To Protect the World's Largest Cat, Camera Traps Are Deployed in Russia
If you've ever done any field research, or gone hunting, or even hiked, you know that it takes a whole lot of waiting around to ever see any cool animals in the wild. Unfortunately for researchers, going to the zoo isn't a valid substitute, which is...
A camera trap catches trespassers in a Russian tiger reserve, via ZSL
If you’ve ever done any field research, or gone hunting, or even hiked, you know that it takes a whole lot of waiting around to ever see any cool animals in the wild. Unfortunately for researchers, going to the zoo isn’t a valid substitute, which is why camera traps are so key to recording diversity of hard-to-find species. But, as new work from the Zoological Society of London shows, camera traps can also be used to catch humans.
A ZSL field worker sets up a camera trap, via Monga Bay
ZSL’s new Forest Eyes project aims to 30 camera traps around Lazovsky Nature Reserve and Zov Tigra National Park in far east Russia, which is home to the extremely rare Siberian, or Amur, tiger, which is the largest cat on Earth. (This WWF map shows Zov Tigra’s location, I roughly dropped where it is on this map so you can see where it is in relation to the rest of Russia. It’s way, way east.) The two parks are separated by about ten miles of public land, which means people can easily intrude on the tiger reserves, and at worst, poach them.
The total population of Siberian tigers stands at between 300 and 400, and in the last year there has been three seizures of poached tigers in the Zov Tigra – Lazovsky corridor. Heavy conservation efforts have kept the population relatively stable, but poaching is a lot more difficult to combat than other threats, like habitat loss.
"The images from camera traps set up for humans will better inform us of any illegal activity in protected areas, so inspectors can be notified and patrols changed accordingly," ZSL tiger conservationist Linda Kerley said in a release. "We will be able to monitor the area more effectively and ensure we are doing all we can to try and change people's attitudes and behaviours towards poaching."With such a small population, and with tiger bones so ridiculously valuable, poaching is a huge threat. There comes a point where there are so few individuals that first, you have to worry about breeding adults becoming isolated from others, and there are long-term issues with a shrunken gene pool. Right now it seems that the Siberian tigers are in okay shape, but with numbers so low, the poaching of a single individual puts the whole subspecies closer to extinction.Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @derektmead.
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