A canid researcher and enthusiast is seeking assistance. Tammy Cloutier has been studying canids — mammals who belong to the Family Canidae, which includes foxes and coyotes — for years. While in college, she fell in love with animal behavior and conservation during a trip to Kenya, which led to master’s in wildlife science and later a PhD, where her research focused on African wild dogs.
Residents who want to participate in the research project “Canids of the Kennebunks.” can download the iNaturalist app to a smart phone and search “Canids of the Kennebunks.” Rich Abrahamson photo/Morning Sentinel
She’s also the author of two children’s books focused on canids: “Why Coyotes Don’t Wear Pants,” released this year, and “Painted Dog Pursuit,” which came out in 2017.
Now, she’s looking to advance scientific understanding of of these mammals in Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel with a new community project — she’s calling it “Canids of the Kennebunks.” Residents who want to participate can do so by downloading the iNaturalist app to a smart phone and search “Canids of the Kennebunks” using the project search feature and select to join the project. When participants upload observations to the iNaturalist app, it will automatically be uploaded to “Canids of the Kennebunks” if they’ve joined the project and the observation meets the project’s requirements.
As of Oct. 30, the project had one observation submitted: A picture of coyote tracks taken in Berwick.
Cloutier will also be periodically sharing updates on a Facebook page she created for the effort: www.facebook.com/canidsofthekennebunks.
She’s hoping residents will submit entries that include where the canids appear, how many are observed, and what they’re interactions with humans are like. Generally speaking, she said, canids do not like being around people — though there are exceptions. She gave the example of a family of foxes who have chosen to den on her cousin’s property year after year. “They know her, they see her, they clearly don’t care that she’s there because they’ve made a choice to raise their young in her backyard,” she said.
These sorts of interactions got her curious about how often canid behavior deviates from the expected.
She says depending on how well this effort goes, she may develop it into a more sophisticated research project.
“With any method of collection, there’s always going to be limitations,” she said of community sourced information. “As long as you acknowledge those and realize there may be some discrepancies here and there, it’s a great place to start collecting. Then you can pinpoint where you want to go [from there] with a stricter methodology if you choose to.”
For now, the project feels like a “nice, simple and fun way” for her community to learn more about their natural surroundings.
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