Foxes, Coyotes and Deer – Oh My! Penn Vet’s AUNI Wants You to Meet Your Neighbors

Philly folks, meet your neighbors. They’re pretty wild – and delightfully so.

Images of some of the city’s least seen, but most remarkable residents were the headliners at the recent first summit meeting of Penn Vet’s Accessing Urban Nature Initiative (AUNI). The project shared findings of the first year in its ongoing effort to document and learn more about the wild creatures that inhabit our city.

“What we’re doing is building a citywide picture of urban wildlife in Philadelphia through trail cameras,” said AUNI project leader Julie Carol Ellis, PhD, a wildlife ecologist and associate director of One Health. “We want to know who’s here, where are they, what are they doing, and what that means for the people in neighborhoods who live alongside them.”

In addition to revealing some of Philadelphia’s most intriguing inhabitants, AUNI  researchers are using project findings to explore issues like how different aspects of urbanization – proximity to humans, type of ground cover, and other environmental factors – affect animal species and biodiversity.

All in all, the intent is that the information generated by AUNI will be used by its partner organizations for wildlife education and outreach that will create a greater sense of stewardship and care for our wild neighbors.

AUNI’s very first images, released last fall, were already pretty captivating. At that time, 10 trail cameras had been set up in seven partner sites. Those were: the W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Elmwood Park Zoo, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and Penn’s James G. Kaskey Memorial Park, a campus retreat popularly known as the BioPond, and Morris Arboretum & Gardens in Chestnut Hill.

Since then, more partner organizations have joined the initiative, adding more locations. There are now 20 cameras, spaced at least one kilometer apart, capturing images of our urban creatures for one month during each of the four changing seasons. Newer locations include Wissahickon Valley Park, the Discovery Center, Cobbs Creek, Laurel Hill Cemetery, the Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed, and Fairmount Park. Additional sites are expected soon, including Pennypack Park in Northeast Philadelphia.

The ultimate goal is to have a total of 35 field cameras deployed across the city. Ellis said these additional cameras, located across a greater variety of habitats and neighborhoods, will allow AUNI to make meaningful comparisons across the city, rather than drawing broad conclusions from a limited slice of it. And the broader the coverage, the more Philadelphia residents will be able to see their own neighborhoods reflected in the findings.

All locations are environments with green spaces like parks, cemeteries, and forest preserves. Yet quite a few are close to humans, adjacent to housing and roadways.

That just added to the wonder as Ellis showed images captured by their cameras at various locations to representatives of the project’s partners, including numerous area nature organizations.

“These are just some really fun images we’ve gotten so far,” Ellis told the group as she took them through varied array of creatures:  an opossum; a mother deer and her fawns; a skunk; a groundhog posing like Philly’s answer to Punxsutawney Phil; a bright-eyed Eastern cottontail; a flying squirrel; a mink, raccoons; and lots of squirrel sightings.

One camera caught a portrait-like shot of a red fox surrounded by snow. There were coyotes. And a majestic Great Blue Heron.

Some photos gave evidence of health issues with members of some of the species – for example, foxes with mange, and a deer with ticks embedded in its coat.

“I think we will be able to do some work here, looking at the health of these animals as well,” Ellis told her guests. “We will compare what we see across different parts of the city to better understand how urban environments affect the wellbeing of wildlife populations.”

Research documenting urban creatures and how they live

From the start, the intent of AUNI always extended beyond documenting the creatures that we share this city with, as important and fascinating as that is. It is many projects within one – and growing. Several of these were discussed at the summit.

AUNI researchers are already charting information about species behavior and locations. Squirrels have been the most frequently noted species, followed by raccoons, foxes and deer. Highly adaptable species like squirrels have tended to be diurnal and live closer to humans in more urban areas. Animals like deer and foxes have been found more often in green spaces that support more species diversity.

AUNI’s research activity is actually part of an international effort.

AUNI is a member of the Urban Wildlife Information Network (UWIN), a global alliance of scientists, city planners, wildlife managers, and specialty institutions, which had its origins at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. Its mission is to collect data and facilitate research so both animals and people can thrive in the world’s urban areas. During the AUNI summit, Mason Fidino, a quantitative ecologist with the Lincoln Park Zoo, gave a remote presentation about some of UWIN’s work.

Brock Geary, a quantitative disease ecologist with Penn Vet Wildlife Futures, said students have been very active in their project research so far, as the AUNI camera network continues to grow.

“We have done work to characterize habitats around the cameras and measured changes in tree canopy cover over time, and determined how land cover influences animal detection,” Geary said. “Continuing this work will allow us to better contextualize patterns of wildlife detection within and across sites and improve communications with our partners.”

In addition, he said relating environments to animal detections will increase understanding about how Philadelphia’s landscape compares with other UWIN partner cities, “which  will help to uncover broader patterns in urban ecology.”

New AUNI research projects getting underway

AUNI has also started branching out into other new, local research projects.

In the early stages is an acoustic monitoring program in collaboration with Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures program.

“The nice thing about the acoustic study is it will round out the biodiversity data that we’re collecting with the trail cameras,” Ellis said. “Trail cameras are going to get us mostly mammals. Acoustic monitoring will be able to tell us about bird diversity in green spaces in Philadelphia, too. Birds are environmental indicators, and many populations have been in decline over the past few decades.”

Also planned is a survey of city residents’ feelings about wildlife in their midst, pro and con. The results could inform further public outreach and education for the initiative and its partners.

Lauren Powell, Penn Vet assistant professor in animal welfare and behavior, is collaborating in this project.

“Most of my research to date has focused on the ways in which our interactions with companion animals can benefit our attitudes and wellbeing, so I’m really excited to expand this focus to explore how wildlife may be similarly beneficial for human health and wellbeing,” Powell said.  

An AUNI study about the impacts of deer on other wildlife and how they shape urban ecosystems and green space ecology is being discussed. In addition, Ellis said a Penn Vet student will be working with AUNI on a study about mange in foxes.

Meanwhile, new members stand to enrich the initiative in multiple ways.

“We need more partners for more cameras, but also because we want to work with all of these groups that are doing all of this amazing work to protect these green spaces and to get people using them,” Ellis said.

The Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed Partnership, one of the newer member groups, now has two trail cameras. The organization’s communications manager Wendi Wu said AUNI’s images and information about animals that are actually neighbors may “not only inspire the community to be compassionate towards wildlife, but also to enjoy the benefit of connecting with nature.”

In addition, she said AUNI-related activities can be a way to encourage children in the communities her group serves to think about STEM as a viable career path.

It was clear at the summit the AUNI partners share common goals, she said.

“One of the things that came out of the meeting was these groups are really passionate about nature and wildlife, and they want Philadelphia residents to feel the same,” added Ellis. “They want them excited about seeing wildlife in their backyards and visiting these spaces they care so much about.”

The students involved Penn Vet’s Wildlife Futures’ preliminary AUNI data analysis were Yutong Sun with the Penn Masters of Environmental Studies degree program and Zihang Yang and Jinheng Cen of Penn’s Masters of City Planning program. They graduated this spring, leaving behind foundational work that will help inform the next phase of research.

The AUNI was an inaugural recipient of the University of Pennsylvania’s 2025 Draw Down the Lightning Grant, 2025 Inaugural Draw Down the Lightning Grantees | Office of the President.