Camera traps have changed the way wildlife is monitored. These heat or motion sensitive cameras allow us humans to observe animal traffic in specific areas over long periods of time. No longer do we need to sit sweltering in a hide being eaten alive by insects, the camera does the work on our behalf.
The other benefit of course is that camera traps are a lot less invasive than having a team of smelly people sit about in the forest fouling up the air. The trap camera gives conservationists a low impact way of checking whether certain quiet and shy species inhabit specific regions. They also come in handy when trying to push through legislation protecting areas of forest, they help prove a species uses the area as its home.
I’ve collated a bunch of the best camera trap photos I could find… the picture at the top is a two-toed sloth in Nicaragua and this first one below is an Aders’ duiker, in Kenya. The duiker are very rare and crushingly shy; trap cameras recently found them hanging out in an area of forest where they weren’t known to live:
African golden cat in Gabon…
An Indonesian barking deer…
Another species of duiker in Gabon, this time a blue duiker and son…
A perfectly posed leopard in China…
Red fox, Wood-Tikchik State Park, Alaska…
Pallid bat, Arizona…
A common genet in Yemen…
A prickly Kenyan porcupine…
Forest elephants in Gabon…
Giant armadillo in Brazil…
Honey badgers, Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, Karnataka, India…
Goitered gazelles, Miandasht Wildlife Refuge, Iran…
Horned guan in Guatemala. What a good looking guy. Click here for more Guatemalan bird photos…
A dribbling Indian sloth bear…
Leopard in Gabon…
The enchanting Malaysian leopard cat…
Leopard…
An ocelot in Mexico…
Orangutan in Borneo…
North Luangwa National Park, Zambia…
Badger, Wimbledon Common, London…
Sumatran tiger in Indonesia…
Tiger cooling off in a pool in India…
Tiger chowing down on a recently deceased rhino…
Tanzania – warthog vs wild dog…
Yellow baboons in Kenya…
Wrestling monitor lizards…
