Hi Birders,
There was a comment recently about whether camera traps would be of use to identify Night Parrots. I’ve used camera traps a fair bit for fauna survey work purposes and can confirm that they are more than up to the job if used correctly. Phil Lewis has some awesome footage on YouTube of a variety of arid-zone species at a small waterhole all shot with a basic camera trap. Judge the results for yourself:
There is already a lot camera trapping going in in parts of the outback with consultants, Land Councils and various Parks Services busy deploying them all over the shop. For various reasons these organisations are often not open to sharing results so if a Night Parrot eventually gets into a photo taken this way ordinary Australian birders may well be the last to find out.
I for one would love to see birders making more use of camera trap technology. If done correctly it is a terrific non-invasive way to experience the wild in a new way. It is gaining popularity overseas. BBC Wildlife is currently running a competition just for camera trappers- wouldn’t it be great to see an Australian entrant win. See: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/webform/camera-trap-photo-year-2012-call-entries
Cheers Mark Carter ===============================
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Comments
3 responses to “Camera Traps”
Peter,
I can only really comment on the models I’ve used: Bushnell Trophy Cam- good basic workhorse camera. Image quality not great. OK battery life- runs on normal AAs. Lower priced model. Scoutguard SG560P- Reasonable and cheap.
Uway (Sorry can’t remember the model)- Good camera, nice images and sharp response times etc but pricey. Runs on 10 or so Lithium AAs- long battery life but expensive to deck out. Reconyx models- Similar to the Uway. Great results but not cheap.
Its horses for courses frankly. If you are deploying for long periods and someone else was paying for the batteries you’d go for the lithium-powered models, but if its short deployments or you are on a budget something like the Bushnell or Scoutguard is probably the best option. Personally I’d rather have several cheaper cameras which I can spread around a site rather than put all my eggs in one basket and be dependent on one you-beaut camera. Having said that you don’t want to go too cheap…
There are loads of models on the market now and I haven’t tried most of them. Things to look out for when shopping are: IR capability, battery type (ever tried buying a dozen ‘C’ cells in an outback roadhouse? Near impossible!), silent and no-visible flash operation (critical for avoiding disturbance), SD card storage, fast response times, focused motion-trigger zone (important as otherwise you’ll get a million shots of grass waving in the wind), waterproofing, time/date stamping of images.
I have not used video function much as it tends to guzzle memory and power. I’d love to hear anyone else opinion on this angle.
Protecting them from thieves? I can’t suggest much there: the places I use camera traps are rarely visited by humans (Funny how thats where the good stuff is, huh?). Reconyx do have security straps for sale but I suspect they won’t deter a serious thug.
Happy hunting!
Mark Carter ===============================
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This week’s Aldi catalogue has a Tevion Wildlife camera, 5 mp, IR flash for night, 3 zone motion sensor with “up to” 20 metre trigger range. It says “Ideal for photos” but the web site includes video clips. This could be creative advertising! Only $129, probably not the best quality but may be worth checking out.
http://tevion-cameras.com/popups/TV-WK_1_au_popup/index.php
Roger
Can you tell us more about camera traps, Mark? Do you buy them or make them? More importantly, how do you stop people knocking them off? And if you’re recording video, why not record sound too?
Peter Shute
________________________________ Sent: Friday, 8 June 2012 5:14 PM
Hi Birders,
There was a comment recently about whether camera traps would be of use to identify Night Parrots. I’ve used camera traps a fair bit for fauna survey work purposes and can confirm that they are more than up to the job if used correctly. Phil Lewis has some awesome footage on YouTube of a variety of arid-zone species at a small waterhole all shot with a basic camera trap. Judge the results for yourself:
There is already a lot camera trapping going in in parts of the outback with consultants, Land Councils and various Parks Services busy deploying them all over the shop. For various reasons these organisations are often not open to sharing results so if a Night Parrot eventually gets into a photo taken this way ordinary Australian birders may well be the last to find out.
I for one would love to see birders making more use of camera trap technology. If done correctly it is a terrific non-invasive way to experience the wild in a new way. It is gaining popularity overseas. BBC Wildlife is currently running a competition just for camera trappers- wouldn’t it be great to see an Australian entrant win. See: http://www.discoverwildlife.com/webform/camera-trap-photo-year-2012-call-entries
Cheers Mark Carter ===============================
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