The camera trap revolution: how a simple device is shaping research and ...
I must confess to a recent addiction: camera trap photos. When the Smithsonian released 202,000 camera trap photos to the public online, I couldn’t help but spend hours transfixed by the private world of animals. There was the golden snub-monkey (
Rhinopithecus roxellana ), with its unmistakably blue face staring straight at you, captured on a trail in the mountains of China. Or a southern tamandua (
Tamandua tetradactyla ), a tree anteater that resembles a living Muppet, poking its nose in the leaf litter as sunlight plays on its head in the Peruvian Amazon. Or the dim body of a spotted hyena (
Crocuta crocuta ) led by jewel-like eyes in the Tanzanian night. Or the less exotic red fox (
Vulpes vulpes ) which admittedly appears much more exotic when shot in China in the midst of a snowstorm. Even the giant panda (
Ailuropoda melanoleuca ), an animal I too often connect with cartoons and stuffed animals, looks wholly real and wild when captured by
Source: Mongabay.com