Pavacachi camera trap blog

03 August 2008 - Phase 1

John walks through the camera trap to test it out.

I've just got out of a remote camp in the Amazon Rainforest after the first Earth Sessions expedition to Pavacachi in the Pastaza province of Ecuador. One of the aims of the expedition was to commence a camera trapping program to study the movement of the more elusive nocturnal mammals and in particular the cats. We see tracks of jaguar puma and ocelot on a regular basis and can get some information from this but tracks don't last long and they provide limited information about the animal. Photos can give the exact time the animal walked past, and can identify individual animals

We started out on a small scale with just 4 Moultrie game cameras and one trailmaster rigged up to an SLR, the idea being to use the Moultrie game cameras to get as much information as possible and then the SLR to get higher quality photos. 2 of the Moulrie cameras use normal flash and 2 infra-red flash. The infra-red flash only gives black and white images but has a couple of advantages - the flash can't be seen by animals so will not cause as much disturbance and it can take video at night. because of this we set up the infra-red cameras at salt-licks that we knew a lot of animals visit on a fairly regular basis. The standard flash cameras were set up on paths where tracks had been seen as it doesn't matter so much if the flash disturbs the animals on the path.

The local children get inquisitive

One week later we collected the cards from the two cameras on paths and one from a salt-lick, we didn't have time to collect the other salt-lick card on the same day so we left it for a couple more days. Both the cameras on paths had recorded about 50 images and the salt-lick camera had over 200 videos so we were really excited to get back to camp and have a look at them on the laptop. however after trawling through all the images we had 1 video of a sunbittern a few inquisitive Kichwa children and a lot of empty paths. The problem was that the cameras take too long to wake up when they detect an animal and by the time the camera took a photo the animal had passed.

So lesson learnt we set out to check the final trap and move the cameras so they were pointing down a trail rather than across it so that hopefully the delay would be less of a problem. we also took the laptop out with us so that we could check the results instantly and do better test shots. First we went to the second salt lick. There were over one hundred videos on it but after our luck with the other cameras we wern't too optomistic but we loaded them up onto the laptop and had a look. Again the first few videos had nothing but then we had our first success - a collared peccary! And there was more, around 30 videos of large groups of white lipped peccary, some red brocket deer and a small caiman. Feeling a lot more optimistic we repositioned the traps on the paths and the other salt-lick, while we were at it we checked for any photos from the last couple of days - more photos of nothing but then at the other salt-lick we had a video of a tapir and another deer. So the salt-licks were finally doing well even if there was still nothing from the paths. The next day we also set up the SLR on a path where Luis, our guide, had seen jaguar tracks.

Our first Cat! An ocelot

Another week passed and we checked the traps again. Even with the traps repositioned we were still getting lots of shots of nothing but we did get our first cat shot - an ocelot. It was walking away from the camera so didn't show its face but at least we were starting to have some more luck. Unfortunately that didn't continue with the salt-licks. one of the camera's we had repositioned to give view more of the saltlick, but like this the infra-red light wasn't powerful enough to give decent images and the camera at the other one had broken down so was just giving completely black images. We took this one back to camp and semi-repared it and put it up outside an armadillo excavation and left the others roughly where they were. We also checked the SLR camera trap for the first time. When we approached it didn't take any photos and this was because the 8GB memmory card was full! Over 800 photos but a quick glance through revealed nothing of intereset. We had set the trailmaster up to be too sensitive so absolutely anything would trigger it - I think a lot of the photos were actually triggered by insects flying through the beam as we had a few photos of moths and butterflies. on the positive side the batteries were all fine so that was one less thing to worry about in the future. Once we got back to camp we found that we had actually got a partial photo of something, we had the top of the head and ears of a short eared dog (or possibly a jaguarundi) but the camera had been aimed too high so we didn't get the whole animal in the shot. So one more failed trap but more lessons learnt, better luck next time.

The back half of a jaguar

A couple of days before we left we checked some of the traps again. The one we had put outside the armidillo hole had video of a paca and an armidillo, but the one we were really excited to see was on the main path as there were jaguar tracks approaching it. On reviewing the card we did have a photo of a jaguar but only half of it, again we had been let down by the slow speed of the cameras and it was half out of frame by the time the shot was taken, still our first shot of a jaguar so it was pretty exciting, and interestingly the tracks continued on the path past the trap, as had the ocelots, suggesting that they arn't too concerned about the flash

All the traps were left set up so when we go back in we will be checking them again so hopefully there will be more to show here when we come back out of the jungle in September

To find out more about the expeditions visit www.earthsessions.com