Protecting the wild with Trail Cameras

It’s a wonder to see animals roaming around in their natural habitat. It can also be quite difficult and for a good reason. If you walk through the country side or your local nature reserve, oftentimes you may not come across any wildlife at all. But that does not mean it’s not there!

Animals have very quickly learned that in general, humans are a threat. Whether it is to their safety through hunting or trapping or their habitat through re-zoning and destruction of natural land reserves. Speak to wildlife workers in Africa, Canada or the US and you will learn that even certain apex predators (top of the food chain) will be intelligent enough and opt to stay well away from sounds and smells of ‘people’.

So how do scientists and animal trackers find and follow the specific animal they are searching for? Well there are of course conventional methods like searching for tracks. Depending on what it is, the animal may have also been previously tagged. But the big issue lies in the fact that many animals move around at night, simply because it is either safer or more comfortable given the local climate. Now you may choose to spend your Saturday night sitting in the bush with a Nightvision to spot your wildlife. But in reality unless you are a pro, the animals will hear you and smell you long before you know they are there.

The best option to track night-time movements, is to locate the nearest animal trail, or water source and set up a ‘Trail Camera’. Then you simply return the next day or even a few days later and review the footage.

The beauty of these cameras is that even if the animal you are tracking works out that the camera is there, quite often it becomes curious. From Trail Camera footage that we have reviewed so far it’s fascinating to see how many walk up for a ‘sniff’. You might even spot something you never expected to see!

How Trail Cameras can offer Information and Protection 

Monitoring animal movements and migration plays a key role in preservation of endangered species and on the other end of the scale can help farmers monitor and protect their livestock and property from unwanted visitors (both wildlife and human).

In Australia, introduced species like Foxes, Pigs, Rabbits and Wild dogs are a threat, not just to crop and livestock, but to property as well. This is why farmers and people who live in areas near wildlife reserves need to build sturdy fences to keep these pests away. On occasion, these animals (including Kangaroos) will find a way to break through the fences and wreak havoc inside the paddocks and properties. To tackle this issue, the farmer simply needs to consider the use of a Trail Camera much in the same way as a security surveillance camera. Attach it to the fence post, gate-post or in a tree, really it’s up to your imagination. You can then very effectively identify exactly which critter (or person) is causing the problem.

The camera needs to be weather proof and must be activated automatically, through motion or sound detection. Trail Cameras were developed with this in mind, they can withstand a variety of different weather conditions and are equipped with night vision. At Cams in Action we have Trail Cameras like the Ibex Trail Camera or the MINOX Trail Camera DTC 500 provide you with high-resolution video and still photographs of your surroundings.

Example of Trail Camera use

The first example that comes to mind is species translocation through animal bridges or tunnels. This image is a wildlife bridge located in the Netherlands.

Animal bridges and tunnels are designed to help animals cross highways in safety and have also been effectively employed in Canada and the US. 

Through the use of Trail Cameras animal populations have been observed to dramatically increase and become (genetically) much healthier, because the bridges and tunnels don't just protect wildlife from being hit by cars, they also connect fragmented habitats and help populations intermingle and breed, or in other words to improve their genetic heterogeneity. With a little help from Trail Cams ;)