A review of camera trapping for conservation behaviour research

Abstract

An understanding of animal behaviour is important if conservation initiatives are to be effective. However, quantifying the behaviour of wild animals presents significant challenges. Remote-sensing camera traps are becoming increasingly popular survey instruments that have been used to non-invasively study a variety of animal behaviours, yielding key insights into behavioural repertoires. They are well suited to ethological studies and provide considerable opportunities for generating conservation-relevant behavioural data if novel and robust methodological and analytical solutions can be developed. This paper reviews the current state of camera-trap-based ethological studies, describes new and emerging directions in camera-based conservation behaviour, and highlights a number of limitations and considerations of particular relevance for camerabased studies. Three promising areas of study are discussed: (1) documenting anthropogenic impacts on behaviour; (2) incorporating behavioural responses into management planning and (3) using behavioural indicators such as giving up densities and daily activity patterns. We emphasize the importance of reporting methodological details, utilizing emerging camera trap metadata standards and central data repositories for facilitating reproducibility, comparison and synthesis across studies. Behavioural studies using camera traps are in their infancy; the full potential of the technology is as yet unrealized. Researchers are encouraged to embrace conservation-driven hypotheses in order to meet future challenges and improve the efficacy of conservation and management processes.

Species‐level image classification with convolutional neural network enables insect identification from habitus images

“…Compared to the often used pitfall traps, camera traps sample more individuals (Collett & Fisher, 2017;Halsall & Wratten, 1988), and cause no depletion of specimens or habitat destruction (Digweed, Currie, Carcamo, & Spence, 1995;Zaller et al, 2015). The average movement speed and various behavioral traits of a species can be directly measured between single frames of one camera trap (Caravaggi et al, 2017), allowing true abundance of species to be estimated based on their movement speed and range. The average movement speed and various behavioral traits of a species can be directly measured between single frames of one camera trap (Caravaggi et al, 2017), allowing true abundance of species to be estimated based on their movement speed and range.…”

Measuring agreement among experts in classifying camera images of similar species

“…Ecological research is experiencing an explosion in the use of wildlife imagery. Camera trapping has become a common noninvasive survey technique (Burton et al, ; O'Connell, Nichols, & Karanth, ; Rowcliffe & Carbone, ), especially for rare and elusive forest‐dwelling species (Furnas, Landers, Callas, & Matthews, ; Stewart et al, ), and has been used to obtain crucial ecological information (Caravaggi et al, ). Landscape‐scale camera grids or transects are increasing across the globe (McShea, Forrester, Costello, He, & Kays, ), and such sampling may be used to monitor global biodiversity in the future (Rich et al, ; Steenweg et al, ).…”

Biodiversity estimates from different camera trap surveys: a case study from Osogovo Mt., Bulgaria

“…Camera trapping is nowadays a widely-utilised method to address a variety of biological and ecological questions, especially in mammal research (O'Connell et al, 2011;Caravaggi et al, 2017). Currently, most research employing camera traps is focused on a single taxon, most frequently a species of conservation importance.…”