I received two trail cams as a gift and plan to set them up at some point in the (hopefully) near future. I’m considering investing in some kind of “bait” to lure animals to the cameras. I already have deer wandering through my yard often, in fact, I saw a herd of 8 today, but I’m open to nabbing just about anything; raccoons, possums, tiny rodents, etc. I rarely see foxes in my area and I’ve never managed to photograph one for iNat so that would be a dream, but my hopes aren’t high.
Anyway, ramblings aside, have any of you made efforts to attract wildlife to you? What have you used and found success with? Food, scent lures, etc?
In my state (Alaska) it is illegal to feed wildlife or leave food where they can get it – bird feeders being the exception. Depending on where you live, you might want to check on regulations. Creating food dependence can create its own problems too. For example, a food-conditioned raccoon getting into a neighbor’s chickens.
On the other hand, there’s still a lot of “legal” trapping going on here for furbearers as well as baiting by bear hunters, so it’s not like Alaska has any kind of moral high ground.
We just put ours in places where we know or suspect the critters are:
down by the pond; along game trails we have discovered in the woods; aimed at the blueberry bushes when the berries are ripe; aimed at the compost bin that keeps getting tossed; under the porch, where it turns out more critters hang out than just the resident woodchucks.
The hard part is remembering where we put it…
Maybe give them a bowl of water, to get around any anti-feeding regulations, and it won’t be gobbled by the first scavenger that comes along. But beware of setting up an unintentional pitfall trap. A couple of branches in the bowl should give small animals an escape route.
My family has a trail camera we put up every now and then. We’ve never used any bait besides a dead grouse carcass we found (is that illegal? If so: Whoops!). Even though we’ve always only set it up in the wood in our backyard, it seemed to capture a lot of animals.
I think as long as you put it somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of people in close proximity, you will see animals, with or without bait.
I’ve used a scent lure called Gusto that I applied on some object in front of the camera. It attracts carnivores but I’ve also had deer and elk stop to sniff it. Be warned though, it is some seriously funky stuff and I swear the smell leaks through even the most tightly sealed jar.
One of my favorite stories is when I ordered Gusto by mail. The mailman put the sealed package in the mailbox near the curb and as soon as I stepped out the front door I knew my order had arrived by the odor from 50 feet away.
I was (mostly) joking. We haven’t lost it yet!
Airtags use Bluetooth to ping off of other devices, so compatible devices have to be nearby (doesn’t have to be your own) So they’re great for finding your keys that you left in your car, or your wallet that you left in a taxi, or the suitcase the airline didn’t really put on the plane. But finding the game cam you left somewhere in the woods, not so much…
Fresh roadkill like a squirrel, can be bagged and placed in front of a trail camera. You want to be prepared and execute quickly. Also buy from a farmer’s market or a private farm some unpasteurized eggs as they will give off a natural scent. Suet you would buy for a bird feeder can be broken into pieces and smeared. Wet cat or dog food can be bottled with water and dumped on the ground. It will soak into ground and not provide food but will leave an odor. Hard dog food would last longer against the dew and rain. Same thing with collecting after dinner cooking grease. Animal trails that intersect or bottleneck are good. Good luck.
For those species you mentioned, an easy bait is canned catfood, dumped out of the can. Another easy lure is fish sauce, recommended for otters and I’ve had coyotes rolling on it. If you are doing this on your property you can try a lot of different things, birdseed and apple chunks (put out at dark so birds don’t remove it), a small salt block, etc., and see what works.Most any novel scent will likely bring in something.
Animals are always checking out my compost piles even though I try to cover things that may smell. I don’t know of any regulations that forbid composting food and garden waste outside of HOA’s surely.
I have set up my camera along a well used animal trail, a beaver dam, and a couple spots where it looked like animals were coming in and out of the water. I only put out food a few times (only in my yard along the animal trail far from the house). Only had interest by opossums (dog food and apple) and birds (dog food) except for during the Texas deep freeze of 2021 when I got footage of a raccoon and a gray fox checking out the dog food before my batteries got too cold and the camera stopped working. No one was interested in pumpkin, mussels, or fish heads. Still have not gotten trailcam footage of otters at my house. Every time I have seen them (during the day), I didn’t get my camera fast enough.
