Wildlife Cameras

Q & A

Q -       Can the motion sensors tell the difference between wildlife movement and movement caused by wind? (of a branch or something?)
A -        In my experience (a few years ago, so they may be better now) wind definitely triggered several photos. To be fair, that sensitivity also meant I captured images of very small critters that I wasn't expecting to see on my camera trap - Steller's jays, mice/rats. Definitely a mixed bag!
A -   No they can get triggered by either

Q -       That's interesting, because the feral pigs we had completely dug up an area of native bunch grasses -- destroyed the plot that never grew back. The cows would top the grasses that had been spreading.
A -      Yes, I was surprised by this as well. In our case we didn’t have any perennial grasses, all grasses were non-native annuals (in particular rip gut brome), however, I don’t know what the ecological mechanism was that was driving the “effect" of pigs on grasses

Q -       Can we get the link to that forage growth time lapse video please? This grass nerd is ecstatic!  what a good idea!
A -        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X8qcI1kXng&feature=emb_logo

Comment -      That's funny about the coyotes stealing the orange caps.  Canids like coyotes and wolves like to bring toys back to the den!

Q -       Do you have any advice about good places to place camera traps?
A -       It depends on what you’re looking for. When doing general wildlife surveys, you probably want to focus on travel corridors. Creeks, roads and paths can all be good. You want a good field of view (look for areas with wide open view to the camera). If you are particularly interested in carnivores, you can bait the camera too with a can of tuna or some other irresistible treat. That will bring in tons more animals (just probably not deer)

Q -       Any advice for best places for mounting them?
A -       Cameras will generally have a mounting bracket. Often they come with a nylon strap to mount them too. Usually I like to mount cameras on a 6-foot t-post or a tree. The strap works pretty well for this, however over time the nylon can degrade if the camera is in the sun a lot, so just be aware that you might need to switch it out eventually. I ended up just using galvanized wire when the straps broke

Q -       Many people using these cameras out in the rangeland and the wind blowing the grass triggers the video or photo.  Any way to deal with this?
A -      The best way to deal with blowing grass is to mount it in an area where the grass won’t be in the foreground. If that’s not possible, I recommend trying to put the camera on a pole so that it’s above the grass (I’ve used 6ft t-posts).
RE: cameras and blowing vegetation - I've started packing pruning shears and a small saw when I put cameras out (to remove vegetation that might blow and trigger the camera). That said, I had a camera that took 17000 pics in 2 weeks north of Truckee. 1 coyote and 16999 pics of sagebrush and bunch grass!

Q -       How do you best secure the cameras to prevent theft?
A -       Many cameras have a bracket for securing the camera with a cable and a lock. I think this probably helps some, but if you use cameras in areas with public access, chances are you will eventually lose one or two. In my opinion, the best thing you can do is to hide your cameras well so that people just don’t see them. Try not to use them on trails if possible and use the cable to secure them so that someone would at least need bolt cutters to remove them.