelphia. 

A new project, the Accessing Urban Nature Initiative (AUNI), has started capturing images of seldom seen but decidedly special city dwellers like these – and many others – with the ultimate goal of making life better for animals and people alike. 

“We want to make it possible for humans and animals to be able to safely co-exist in city areas,” said Julie Carol Ellis, PhD, a wildlife ecologist who is the AUNI project leader, adjunct associate professor of pathobiology and associate director of One Health at Penn Vet, and interim faculty director of Penn’s Environmental Innovations Initiative.   

So far, the project has set up a little over a third of the approximately 30 motion-triggered cameras its leaders intend to position in locations around the Philadelphia area, including parks, cemeteries, forest preserves or private land. The cameras aren’t set up in uber-urban areas, but rather more habitat-like locales. Quite a few are near residential areas or major roadways, close to people. The cameras will be monitored seasonally to record the differences in wildlife activity.  

Local research, part of a global effort 

AUNI is one of the latest members of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), a now-global alliance of scientists, city planners, wildlife managers and specialty institutions that had its origins at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, a city where coyote sightings are part of its wildlife experience. UWIN’s mission is to collect data and facilitate the necessary research so both animals and people can thrive in urbanized areas around the world. 

Essential to that work is learning what critters call a given city home and getting to understand what their lives are like there. 

Although Philadelphia’s initiative is relatively new, its documented creatures – besides raccoons, herons and mink – already include groundhogs, red foxes, gaggles of geese, and lots of deer. Among the critters seen strutting their stuff is a buck with a full rack of antlers. 

Local partners that have joined in AUNI’s efforts include the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Elmwood Park Zoo, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education and the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge. There are Penn partners as well, such as the James G. Kaskey Memorial Park and Morris Arboretum and Gardens.  

Karen Verderame, assistant director of outreach education, Penn Vet shelter medicine and community engagement, said she is working with partners who want to expand their involvement even beyond being camera hosts. Their plans include educational programs and community outreach. 

“That’s the beauty of this project,” Verderame said. “There are so many pathways to connect people with wildlife and inform more research but also help build that stewardship of the environment with our partners.” 

For example, students at Saul High, a Philadelphia public school, are helping to manage the camera on their property, but the information they obtain from it will be used to expand their curriculum and provide experiential learning, she said.  

AUNI’s participants say the project has a lot of potential to provide new information and insight into the wildlife species that are in Philadelphia and how they are faring. 

Erica Miller, field operations manager and wildlife veterinarian with Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures Program, said some of the AUNI images are detailed enough to tell if there is evidence of disease or poor body condition in the animals being photographed. 

“This might give us a better idea, ‘Are they thriving in an urban environment, or are they just surviving?’” Miller said. The findings may also spur further research, she added. 

Healthier wildlife, healthier human communities 

How wild animals are faring can have an impact on their human neighbors. While urban areas like Philadelphia are expanding and the number of people projected to live in cities is growing, Ellis said biodiversity and proximity to nature have been shown to have overall benefits for human health and well-being. 

“One of my main goals is to understand how wildlife is using the Philadelphia region’s ecosystem, where they are, and what we can do in that landscape to promote healthy wildlife.” 

Knowledge can also foster caring, which is another hope. 

“One of our other goals is to familiarize people with the wildlife that co-exist in our communities and to promote curiosity about them so they become interested in them,” Ellis said.  People shouldn’t try to feed them or view them as pets, but “they may start to think of them as something not apart from themselves. There can be a sense of stewardship.” 

The AUNI project is still in its early stages, but even its partners admit they’ve been surprised – pleasantly – by the photographs the cameras have come up with so far. 

For example, lots of people know the Morris Arboretum is a city horticultural treasure by day. But the AUNI photos taken there so far show it’s a pretty enchanting place after dark, too. 

 “We knew that we live in a connected environment with many creatures, but it was really a surprise to see just how many creatures are present in the Morris after night falls,” said Stephanie Bruneau, Morris’ assistant director of adult education. “It’s pretty amazing to see that we’re a real thriving habitat for so many beautiful creatures. And we’re inside the city limits, which is a really neat fact.” 

The AUNI is an inaugural recipient of the University of Pennsylvania’s 2025 Draw Down the Lightning Grant.