Profile avatar
chriswhittier.bsky.social
Dad, husband, wildlife veterinarian, asst professor of Conservation Medicine, hobby photographer, obsessive camera trapper.
29 posts 135 followers 71 following
Regular Contributor
Conversation Starter
Posts 20 Comments 10

OTD last year: first spring woodchuck detection on campus...in kind of a weird spot- crossing another former beaver dam that has mostly broken down. Have also seen woodchuck prey carried by bobcats here.

submitted 7 hours ago • 0 comments

OTD last year, sticking with the bird theme. It's always odd (to me) seeing #wildturkeys using the beaver dam 'bridge,' when they could simply fly across the pond, but since they are predominantly terrestrial it makes sense. #trailcam 🦃

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

OTD last year- an American woodcock. Believe it or not, this the second most elusive (~3 detections ever) species I can think of after the single black bear detection we had on campus. It's also a species I've seen with my eyes way more often than on #trailcam. (Pretty sure the left eye IS there.)

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

OTD '23- first detected snapping turtle of the year. Have been running a #trailcam on timelapse to see if/when these poikilothermic reptiles trigger cameras. I know they're often seen under the ice in winter but this was still a fun observation. Temp is off but was 50F that day, 60F day before.

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

OTD in '22- rare capture of a weasel on campus. We have both short-tailed (aka ermine or stoat) and long-tailed here in MA, but most we see have medium length tails (~1/2 stoat) like this, which makes it really hard to determine which species it is. I'm guessing this is a short-tailed?

submitted 4 days ago • 0 comments

OTD last year, just a red fox in my yard. We occasionally have red and gray along with coyotes in our yard on the same day. It's remarkable to me that 3 different canids (excluding our dog) can have that much overlap in a very suburban area...but plenty of bunnies, squirrels, and smaller rodents.

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

OTD 2018 was what may have been my last adventure as a gorilla field vet on my first trip to Rep of Congo & Odzala NP for an injured w lowland 🦍. Fabulous park, people & wildlife- albeit a tiny glimpse. This was the dominant male of the group & the snared mom had removed it herself and was OK.👏🦊

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

On this day last year: As close I've come to capturing a #wildturkey version of the #AbbeyRoad cover on a #trailcam. I personally think 🦃🦃 are underappreciated in terms of both their beauty and role in the environment. They are also a little intimidating IMHO...at least the fearless ones.

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

On this day 2023: We've caught this marking routine by raccoons on this log 4-5 times over the years. Bobcats often spray here and we see fisher, deer and coyote sniff, but most of the time all just pass right by. It's actually a decaying beaver dam providing a nice wetlands bridge. #trailcam 🦊

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

I'll mostly be posting camera trap 'Pictures of the Day' here but in light of the lack of CARNAGE in last night's round of #2025MMM, here's your fill with one of North America's top predators doing its thing: great blue heron prepping to eat a (non-native) Mayan cichlid in FL ten years ago today.🙈

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

I'm going to try to challenge myself to post an interesting past photo of each day of the year starting today with a #Trailcam photo of a #fisher. These are one of the rarer and more charismatic #Mammals we see on @tuftsvet.bsky.social campus. #cameratrap

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Easily the biggest penguin we've seen here in MA.

submitted 37 days ago • 1 comment

Favorite photo of the week:

submitted 62 days ago • 0 comments

Favorite camera trap photo of the week.

submitted 98 days ago • 0 comments

Sadly, it’s a good time to once again share this amazing infographic that we ran at @science.org more than 7 years ago 🧪 #IDsky www.science.org/content/arti...

submitted 103 days ago • 234 comments

Busy morning for otters at the dam. #mammals

submitted 272 days ago • 0 comments

Right place, EXACTLY the right time...wrong day. 😪 #Bobcat

submitted 300 days ago • 0 comments

[Really need to start making an effort here...] Here's an update on a 3-legged coyote we've seen over the years. First noted her(?) in Nov of '20 with an apparent broken (but still complete) leg. By Feb '22 most of that leg had fallen off. Here are some captures since. Note the mass fluctuations. 🐺

submitted 473 days ago • 2 comments

Always reluctant to post trivialities w/ such horrors in the news, but after weeks of little more than raccoons & gray squirrels at this #SnapshotUSA camera we had a nice 36 hour run of nothing but small carnivore visits: otter, weasel, fisher & bobcat.

submitted 534 days ago • 2 comments

This felt like an appropriate opp to kick off this ...exploration. Bobcats frequently cross this no-longer-maintained beaver dam behind where this one stopped to soak up some AM sunshine by the duckweed covered water.

submitted 568 days ago • 0 comments