Camera traps capture hi-def images of elusive animals

Record ID: 115546

  • Title: Camera traps capture hi-def images of elusive animals
  • Date: 10th February 2016
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FEBRUARY 10, 2016) (REUTERS) PHOTOGRAPHER WILL BURRARD-LUCAS LOOKING AT IMAGES ON COMPUTERS CLOSE OF LAPTOP SCREEN
  • Embargoed: 25th February 2016 20:31
  • Keywords: WWF Camtraptions Will Burrard-Lucas Zambezi conservations Nambia photography
  • Location: ZAMBEZI REGION, NAMIBIA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
  • City: ZAMBEZI REGION, NAMIBIA / LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
  • Country: Namibia
  • Topics: Environment
  • Reuters ID: LVA002441MMHN
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: British entrepreneur and wildlife photographer Will Burrard-Lucas has managed to capture high-quality images of wild animals, some of which had only ever been photographed on research cameras before.
    During a three-month assignment for the WWF, Burrard-Lucas captured unique photos of servals, hyenas, bush pigs, lions and elephants in the Namibia region of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as KAZA.
    The project built on many years of observation by conservationist Lise Hanssen, who has studied wildlife populations in the region, with a particular focus on the carnivores. Using research camera traps, Hanssen identified a range of leopards, lions, hyenas and African wild dogs.
    Burrard-Lucas was tasked with obtaining high-quality photographs of these animals. To do this, he used five of his self-developed 'Camtraptions' camera traps; stationary cameras that are triggered automatically when an animal moves into a pre-determined position. These allow for a much less intrusive way to photograph the animals, said Burrard-Lucas.
    "So, a person there gathering data, the animals will smell the person, they naturally fear people. And so anytime there's a human involved it can be quite disturbing for the animals. But these camera traps; they're stationary, they just sit there. The most they get is a click and a flash, but they quickly learn that it's no threat and after a while they begin to ignore it. And so this really is the least intrusive way to gather information and data about where these animals are, and obviously to obtain images of them," he told Reuters.
    Drawing on Hanssen's knowledge of the region, Burrard-Lucas positioned his camera traps in several locations. He managed to capture images of key species they were looking for; including leopards, hyenas, African wild dogs and a serval cat. One trap positioned near a waterhole in the Mashi Conservancy captured a large number of animals including elephants, giraffes, eland, wildebeest and bushpigs.
    One of the biggest challenges, Burrard-Lucas said, was photographing lions which spend much of their time outside the national parks and are extremely shy. His camera traps near waterholes that lions were known to visit occasionally managed to capture a number of rare shots in the three months that the traps were operating.
    Another challenge was stopping elephants from destroying his equipment: "The particular difficulty was elephants; they can be very inquisitive and playful. And I had these flashes set up, and an elephant is very strong - with the swipe of its trunk it can uproot a tree. So, my little flashes stood no chance. So, these traps had to be checked about once a week to make sure all the flashes were still pointing in the right direction, because you get these pesky elephants investigating them, playing with them, sometimes spraying dust and water at them. So, yeah, the elephants were a constant challenge."
    The images will help WWF scientists better understand wildlife migration patterns and help establish additional protected areas. Burrard-Lucus believes these high-quality images have the power to inspire people to connect with the animals.
    "These photos can be shown to local communities to show them what's on their doorstep. They can be shown to governments. They can be used to bring in tourism, they can be shown to people around the world. People instantly have a connection with these animals that wouldn't exist if they were looking at data in a spreadsheet."
    Burrard-Lucas has built a number of devices for photographing animals from a distance; including the flying BeetleCopter and the ground-based BeetleCam - a hardy, plastic moulded case on wheels which surrounds an attached camera capable of taking high-quality close-up photographs of animals in the wild.
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