Hi, I am planning to set up a long term monitoring study using camera traps in Peru. In terms of choosing station location, number of cameras, distance within stations and orientation of the camera, could you offer any advice? Is there any paper you have used in the past as guidance?
My aim is to observe how species assemblages react to wet/dry season and how they will vary in the next years.
Hi,
There are numerous articles available on camera trapping techniques. I hope these few review-papers will help you in designing the study.
Article “ Which camera trap type and how many do I need?” A review o...
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1365-2664.12432%4010.1111/%28ISSN%292041-210X.MONWI_15
https://orbi.uliege.be/bitstream/2268/165854/2/Trolliet%20et%20al%202014%20-%20Camera%20trap%20review.pdf
There are several questions that need to be answered before a plan to set up a camera trap monitoring grid.
1. BUDGET - how many cameras can you afford? What is your budget for servicing these camera traps and processing the images.How large an area do you need to survey?
2. SPECIES - what are your target species? How large are their territories, home ranges? Do home ranges differ between sexes? Is there a preferred habitat for these species?
3. Given these two previous points, the grid itself needs to recognize that mobile animals used the avalable habitat in non-random ways. Some species prefer ridges, other prefer low-lands and riverbanks. Others will use existing game trails or human - made trails for the same reason as you or I - it is easier to walk on an established trail. You also need to think about camera placement. The successful camera traps I have seen and used have a wide field of view. In a tight spot all you might get is a shot of the flank or tail of a jaguar. Therefore an open space around the camera is preferred. I would suggest a preliminary survey of the area that you have available for use in this project to make the best use of your resources. Look for tracks, scat or other evidence of habitat use before you make decisions about where the traps are placed. If you are doing a general survey of say mammals in a particluar area you may have to use a mixed strategy covering a variety of habitat sub-sets and camera heights. It all depends on the objectives of the planned survey. Best of luck and good hunting.
Interesting aim. Solid book here that helped me with this question, which is available for download on RGate:
Book Camera Trapping Wildlife Management and Research
We used this as a guide when we set up our camera traps. "TEAM: a standardised camera-trap survey to monitor terrestrial vertebrate communities in tropical forests"
dude.
camera trapping Depending on your aims of study. let's suppose if you looking leopard density or demographic structure then two trails camera must be install in one grid. one for photos. second for video. both of species capture are more important. remove vegetation or twigs etc from the front of camera to enhance the probability. camera should attached a strong tree trunk. otherwise during the wind speeds it will waste the batteries capturing a tree branches etc... home range.. sex.. also matter..
HI Riccardo -
question is whether you are sampling randomly for population densities, etc., or doing a individual study from within a population.
If the first - you do a line transect where you place all the camera traps such that you capture whatever moves in the area along that transect.
If you know the habitat or the species you want to sample then you place as per your prior knowledge in order to get behavioral or reproductive or other inter-or intra-specific behaviors.
good luck
Hello, there are so many articles regarding camera traps; some additional papers, that might be helpful for you:
-Weideng Wei, Gai Luo, Jianghong Ran and Jing Li, Zilong: A tool to identify empty images in camera-trap data, Ecological Informatics, (2019).
-Using lorelograms to measure and model correlation in binary data: Applications to ecological studies, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 10, 12, (2153-2162 (2019).
-David M. Forsyth, David S. L. Ramsey and Luke P. Woodford, Estimating abundances, densities, and interspecific associations in a carnivore community, The Journal of Wildlife Management, 83, 5, (1090-1102), (2019).
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Shivish
Hey Riccardo,
If you're interested in using multi-camera arrays, you may want to read this paper. It goes into the benefits of using multiple cameras at a site and detection probability.
- O’Connor, K. M., Nathan, L. R., Liberati, M. R., Tingley, M. W., Vokoun, J. C., & Rittenhouse, T. A. G.. Camera trap arrays improve detection probability of wildlife: Investigating study design considerations using an empirical dataset. PLoS ONE, 12(4), 1–12 (2017).
Hi,
perhaps this work can be useful:
Relazioni specie-habitat in mesomammiferi degli ecosistemi forestali nel comprensorio vicano (Lazio, VT) September 2019 DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22177.15209
In general it mostly depends on the species on focus. Usually distance between two cameras are set to be greater than their home range.
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