Nocturnal and elusive nature of many wild species has become one of the great hindrance in wildlife monitoring and survey. For the tracking of these cryptic wild species many techniques have been introduced in present days that makes wildlife research more consistent and appropriate. Some of them are: Camera trapping, radio telemetry, global GPS tracking and wildlife drones. But in this particular report, we will focus for Camera trapping technique.

Camera traps are also called trail camera. They are widely used in research of nocturnal and mysterious wild species. Past literature have reveals that many camera trapping research have been done specially for carnivore group. Tiger, snow leopard, common leopard and many small cats are the prime carnivores. But with the wide use, nowadays they have been used to study many elusive endangered species like Pangolins, Otters, Canidae (Fox family) etc.

How it works?

The camera use particular type of sensor called Passive Infrared (PIR) sensor. It detects a difference between ambient background temperature and the rapid change in heat caused by an animal's presence. So, when animals roam around the deployed camera trap, it will capture the photos. But the camera have its certain range around the distance (commonly 2-3 m ranges) up to which it captures and it depends upon the camera model. The camera are set to capture the photos and video following to it (video normally 40 sec). The different camera have different trigger speed. Trigger speed, also known as shutter speed, is the time that it takes for the camera to take picture after it has detected motion.  Trail camera trigger speeds vary from 0.1 seconds to 4 seconds.

Deploying Camera traps

Camera trapping should be fix in those sites having direct or indirect sign of the concerned species and the sign may be footprints, scats, dens or burrows. It should be attached firmly in the tree or stand rod above 40-45 cm for large mammals like tiger and leopard, 30-35 for other small mammals ( pangolins, otters, small cat species etc.) to ensure the better identification of the concerned species.

Value of Camera trapping techniques:

1. Camera traps footage can be a photographic evidence for the first ever recorded species in the particular area.

2. Camera trapping can be a suitable monitoring techniques for studying ecological behavior of many nocturnal species.

3. With camera trapping survey, many ecologists can estimate the contemporary population status of threatened species. So, that the species having critical population can be managed as per the carrying capacity population level.

Picture credit( P.C.): My senior, Mr. Bhuwan Singh Bist

References:

*https://www.naturespy.org/2016/07/camera-traps-work/

*http://www.cheaptrailcameras.com/trail-camera-buying-guide/trail-camera-buying-guide-trigger-speed-and-recovery-time/#.XOFslMgzb