Using Camera Traps to Protect Big Cats and Their Habitat

Biological conservation researchers have increasingly found camera traps to be a useful tool in collecting data on elusive species of interest.  A camera trap is not a physical trap; rather it is a camera set up, usually on a tree in a remote area where a species of interest is believed to exist.  Animal body heat activates an infrared sensor that triggers the camera to take a picture of the animal when it is near (WWF Camera Traps, 2015).   Members of Felidae, the cat family, are a particularly troublesome group of animals on which to collect data.  This is due to an interplay of factors such as large home range, mysterious behavior, and low population density to name a few (Silver et al., 2004).  The World Wildlife fund reports that camera traps have been used in Indonesia to gain a greater understanding of tigers; their behavior and specific threats to their survival as a species (WWF Camera Traps, 2015).   Watch the embedded YouTube-World Wildlife Fund video clips below to get an idea of the type of footage that camera traps have captured.

In 2013 biological researchers Maputla, Chimimba, & Ferreira used camera traps to conduct a mark recapture population survey of the leopard population in Kruger National Park, South Africa.  These researchers cited that camera traps were appropriate for surveying leopards because of their mysterious and independent behaviors, which make them hard to find (Maputla, Chimimba, & Ferreira, 2013).  Using camera traps, the team estimated that there were nineteen leopards within a 150 km²  area of Kruger National Park (Maputla, Chimimba, & Ferreira, 2013).  Maputla, Chimimba, Ferreira (2013) discussed several challenges to the precision of their population estimates using camera traps; resulting in “unequal catchability”.  Some of these challenges were: the cameras were too far apart and the camera placements were biased to preferred paths of male leopards Park (Maputla, Chimimba, & Ferreira, 2013).  Finally, Maputla, Chimimba, Ferreira (2013) stated that similar research on tigers suggest that they had the inclination to avoid the camera locations. 

Another team of researchers, Silver, Ostro, Marsh, Maffei, Noss, Kelly, & Ayala (2004) used camera traps to conduct a mark recapture abundance estimation of populations of jaguars in the forest of Belize and Bolivia.  Using camera traps, the Silver et al research team (2004) was able to estimate population densities of jaguars in these areas to be between 2.4 and 8.8 per 100 km².   Silver et al explain that using camera traps for estimating population density provides precious data that conservation managers can use to make decisions pertaining to minimum viable population sizes and habitat/range estimates that can be used to support and justify conservation arguments in efforts to allot more protected areas for Jaguars (Silver et al., 2004). 

Jaguar roves near Rosemont mine site; Arizona Daily Star (Davis, 2013) 

A topic of interest to me is environmental degradation due to mining for sulfide oar.  Camera traps are being used to provide justification for protecting wilderness in the Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson, Arizona.  This is the location of a proposed Rosemont Copper Mine site.  In 2013 Tony Davis of the Arizona Daily Star reported that camera traps, set up by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, took five photos of a Jaguar roaming in an that has been federally proposed as critical habitat for the endangered jaguar (Davis, 2013).  The photos provide evidence of the existence of this endangered species and help to propel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s argument that the Rosemont Copper Mine site is “likely to adversely affect the jaguar” (Davis, 2013). Camera Traps have great potential to provide invaluable data and indisputable evidence to justify protection of big cats and their habitat.  

References

WWF Camera Traps. (2015). Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/species/camera_traps/

Maputla, N. W., Chimimba, C. T., & Ferreira, S. M. (2013). Calibrating a camera trap-based biased mark-recapture sampling design to survey the leopard population in the N'wanetsi concession, Kruger National Park, South Africa. African Journal Of Ecology, 51(3), 422-430. doi:10.1111/aje.12047

Silver, S., Ostro, L., Marsh, L., Maffei, L., Noss, A., Kelly, M., & ... Ayala, G. (2004). The use of camera traps for estimating jaguar Panthera onca abundance and density using capture/recapture analysis. Oryx, 38(2), 148-154.

Davis, T (2013) Jaguar roves near Rosemont mine site. (2013, June 28). Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://m.tucson.com/news/science/environment/jaguar-roves-near-rosemont-mine-site/article_e8573513-b55b-553e-934c-e8951555f14e.html?mobile_touch=true