Poachers are caught by £300,000 wildlife cameras

Caught ... poacher is snapped by researchers' camera

Wildlife Conservation Society as part of the TEAM Network Partnership

• 

• 

• 

M25 killer’s boy nicked for looting

A STEPSON of M25 road rage murderer Kenneth Noye is held as a suspected looter

• Face of Jersey slayings suspect
• How not to raise your daughter
• Secret life of dad shot by the police

• More

1. David has his hands full on holiday
2. ‘Sexy’ pics at 12, pregnant at 15 ...and her proud mum’s delighted
3. Scooter looters
4. Hustler has got nothing to hide
5. Karen Gillan is nearly nude at Doc Who bash

BY DAN SALES

Published: Today

Add a comment (1)

WILDLIFE conservationists who secretly photographed animal habitats in a £300,000 project were stunned to find that hundreds of poachers and tourists had wandered into their pictures.

Researchers hoping to see how animals coped with losing their natural homes took 52,000 images that showed more than 100 species — including a 26g Linnaeus's mouse opossum and a 620st African elephant
But Conservation International's 420 cameras — connected to traps sensing movement — also captured hundreds of unwitting humans at seven sites across the globe.
They are Uganda, Tanzania, Indonesia, Laos, Suriname, Brazil and Costa Rica.
Dr Jorge Ahumada, ecologist with the Tropical Ecology Assessment Monitoring network, said the shots confirmed the group's theories.
He said: "We knew there were cameras where there were some poachers but there were some that came up that we weren't really expecting.

Snapped ... another poacher on film

Courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society, a member of the TEAM network

"Out of all the pictures there were probably hundreds featuring poachers and tourists.
"The project is going to carry on and we have now got 16 sites.
"What we discover can tell us whether we are being successful with conservation or not.

Hidden trigger ... staff carefully set up one of the camera traps

Johanna Hurtado /

"Some mammals seem more vulnerable to habitat loss than others: insect-eating mammals like anteaters, armadillos and some primates are the first to disappear while other groups, like herbivores, seem to be less sensitive."
The survey shows continuous forests and larger protected areas had higher numbers of mammal species than areas where the habitat was broken up.

Roar footage ... beast with camera in background

Courtesy of Organization for Tropical Studies, a member of the TEAM network

Dr Ahumada added: "We hope that these data contribute to a better management of protected areas and conservation of mammals worldwide.
"We'd like to see a more widespread use of standardised camera trapping studies to monitor these critically important animals."