Cargando…

Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds

Camera traps are increasingly used in ecological research. However, tests of their performance are scarce. It is already known from previous work that camera traps frequently fail to capture visits by animals. This can lead to a misinterpretation of ecological results such as density estimates or pr...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Randler, Christoph, Kalb, Nadine
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6065333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30073074
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4240
_version_ 1783342844355805184
author Randler, Christoph
Kalb, Nadine
author_facet Randler, Christoph
Kalb, Nadine
author_sort Randler, Christoph
collection PubMed
description Camera traps are increasingly used in ecological research. However, tests of their performance are scarce. It is already known from previous work that camera traps frequently fail to capture visits by animals. This can lead to a misinterpretation of ecological results such as density estimates or predation events. While previous work is mainly based on mammals, for birds, no data about if and how camera traps can be successfully used to estimate species diversity or density are available. Hence, the goal of our study was an empirical validation of six different camera traps in the field. We observed a total number of N = 4567 events (independent visits of a bird) in 100 different sessions from March 2017 until January 2018 while camera traps were deployed. In addition, N = 641 events are based on a comparison of the two close‐up camera traps especially designed for birds. These events were all directly observed by the authors. Thus, the cameras can be compared against the human observer. To give an overall assessment and a more generalizable result, we combined the data from the six camera traps and showed that bird size category (effect size = 0.207) and distance (effect size = 0.132) are the most important predictors for a successful trigger. Also, temperature had a small effect, and flock size had an impact with larger flocks being captured more often. The approach of the bird, whether it approached the camera frontally or laterally had no influence. In Table 8, we give some recommendations, based on our results, at which distances camera traps should be placed to get a 25%, 50%, and 75% capture rate for a given bird size.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-6065333
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2018
publisher John Wiley and Sons Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-60653332018-08-02 Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds Randler, Christoph Kalb, Nadine Ecol Evol Original Research Camera traps are increasingly used in ecological research. However, tests of their performance are scarce. It is already known from previous work that camera traps frequently fail to capture visits by animals. This can lead to a misinterpretation of ecological results such as density estimates or predation events. While previous work is mainly based on mammals, for birds, no data about if and how camera traps can be successfully used to estimate species diversity or density are available. Hence, the goal of our study was an empirical validation of six different camera traps in the field. We observed a total number of N = 4567 events (independent visits of a bird) in 100 different sessions from March 2017 until January 2018 while camera traps were deployed. In addition, N = 641 events are based on a comparison of the two close‐up camera traps especially designed for birds. These events were all directly observed by the authors. Thus, the cameras can be compared against the human observer. To give an overall assessment and a more generalizable result, we combined the data from the six camera traps and showed that bird size category (effect size = 0.207) and distance (effect size = 0.132) are the most important predictors for a successful trigger. Also, temperature had a small effect, and flock size had an impact with larger flocks being captured more often. The approach of the bird, whether it approached the camera frontally or laterally had no influence. In Table 8, we give some recommendations, based on our results, at which distances camera traps should be placed to get a 25%, 50%, and 75% capture rate for a given bird size. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-06-25 /pmc/articles/PMC6065333/ /pubmed/30073074 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4240 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Randler, Christoph
Kalb, Nadine
Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title_full Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title_fullStr Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title_full_unstemmed Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title_short Distance and size matters: A comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
title_sort distance and size matters: a comparison of six wildlife camera traps and their usefulness for wild birds
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6065333/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30073074
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4240
work_keys_str_mv AT randlerchristoph distanceandsizemattersacomparisonofsixwildlifecameratrapsandtheirusefulnessforwildbirds
AT kalbnadine distanceandsizemattersacomparisonofsixwildlifecameratrapsandtheirusefulnessforwildbirds