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Worldwide Camera Traps Measure Mammal Diversity

For the first time, a global picture of mammal diversity is available, information that will prove crucial in assessing the success of current conservation strategies in the world's wild reserves. !{width:584px}http://www.viceland.com/viceblog...

For the first time, a global picture of mammal diversity is available, information that will prove crucial in assessing the success of current conservation strategies in the world’s wild reserves.

Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, Uganda. Pan troglodytes (Common chimpanzee), an endangered species.

Researchers with Conservation International set up camera traps in seven different reserves across Africa, Asia and the Americas to sneak shots of mammals going about their business. The data then provides a valuable baseline look at current mammal populations and distributions that, year over year, will allow conservationists to assess the decline of mammal populations. What’s more, it also provides a valuable tool for comparing conservation strategies across different reserves.

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Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Tamandua mexicana (Smaller anteater).

“We can see if the smaller reserves are actually losing species or gaining species, or if the larger reserves are losing or gaining,” Dr. Jorge Ahumada, leader of the study, said over the phone. “It’s a kind of action that really gives us an insight into whether the conservation strategies that we adopt in this particular area of the forest are working.”

Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. Panthera pardus (African leopard), a near threatened species.

Camera traps are equipped with motion or infrared sensor-activated shutters and are set up along game trails. When a large enough animal cruises past, the trap snaps a picture unobtrusively. Ahumada and his team set up 60 cameras at each site in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Laos, Suriname, Tanzania and Uganda, and left them up for a month. Using an algorithm to sort the photos, the team came away with 52,000 shots showing 105 different mammal species along with tourists and even poachers. They’ve thus produced a comprehensive way to audit game reserves.

Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Nasua narica (White-nosed coati).

“With these models we can at least say that this preserve is doing okay, but this other preserve is not doing okay because we can see that year after year we are losing diversity or we are losing species or we are losing functional diversity,” Ahumada said. “It’s crucial to not only have these baselines but also to follow up and to make this information available to the right people.”

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Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Tapirus bairdii (Baird’s Tapir), endangered.

The study lends practical support to the ecological principle that more connected land is of higher quality and value. For example, if you had three reserves of equal area, one large circle would have more biodiversity than a series of small areas connected with corridors. Isolated small areas would perform even more poorly. Because of edge effects and potential for species to become isolated, large, cohesive reserves with big buffers from developed areas are key to successful conservation efforts.

Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Panthera onca (Jaguar) – largest cat in the western hemisphere and a near threatened species.

“That’s a classic theory of ecology, that we need to build these corridors [connecting preserved land] because otherwise we end up with these islands of forests that we might protect but are not suitable to sustain these animals,” Ahumada said. “They’re not suitable to function properly as they usually do when they’re connected with more forest.”

Volcan Barva, Costa Rica. Leopardus pardalis (Ocelot).

Parks and reserves are usually designed to be as efficient and sustainable as possible, but there has yet to be a study performed at this scale that can compare real-world data across numerous sites to more convincingly show how successful current efforts are. Plus, even if conservationists know what’s best, they still have to convince politicians to save natural habitats from competing interests. Armed with better data, and a little luck, conservationists should be able to make better cases for increased preservation of wild land.

Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania. Loxodonta africana (African elephant).

“Otherwise you’re operating in the blind,” Ahumada said. You can set up a reserve and you can think that reserve is working, but unless you have information about what’s happening in there, you won’t be able to know if your conservation strategy is effective. We badly need this kind of information. We badly need to bring science into this picture to help us inform conservation [efforts] and help us preserve these species and communities."

All images courtesy of the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring Network

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