Hidden Cameras Capture World of the Rare and Wild

[Guest guest]

Science Desk; Section F

Hidden Cameras Capture World of the Rare and Wild

By ANDREW C. REVKIN

 

07/31/2001

The New York Times

Page 4, Column 2

c. 2001 New York Times Company

 

In the steamy Indonesian darkness, a Sumatran rhinoceros slops

through a swamp. Click.

 

High on an icy ledge in the Himalayas, a snow leopard sniffs a scent

mark on a rock. Click.

In hills near San Diego, a mountain lion lopes along a trail. Click.

 

From the depths of South Asian rain forests to the shrinking patches

of wilderness tucked in California's megalopolises, automated cameras

have become a preferred tool of conservation biologists trying to study

rare and reclusive animal species.

 

Starting in the early 1900's, biologists began experimenting with

cameras triggered by trip wires and, later, photoelectric cells to

photograph tigers, bats, birds and other wildlife. But early efforts

were severely constrained by clunky equipment that would waste film

shooting falling twigs or flitting moths.

 

Over the last 15 years, though, the equipment has become far more

sophisticated, rugged and easy to use, allowing biologists to record the

passage of particular species at particular times of day and to train

local residents to take over day-to-day work, retrieving film and

reloading cameras. That gives biologists a new vantage point for

studying animals and stretches their resources.

 

The camera equipment is particularly useful in tropical forests,

where scientists can spend months or years studying wildlife in dense

greenery and hardly ever see their quarry, said Dr. Ronald L. Tilson,

the conservation director of the Minnesota Zoo and an expert on tigers.

 

''These cameras are going to revolutionize the study of tropical rain

forest biology,'' Dr. Tilson said. ''You see so many more animals. It

has certainly opened up a whole new view into the forest that we've

never had before.''

 

During camera-trap surveys for tigers in southeastern Sumatra several

years ago, his team unexpectedly gleaned pictures of the Sumatran rhino,

one of the world's rarest mammals.

 

The equipment of choice is a set of infrared sensors and specialized

weatherproof cameras sold under the brand name Trailmaster. Many of the

biologists working with the devices note with an ironic chuckle that

they were originally designed to aid hunters trying to get a feel for

the regular movements of deer and other game.

 

Scientists now dominate the market for the cameras, which generally

cost $400 to $650, said the product's inventor, Bill Goodson, who is

based in Lenexa, Kan.

 

The next step, researchers hope, will be figuring out how to use

cameras that can store long sequences of still or video images digitally

and can transmit the data. That would eliminate the need for researchers

to hike into the forest frequently to change film. But for the moment,

digital cameras with disk drives consume too much power to be of

practical use, Mr. Goodson said.

 

The cameras are being used in a variety of ways, ranging from quick

preliminary wildlife surveys in developing countries to continuing

projects designed to monitor the distribution and movements of tigers,

leopards and other large predators.

 

They are particularly useful, biologists say, where surveys are made

nearly impossible either by terrain or threats like rebel groups and

tiger jaws.

 

In Myanmar, formerly Burma, biologists and trained local workers are

conducting the first survey of wildlife in some of the world's most

remote forests as part of a government effort to decide where to place

new preserves and parks.

 

The hazards there range from rebels to one of the most drug-resistant

strains of malaria on earth, said Dr. Anthony J. Lynam, a biologist with

the Wildlife Conservation Society, a private group based at the Bronx

Zoo. But extraordinary biological bounty is being revealed by the

cameras, he said.

 

''Everything we're finding is brand new,'' Dr. Lynam said. ''This is

because Myanmar is so unexplored. Nobody has been into these areas, so

every photograph is new information.''

 

The cameras have been deployed in former and current war zones

throughout Southeast Asia. In a park in northeast Cambodia, Dr. Lynam

said, they are being used to track tigers. This is an area where

poachers sometimes use explosives to kill tigers to supply the trade in

Asian traditional medicines.

 

''They catch a pig or other game and tie it to some explosives,'' he

said. ''A tiger takes the bait and blows up. They take the bag of bones

and whatever else is left and sell it.''

 

In tiger studies in India and Indonesia, the cameras are allowing

scientists to track not just general population shifts but also the

movements of individuals, identified through patterns of stripes on

their faces.

 

But the camera traps produce far more than just a rogue's gallery of

passers-by, researchers say. They are increasingly being used as a

statistical sampling tool, with several dozen devices set out in a grid

around a large preserve. Over time, scientists can develop a clear

picture of the movements of predators and prey.

 

Elsewhere, they are being used for more practical purposes.

 

In Belize, two lodges devoted to ecotourism have used the camera

traps to get identifying snapshots of poachers.

 

In work on jaguars in Argentina and snow leopards in the Himalayas,

biologists have been recording attacks on penned livestock to help

villages protect their herds.

 

Darla Hillard, the program coordinator for the Snow Leopard

Conservancy, a private group based in Los Gatos, Calif., said the rare

leopards often raided stone pens where sheep and goats are kept at

night. ''The cats will get in and because the panicked animals trigger

their prey instincts, keep killing until there's no more movement,'' Ms.

Hillard said. ''That's pretty devastating.''

 

By watching how the attacks take place, the researchers hope to help

the villagers change the pen designs. In return, Ms. Hillard said, the

scientists hope to be able to enlist the support of the local

communities in conserving the predators.

 

Hunting the Poachers

 

Once in a while, a camera trap deployed to track wildlife snaps a

picture of humans. The cameras are almost always positioned along game

trails, so most of the pictures of people are of hunters -- often

poachers. At left is a picture that researchers say could be the first

ever of a member of Thailand's isolated Sakai tribe. At right are

poachers entering a nature preserve on the Thailand-Cambodia border; at

far right, Cambodian hunters. In Belize, pictures from camera traps are

used to track down poachers.

 

Photos: A rare American crocodile is photographed during a late-night

exploration of a Cuban beach. (Wildlife Conservation Society); A jaguar

drags a pig into the forest after raiding a livestock corral in a remote

part of Argentina. (Karina Schiaffino/Center for Subtropical Ecological

Research); A muntjac, a small jungle deer, scampers along a trail in the

Kaeng Krachan National Park. (Wildlife Conservation Society); An

elephant in Thailand is caught in the act of destroying one of two

automatic cameras. (Wildlife Conservation Society); A <WCHL>tiger</WCHL> is

captured

on camera in the Kaeng Krachan National Park on the border of Thailand

and Myanmar. (Wildlife Conservation Society); (Photographs by Wildlife

Conservation Society)

 

 

 

Folder Name: Asia Conservation Tiger

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