Snapshot NY: How You Can Help Track New York's Wildlife — From Your Own Backyard

6 days ago
8 min read

I want to tell you about the morning I checked my trail camera for the first time and found a bobcat staring directly into the lens.

It was the first week I had the camera up. I hadn't even fully figured out the upload process yet. And there it was; that unmistakable blocky face, tufted ears, spotted flanks, caught at 11:55 in the evening not ten feet from my back property line. I had always heard of cats around here but never had seen one.

That's what Snapshot NY does. It pulls back the curtain on the lives happening in the dark and the quiet just outside your door, and it turns what you find into something that actually matters scientifically. I've been a participant in the program since it launched, and I want to tell you everything about it, because if you live in New York State, you should be doing this too.

What Is Snapshot NY?

Snapshot NY is a citizen science program, launched by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in collaboration with the New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit at Cornell University, that allows the public to participate in wildlife monitoring through the deployment of trail cameras.

In plain English: you put up a trail camera. Wildlife walks past it. You upload the photos. Scientists use that data to better understand and manage New York's wild animals.

The project helps improve the way DEC monitors and manages more than a dozen wildlife species. As DEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton noted, more than 60 percent of land in New York is privately owned. Meaning, this collaborative effort helps DEC biologists collect critical information about wildlife in areas where their experts have historically lacked access.

That's the key insight behind the whole program. The DEC cannot put a biologist on every acre of private land in New York. But citizen scientists can cover that ground, and they can do it year-round, in all conditions, in places that no state employee could ever reach.

Dr. Angela Fuller, Leader of the USGS New York Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and Professor at Cornell University, called Snapshot NY "an unprecedented opportunity to generate large scale, long term data on wildlife populations across New York," adding that the collaboration "exemplifies how partnerships among agencies, scientists, and the public can advance wildlife conservation and management in meaningful and measurable ways."

Why Long-Term Data Matters

Trail cameras aren't new. Biologists have been using them for decades. What is new is the scale that a citizen science program like Snapshot NY makes possible.

A single camera on a single property tells you something. Hundreds of cameras, distributed across thousands of grid cells, running season after season, year after year, that tells you something transformative. It tells you where species are thriving and where they're declining. It shows you how populations shift in response to weather, habitat change, and human development. It captures the presence of species in areas where no one expected to find them.

Snapshot NY collects data on the presence and absence of mammals through "detection/non-detection data." Detection data refers to when an animal was detected and a photo taken. Non-detection refers to when the camera was functioning but a species was not detected. Both types of data matter; knowing where wildlife isn't found is just as scientifically valuable as knowing where it is.

This is a long-term program, and that longevity is the point. A snapshot of wildlife in 2025 is interesting. A continuous record running through 2030, 2035, and beyond becomes an irreplaceable scientific resource, one that will inform wildlife management decisions for generations. Your photos don't just document this spring. They become part of a permanent statewide archive of New York's wildlife.

It's Completely Free to Participate

This is the part that surprises most people: Snapshot NY costs you nothing.

Volunteers can apply to borrow a trail camera through the program if they don't have their own (limited availability). When the program loans you a camera, you receive everything you need to get started, the trail camera itself, the mounting straps and hardware to hang it securely on a tree (including a lock strap to deter theft), batteries, two memory cards, a welcome packet with full instructions, and an official DEC program sign to attach to the tree identifying the camera as part of the state program. That sign matters, it lets anyone who encounters the camera know exactly what it is and who it belongs to, which helps prevent tampering and lets neighbors and passers by know they're part of something official.

If you already own a trail camera, you can use your own equipment and simply participate through the Snapshot NY platform.

If you don't have access to private lands, that's okay, you can still participate by setting up a camera at your nearest state forest or wildlife management area. Indicate in your application that you want to place a camera on public lands, and a Snapshot NY team member will be in contact with further instructions.

How to Sign Up

The process is genuinely straightforward.

Volunteers create an account at snapshotny.org and select one of the survey blocks to deploy a trail camera. If your chosen block is already reserved, the DEC encourages participants to either choose another nearby grid or join a waitlist.

The state has been divided into approximately 4,500 grid cells, with a goal to get a camera in as many cells as possible. Each grid cell has one volunteer and one camera — so if your cell is already claimed, you're waitlisted for that specific area, but there are often open cells nearby.

Once you've selected your block and been approved, you'll receive your equipment (if you requested a loaner camera) along with your welcome packet and setup instructions. Images are uploaded every couple of weeks via the Snapshot NY app, along with the GPS location, date, and time.

What you need to participate:

Access to land in New York State where you can legally place a trail camera (private property, or public land with program permission)

A mobile phone that can download the Snapshot NY app

A laptop or desktop computer with the ability to read SD cards (the program has USB SD card readers available upon request if you need one)

A trail camera — your own, or a loaner through the program
A willingness to check your camera periodically and upload photos every couple of weeks

No prior experience is required. Whether you love nature or are a hunter scouting for the upcoming season, the program is open to all.

A Tip From the Field: Get the Right Batteries

If you're using a loaner camera or setting up your own in a northeastern climate, here's something I learned the hard way before I learned the easy way: battery quality makes an enormous difference.

Standard alkaline batteries in a trail camera during a cold, snowy northeastern winter will let you down. Cold temperatures drain alkaline cells fast, and there is nothing more discouraging than hiking out to your camera in February to find it went dead two weeks ago and you've missed everything.

I switched to EBL rechargeable AA batteries, and the difference was immediate and dramatic. These batteries have held up through more than 30 consecutive days in the coldest, snowiest conditions this part of New York can throw at them without a significant drop in performance. Rechargeable lithium-chemistry cells simply handle cold far better than standard alkalines, and the long-term cost savings over a full program season are significant.

I'd recommend picking up two sets; one in the camera, one charged and ready at home — so swapping is quick during your upload visits. It's a small investment that makes the whole experience smoother.

What You Might Find

Here's the part I love talking about most.

I went into this program thinking I'd see deer. Lots of deer. Maybe a turkey. I was not prepared.

In my time as a Snapshot NY participant, my camera has captured: a Virginia opossum picking its way through the leaf litter with that magnificent oblivious dignity that opossums have, a striped skunk that clearly owned the whole area and knew it, eastern cottontails at every hour of the night, gray squirrels in numbers I hadn't appreciated before, American crows moving through in the early morning, a coyote crossing at a purposeful trot, and black bears, big ones, leaving no doubt that the woods here are genuinely wild.

But my two favorite finds have been the foxes.

The first was a red fox with the most extraordinary markings I've ever seen on the species, black legs from the knee down, as if it had stepped in a bucket of left over paint. I've taken to calling it the Fancy-Footed Fox, and I look for it in every card I pull. That distinctive leg coloring is a real variation in red foxes, the dark pigmentation that typically appears on the lower limbs becomes particularly pronounced in some individuals, and it makes for a strikingly beautiful animal on camera.

The second was a gray fox, a species that gets far less attention than the red but is, if anything, more ecologically interesting. Gray foxes are the only members of the dog family in North America that can climb trees, and they tend to be more secretive and less frequently documented than reds. Seeing one on the camera felt like a genuine gift.

And then, of course, there was the bobcat in week one. Week one. I haven't quite gotten over that.

Every card I pull from that camera is a small mystery being solved. What was here last night? What crossed this particular strip of woods at 3 a.m.? The answer is almost always something worth seeing.

Your Photos, and the Bigger Picture

One thing worth knowing as a participant: the photographs captured through the program belong to you, and you're welcome to share them, including on your own blog, social media, or anywhere else you'd like. Sharing your camera captures is in fact one of the best things you can do for the program, because it builds public awareness, inspires others to sign up, and shows the community what's actually living alongside them.

What you're contributing to the science is the data. the location, time, species identification, and detection/non detection record; which feeds into the statewide dataset that DEC and Cornell researchers use for wildlife management. The images are the evidence behind that data, and they're yours to enjoy and share.

So yes: if you get a bobcat in week one, you are absolutely allowed to tell everyone about it.

Why This Matters Beyond the Fun of It

I want to end with the serious version of why programs like Snapshot NY deserve your time and attention.

Wildlife management decisions, about hunting seasons, habitat protection, invasive species response, protected status for at risk animals, are only as good as the data behind them. For decades, one of the limiting factors in wildlife science has been coverage: the sheer difficulty of gathering meaningful data across a large, ecologically diverse state like New York, much of which is privately owned and inaccessible to state biologists without landowner cooperation.

Snapshot NY changes that equation. Every camera that goes up in a grid cell that was previously blank is a data point that didn't exist before. Every season of continuous monitoring builds a baseline that future managers can measure against. Every participant who documents a coyote, a bobcat, a bear, or even the absence of those animals in a given area is contributing to a record that will outlast all of us.

The wild animals moving through your property at night have no advocates in a meeting room. The data you collect gives scientists and managers something to advocate with. That is not a small thing.

How to Get Started

Visit snapshotny.org to create your account, explore the grid map, and apply for your survey block. If you want to request a loaner camera, indicate that in your application. Check out the Resources tab for training videos that walk you through camera setup, the app, and the upload process.

And then go outside, find your tree, strap up your camera, and wait.

You have no idea what's out there.

Note: All of these trail cam photos are courtesy of my backyard!

I am a Snapshot NY participant and write about my personal experience with the program. All opinions are my own. This post contains an affiliate link for EBL batteries via Amazon — if you purchase through that link, Wing & Hollow earns a small commission at no cost to you. I only recommend products I use myself, truly.