Camera traps: Important monitoring tools

Camera traps are portable cameras that are triggered by motion sensors or infrared detection at some distance. Recently, these devices have improved significantly and are therefore of greater benefit to their users.

They have become smaller, making them easier to handle and easier to hide. The increased battery life allows them to be left in the wild for longer periods of time. Higher image quality also enables their user to receive more detailed information on behaviour and identification. The release speed has also improved, with fewer missed opportunities and better images.

The devices can be used for a variety of applications – whether for a specific research project or for basic monitoring information. Every explorer, conservationist or wildlife enthusiast should have camera traps in their toolbox!

Especially in Africa camera traps were and are an important component of the surveillance of endangered species and especially of elusive species like the black rhino. In many areas, black rhinos are particularly reticent and difficult to observe, which in turn means that there is little knowledge of their population and demographics and, as a result, only poor population management can be carried out.

In cases like these, the camera traps become more than essential: In effective use, the information captured by the cameras can be priceless, especially when combined with other surveillance techniques. In some cases, the addition of more camera traps has dramatically improved surveillance, turning a 60% "known"/identifiable population into a 95% "known" population within months.