One of the interesting things about using video traps is that they offer you a different perspective of the natural world. I don't just mean that you can glimpse animals that you normally may not be aware of, but that you can look at the
forest itself in a different manner to what you are used to. Time is one of the perspectives that video traps open up to you. You can set one looking at one spot and then over time get a unique insight of what happens at that spot in the forest. Its not always what you are expecting. Indeed, these insights teach you to not take your pre-conceptions for granted, and your "spot", no matter how uninpiring, may yield unexpected surprises.
Sometime ago we tried a little experiment, and placed camera in a location we would not normally. It was the end of the day, we were tired from hiking with equipement all day and still had a lone camera left in the backpack when returning from the depths of the forest. We were quite surprised at how the access track was used, in good ways and bad.
The Forest Track from Wildlife Thailand on Vimeo.
onflipflops replied the topic:
#1683
06 Feb 2014 22:52
Please, don't show all these tigers, people might start believing they're not so rare after all ;).
Fantastic catch!
How many different individuals have you captured by now during all your camera trap research?
I suppose this is not a 1-day recording, though I would not be surprised if a tiger would walk the trail just minutes after some noisy motorbikes have passed.
I believe animals might be scared/ wary when they hear something unusual, but as soon as everything calms down, they continue with what they were planning to do. But perhaps if they would be disturbed all the time when they visit a specific area, maybe they would decide to avoid it.
Paul T replied the topic:
#1684
07 Feb 2014 08:06
I have to admit it is very old footage, indeed - we have quite a lot of stuff that is just 1 or 2 second clips that I am trying to figure out how to use effectively. Most of it is very poor quality and unusable but there are still some short clips in the project files that I am trying to find a "story" for.
You are right, in my limited experience, noise pollution is a massive issue, the placement was over a considerable period and whenever there was non-natural activity the animals stayed away or, indeed, relocated.
One of our experiences in the current park we are photographing in (not the park in the video above) was to luckily be in the park during a planned closure. It was amazing how some species were so abundant on the main tracks and roadways, in plain sight. When the human activity started again, those species just disappeared from these raodways. Its very interesting to google "noise pollution wildlife".
I was really pleased when I read that Thailand's oldest NP is implementing noise testing of suspect motorbikes, against "acceptable" noise levels. Small steps but always in the right direction :+)
Bagheera replied the topic:
#1687
11 Feb 2014 21:23
Incredible footage, and what a beautiful specimen of a tiger! thanks for sharing
