Network of wildlife cameras eyed
Wildlife, get ready for your close-up.
Biologists are proposing a vast network of interconnected remote cameras that could revolutionize the study of bears, moose, caribou, cougars and other large animals across North America.
“If everybody collected similar information and sent it to a central repository, it would enable us to not only monitor changes in global biodiversity, but also understand why,” said Jesse Whittington, a Banff-based Parks Canada biologist and one of three co-authors of a paper promoting the idea.
Whittington said use of remote, motion-triggered cameras to study wildlife has grown as scientists warm to the non-invasive, relatively inexpensive and highly informative technique.
He and his colleagues estimate the use of wildlife cameras is nearly doubling every three years. Their paper estimates tens of thousands are in use throughout the world.
Imagine if the data and images they collect were standardized and collated so that results from one study could be compared or combined with those of another, thought Whittington. The result could resemble the global network of weather reporting stations used for everything from weather prediction to climate modelling.
Combining cameras into one vast network would open up a whole new range of productive research possibilities, he suggested.
More cameras would strengthen statistical inferences. It would also allow scientists to study the effect of gradual changes across a large landscape — say, in elevation or habitat quality or amount of human impact.
Biologists already use the cameras in similar ways, so it shouldn’t be too hard to set up a standard protocol everyone would follow, Whittington said.
A camera that can run all year without supervision sells for about $600.
The key would be getting a government agency or a university to hold all the data, he said.