Camera traps

Thursday 29th October 2020

Today we worked on mammal surveys. We had three tasks. The first one was to set the cameras in the woods opposite the University. Our groups set two cameras - I wanted to take a photo of the camera - only afterwards I realised that I would have triggered it - so there is definitely a photo of me on the camera! They can be set up in different ways - we set it up to take 20 second videos if the camera detected any movement. Our second task was to review the footage from a previous camera trap - mouse, squirrel, roe deer, mouse , mouse, mouse, fox, roe deer, roe deer, mouse, mouse, weasel. We thought of giving the mouse a name at the end of it all. On one night there was a spiders web which caught the light - that meant the camera triggered every 20 seconds all night - we skipped about 750 photos! Not infallible but great tools to see what mammals are about. Lastly we did a deer survey - really interesting - looking for signs of deer - not the best time of year as the fallen leaves cover most of the tracks. But we did manage to find tracks, fraying, stripping and an actual deer! Fantastic day - loved it.