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Native Californian, biologist, wildlife conservation consultant, retired Smithsonian scientist, father of two daughters, grandfather of four. INTJ. Believes nature is infinitely more interesting than shopping malls. Born 100 years too late.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Camera trapping science and tigers

K. Ullas Karanth and James D. Nichols have produced an 8-part instructional series about monitoring tiger populations.

You can watch it here on You Tube.

The footage and animations are excellent, and three chapters deal with the use of camera traps.

It all builds on the efforts of Karanth and Nichols who have been worked hard over the past 3 decades to introduce science into the business of estimating wild tiger populations.

While few readers of this blog will ever have occasion to use the method, the camera trapping chapters are well worth viewing to appreciate the painstaking effort that goes into wildlife population estimation.

It's not quite as simple or easy as the general public, politicians, and most outdoors folks would like to believe.

But hey, you can trust the results.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoy your blog! I linked to it from our blog (trailcamproblog.com). Both you and Game Camera Photo Logbook are really entertaining! Keep up the good work!

Camera Trap Codger said...

Thanks Nick. I'll get you plugged into the bloglist soon.

cliff said...

OKAY Codger, I'm hooked.

That was a fantastic learning experience on Tigers, which I believe to be the most beautiful big cat and the most difficult to photograph without being lunch.

If I had the time and money, and someone that runs slower than me, I would be there in a minute.

cliff

Camera Trap Codger said...

You should see Ullas's tiger photos. He must have thousands of them by now. About 15 years ago he gave me a picture of a leopard carrying a freshly killed mouse deer. It was a night shot, and it had a light leak on it, for which he apologized, but I still consider it a treasure. When I find it one of these days I am going to scan it and photoshop that light leak away.

Owlman said...

As usual you have taken me on a vicarious adventure and I'm fully engrossed. Thanks for the continuing saga on Camera trapping adventures and your outstanding career.
How is your book shaping up? Looking forward to it.

Anonymous said...

Kann ich so nur zustimmen