A new project from Penn’s School of Veterinary Medicine looks to document how animals live and move across Philadelphia’s urban landscape.
Led by Penn Vet ecologist and professor Julie Ellis, the Accessing Urban Nature Initiative is installing 30 to 35 motion-activated cameras in parks, cemeteries, forest preserves, highway-adjacent areas, and other green spaces across the city. The initiative aims to study how wildlife adapts to highly developed environments and how urbanization affects animals’ daily activity.
Each motion-triggered camera captures between 100 and 600 photos every two weeks. The cameras are checked four times a year to monitor seasonal patterns in animal behavior and the team plans to maintain them for roughly five years.
The research focuses on identifying which species live in Philadelphia, how they make use of different habitats, and how they respond to challenges such as heat, light, and noise. The team aims to learn why some species thrive in cities while others struggle and how wildlife overall is responding to rapid environmental change.
The cameras have recorded foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, songbirds, groundhogs, herons, a mink, and other small mammals.
The project is being conducted in partnership with the Urban Wildlife Information Network, an alliance of scientists studying biodiversity in cities around the world. UWIN’s mission is to “gather global data to help people and wildlife coexist in increasingly urbanized environments.”
The network aims to create urban ecosystems that include wildlife as “integral parts of city life,” using shared research to guide sustainable design and conservation.
Local collaborators on the new project include the Philadelphia Zoo, the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education, the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge, and W.B. Saul High School of Agricultural Sciences.
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The Accessing Urban Nature Initiative also builds on Penn Vet’s broader wildlife research, including the Wildlife Futures Program — a partnership with the Pennsylvania Game Commission that monitors wildlife health and disease across the state. The program conducts surveillance, research, and outreach to strengthen the resilience of Pennsylvania’s 480 species of birds and mammals.
Researchers hope the findings from Philadelphia will contribute to a broader understanding of how animals adapt to city environments and how communities can better coexist with the wildlife that shares their neighborhoods.
