Biologists, ecologists, conservationists, and wildlife lovers are enthralled by the idea of observing animals in their natural habitat. However, this is often difficult as the wild animals' behaviour can change in the presence of humans.
The use of remote controlled or motion sensing camouflaged cameras to capture footage of wildlife is called Camera Trapping and it is all the rage right now in the world of biology and ecology. I am unsure of who first thought to use cameras in this way but it was an ingenious idea!
Depending on the camera, it can be set up for still images or for capturing video. Biologists, especially those involved in conservation and ecology, use camera traps gain a better understanding of the population and area that they are studying.
By reviewing camera footage, species can be documented and population numbers can be estimated. Also, the camera footage can sometimes reveal animal behaviour which is important in understanding the life and habits of species within that environment.
'Camera trap' is a suiting name for this new scientific technique because cameras 'capture' video and images. Science in Seconds is an exciting, thought provoking website that discuses, through blogs, articles, and videos, fascinating 'things' in the world of science. Science in Seconds has a very interesting and informative video on Camera Traps that includes some great wildlife footage!
I first heard of this concept of camera traps through my dad. He told me that the use of this technology has just recently allowed us to understand how bears and hibernation truly work. There is a cave (I believe in either northern Alberta or BC) that has been known for ages to play home to a hibernating bear every year.
ReplyDeleteFinally through the use of this technology, scientists were able to set up cameras and video cameras in this cave to study bears during hibernation. I don't know about you but I'm not sure I'd want to camp out in a cave all winter long with a bear while it hibernates and study it... I especially would not want to be there when it woke up!
Anyways, it allowed for scientists to learn such things as the fact that bears do not wake up when they give birth to their young. As well, a fact that I found very cool that was discovered using camera traps was the fact bears do not appear to produce waste while they hibernate. Their bodies go into a somewhat hypothermic state in which all the nutrients, wastes, etc. that that they gathered in the fall gets recycled all winter long within the bears body.
They don't wake up to give birth! That sounds way less painless than for people, maybe we should adopt that hibernation policy!
ReplyDeleteI was aware that they do not produce waste as their metabolism slows down quite a bit and this is really gross, but they eat a lot of fibre and twigs that sort of act like a bowel block that prvents them from soiling themselves during hibernation and then they can get rid of the block in the spring.