Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a normally bustling world on hold. Earlier this year North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, issued a stay-at-home order (or lockdown) that took effect on March 30, 2020. The stay-at-home order stayed in effect until May 8, and during this time roads, towns, and parks slowed their foot and car traffic. This study used camera traps to compare wildlife activity during and after the lockdown in three different locations: the rural Owen Park, the semi-urban Beaver Lake Park, and a control site at Sandy Bottom. The camera traps recorded animal activity during four weeks of lockdown and four weeks post-lockdown. The camera trap software Camera Base was used to identify and label more than 3,000 photographs of all mammals taken by the camera traps. Camera Base then created a spreadsheet of each site including the mammal, time the picture was taken, and the date. This data was then used to create activity graphs for mammal species, which were used to compare lockdown and post lockdown mammal activity. Based on the results of the number of photographs recorded during and post-lockdown, only Eastern Gray Squirrels and Virginia Opossums indicate potential effects of human activity during the COVID-19 lockdown. Based on the activity graphs, only Eastern Gray Squirrels at Owen Park show a slight indication of potential lockdown effects.

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