Camera Traps

A camera trap placed along known tiger pathway, Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal. The red dot on the dark box on the left is the laser "tripwire" that activates the camera.
© WWF

While a "camera trap" might sound menacing, it actually does no harm at all to wildlife. The name is derived from the manner in which it "captures" wildlife - on film!
Camera traps are not the intricate and elaborate devices you might imagine; these innovative conservation tools are in fact nothing more than everyday cameras, armed with infrared sensors that take a picture whenever they sense movement in the forest.

While the device itself is not complicated, the getting the film developed is. Because the cameras are placed in such remote locations, it often takes a full day to hike to each. Cameras also must be moved occasionally because their flashes often alert animals to their presence, causing those animals to avoid the area in the future.

Due to the moist, hot climate of many of the forest locations WWF is working, the cameras often malfunction, so scientists will be lucky if two-thirds of the pictures are of any animals at all. Scientists can get that rate of return in a dense forest only because they do significant research before placing the cameras in order to determine the most efficient and productive locations.