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Camera traps are used to record wildlife in it’s natural environment, they are designed to be unobtrusive and cause minimal disturbance but its quite clear they are noticed by animals 1/n #CameraTrapTuesday #cameratrap
Though many have a camouflage design even an infra-red and ‘low-glow’ flash is still very visible + human scent around a camera site can make animals wary. Animals may react strongly to a camera when it is first put in place, but become accustomed to its presence over time 2/n
Depending on what you want from a camera this curious behaviour may not be a problem as animals stay in shot longer, allowing clearer images and videos to be taken which are great for sharing and can help with individual ID! 3/n #fox #cameratraps
It is important to recognise presence of a camera itself can change behaviour, e.g. if you were hoping to observe natural behaviours these may be disrupted by curious animals coming over to investigate, or being frightened away 4/n #Cameratraps #deer #reddeer
Animals/individuals respond differently to a camera trap and this can cause bias. If an animal is afraid, it may choose different paths that avoid the camera, making it less likely to be recorded, making it seem as though that animal is scarce or absent from that environment 5/n
Conversely if an animal is often curious and spends a lot of time in front of the camera it may look like there are lots of that species present – unless you can ID to individual level! 6/n #cameratraps #deer #roedeer
If it is important for your camera to remain undetected it there are no-glow flash models. Checking your camera less frequently reduces disturbance at the site, reducing human smell and allowing suspicious animals time to relax into natural movements 7/7 #cameratrap #curious
