Funding was limited, so the agency teamed up with a nonprofit to enlist volunteer citizen scientists to set and check camera traps high in the mountains. The Bozeman, Montana-based group Adventure Scientists (AS) recruited 30 volunteers for the tough task, which involved running or hiking loops of roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) in the wilderness over six weekends.

Trained by scientists and AS staff, the volunteers set out camera traps at 34 stations, starting in May and monitoring them through September. Each time they visited, they changed memory cards and batteries and freshened the bait.

The volunteers were recruited from the trail running community and included several professional ultrarunners, who run very long distances. Most hailed from the Salt Lake