Intro
This project is all about automatically monitoring wildlife without the need for someone to be there. I think we will limit this to vertebrates. A number of different methods are commonly used.
- Tracking tunnels, usually a physical box designed to attract a particular species (eg entrance hole sizes or lures), and the target steps on an ink (or other marker) then on to paper, recording their footprints.
- Chew cards, or wax-tags: impregnated with a lure attractive to the target species. Bite marks confirm the target being present in the area.
- Deadly traps, obviously only suitable for vermin.
- Live capture traps.
- Time-lapse cameras, taking photos at regular intervals, maybe only during set hours. Hoping something passes by.
- Movement detection cameras. Usually they compare successive photographic frames or are triggered by heat pattern changes. Could use external movement detectors or trip-wires to trigger camera.
- Insect or reptile shelters, eg 'Weta hotels', attractive structures in which target animals seek shelter.
- Sound/audio recorders, eg bat detectors.
Anything I've missed?
(click on the journal's title (above) to see the discussion/comments section for this project)
Comentarios
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Is this an appropriate project to record trap monitoring, even if no pest is visible? I'm thinking in terms of when I check my bait stations, I'd like to add an observation somewhere and note if the bait has been eaten etc ie using NatureWatch as a record keeper of bait rather than pests?
Yep, you can record them here. Add the additional field 'inanimate object: trap/tracking tunnel" and set the 'evidence of organism' data quality value to 'no'. I would also define a name for each station and set the additional field "Trap ID" to that exact name for each observation of that trap (with or without anything caught), then you can click on that field to see all the observations for that trap/tracking tunnel etc.
You're missing audio recorders.
Wax tags work in a similar way to chew cards.
Thanks Jon.
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