Camera trapping allows non-invasive surveys of wildlife throughout the protected area, providing new insights into hotspots of rare and threatened species, while also providing information on which locations contained the most species targeted by hunters. Systematic camera traps were set in either fine-grid (smaller areas with 1-2 km spacing in between stations), or course-grid (full protected area coverage with ~2.5 km spacing between stations) designs, with stations that contain 2 or more cameras spaced about 20 m from one another. Cameras trapping systems were left in the field for ~3 months for each sample session to meet the closure assumption; fine grid designs for two locations were repeated 2 years apart, the course grid is intended to be reproduced in 2023 (5 years apart). Systematic cameras were set and microhabitat data were collected at each station site following protocols from Abrams et al (2018).
References
Abrams, J. F., Axtner, J., Bhagwat, T., Mohamed, A., Nguyen, A., Niedballa, J., ... & Wilting, A. (2018). Studying terrestrial mammals in tropical rainforests. A user guide for camera-trapping and environmental DNA. Berlin, Germany: Leibniz-IZW.
- Donor funding to purchase camera traps, batteries, and other necessary equipment
- Assistance by rangers and local people to set camera traps in the field
- Capacity of researchers to properly classify, clean, analyze, and report data.
- Due to the flash, it is easy for camera traps to be detected and damaged or stolen
- Experienced personnel are needed to coordinate camera trap setting efforts to mitigate errors as much as possible. Common errors include:
- date-time setting issues
- vegetation not cleared from the immediate area of the camera traps causing thousands of blank photos to be triggered by leaves swaying in the wind and rapid loss of battery life, and eventually battery death within days of setting.
- improper setting of camera traps facing toward one another instead of away, causing potential duplicate records
- Forgetting to turn the cameras on
- inconsistent microhabitat data collection by various teams
- Pre-planning for camera trapping is essential to success and reducing errors, pre-planning should include all personnel involved, should be presented on mapped locations, should identify team leaders, and review protocols and checklists.
- Photos should be taken in 4 directions around the camera location. This way if mistakes are made in the field, they can be somewhat mitigated by evaluation of photos later on where possible.