A Clouded Leopard (Neofelis nebulosa) decides to take a rest in front of one of our last remaining Bushnell video traps. These magnificiently patterned felids have been rare passers-by for our cameras in the past but this is the first instance whereby we have had one of the creatures stop in front of a camera and allow us a rare glimpse of a private moment in it's life. Kaeng Krachan National Park.
This camera was actually placed as a security camera and a DSLR camera trap was placed on the tree that the clouded leopard sits next to. The DSLR malfunctioned after we had gotten it in place and we decided to remove it for repairs. As the weather was turning quickly on this exposed ridge and the rains were falling we decided to leave the security camera in place. A lucky move for us born out of our desire for the team to get back to the dry rather than mess anymore with the equipment in the worsening conditions.
Our supply of Bushnell security cameras has now dwindled as they do not take well to our rainy season conditions, and have all slowly died on us. It is a pity as they are capable of very good footage but at 300 USD a unit when we include, purchase, shipping, cards, locks, protection boxes, security fixings, etc. they are expensive to replace. We are now trying some Moultrie units as Moultrie gave us a very good price point for the project, half that of Bushnell. We will now start to see the results of these units to see ultimately if they are suitably comparable.
We also recorded some other interesting mammal species with this camera such as stump tailed macaque, tapir, feas muntjac, wild boar, and golden cat which we shall post in the forum shortly.