Table of Contents
About the editors ix
About the contributors x
Foreword xii
Preface xiv
Acknowledgements xvi
Online resources xvii
1 Introduction Francesco Rovero Fridolin Zimmermann 1
1.1 A brief history of camera trapping 1
1.2 Efficiency of camera trapping and advantages over other wildlife detection methods 3
2 Camera features related to specific ecological applications Francesco Rovero Fridolin Zimmermann 8
2.1 Introduction 8
2.2 Camera trap systems 8
2.3 Camera features to consider when choosing models 10
2.4 Camera performance in relation to study designs 14
2.4.1 Faunal inventories 14
2.4.2 Occupancy studies (species and community-level) 15
2.4.3 Capture-recapture 15
2.4.4 Behavioural studies 16
2.5 Review of currently available camera trap models and comparative performance tests 16
2.6 Limitations and future developments of camera technology 18
3 Field deployment of camera traps Fridolin Zimmermann Francesco Rovero 22
3.1 Pre-field planning 22
3.2 Setting camera traps in the field 25
3.2.1 Site selection and placement 25
3.2.2 Trail settings 25
3.2.3 Checklist of actions to activate the camera trap 30
3.2.4 Checking and retrieving camera traps 30
3.2.5 Checklist of actions when checking and removing the camera trap 31
3.3 After the fieldwork 31
4 Camera trap data management and interoperability Eric Fegraus James MacCarthy 33
4.1 Introduction 33
4.2 Camera trap data 34
4.2.1 Camera trap conceptual components 34
4.3 Managing camera trap data: Wild.ID 35
4.3.1 Setting up a camera trap project 35
4.3.2 Processing camera trap data 37
4.3.3 Retrofitting legacy camera trap data 40
4.3.4 Additional camera trap data management tools 40
4.4 Camera trap data interoperability 41
4.5 Wildlife Insights - the camera trap data network 41
4.6 The future: more repositories, better data management and analytical services 42
5 Presence/absence and species inventory Francesco Rovero Daniel Spitale 43
5.1 Introduction 43
5.2 Raw descriptors: naive occupancy and detection rate as a relative abundance index 44
5.3 Sampling design 46
5.4 Sampling completeness 48
5.5 Case study 49
5.5.1 Raw data format (.CSV file) 49
5.5.2 Importing data in R 50
5.5.3 Deriving sampling effort, events and species' list 55
5.5.4 Naïve occupancy 58
5.5.5 Species accumulation 59
5.5.6 Activity pattern 60
5.5.7 Presentation and interpretation of results 61
5.6 Conclusions 65
6 Species-level occupancy analysis Francesco Rovero Daniel Spitale 68
6.1 Introduction 68
6.2 Theoretical framework and modelling approach 69
6.2.1 Basic single-season model 69
6.2.2 Covariate modeling and assessing model fit 72
6.2.3 Multi-season occupancy models 74
6.3 Sampling design 74
6.4 Survey effort and sampling completeness 76
6.4.1 Deciding the best number of sites and sampling duration 76
6.4.2 Post-hoc discretisation of sampling duration in sampling occasions 78
6.5 Case study 79
6.5.1 Single-season occupancy analysis 79
6.5.2 Multi-season occupancy analysis 87
6.6 Conclusions 92
7 Capture-recapture methods for density estimation Fridolin Zimmermann Danilo Foresti 95
7.1 Introduction 95
7.2 Equipment and field practices 97
7.2.1 Camera traps 97
7.2.2 Focal species and other members of its guild 97
7.2.3 Camera trap sites and camera trap placement 97
7.3 Survey design 100
7.3.1 Season, survey duration and demographic closure 100
7.3.2 Spatial sampling and geographic closure 101
7.4 Case study: tire Eurasian lynx 107
7.4.1 Analytical steps during field work 108
7.4.2 Dates and times in R 113
7.4.3 Analysis with seer 116
7.4.4 Abundance and density estimation in conventional (i.e. non-spatial) capture-recapture models 132
7.5 Conclusions 133
8 Behavioural studies Fridolin Zimmermann Danilo Foresti Francesco Rovero 142
8.1 Introduction 142
8.2 Advantages and disadvantages of camera trapping compared to other technologies used to study animal behaviour 142
5.3 Application of camera trapping in behavioural studies 145
8.3 The importance of choosing the site in relation to a variety of study aims 145
8.5 Diel activity pattern and activity pattern overlap between species 146
8.5.1 Definition and assumptions of the activity level measured by means of camera traps 147
8.5.2 Overlap between pairs of activity patterns 148
8.6 Case studies 149
8.6.1 Marking behaviour studies in Eurasian lynx and brown bear 149
8.6.2 Comparison of activity patterns 153
8.7 Conclusions 162
9 Community-level occupancy analysis Simone Tenan 168
9.1 Introduction 168
9.2 Measuring biodiversity while accounting for imperfect detection 169
9.3 Static (or single-season) multi-species occupancy models 170
9.3.1 Case study 173
9.4 Dynamic (or multi-season) multi-species occupancy models 178
9.4.1 Case study 180
9.5 Conclusions 192
10 Camera trapping as a monitoring tool at national and global levels Jorge A. Ahumada Timothy G. O'Brien Badru Mugerwa Johanna Hurtado 196
10.1 Introduction 196
10.2 A national monitoring system for wildlife: from idea to a functioning system 199
10.2.1 A global model for national monitoring: The TEAM Camera Trap Network 200
10.2.2 Goals and targets of a national monitoring system for wildlife 201
10.2.3 Design of a national monitoring system 202
10.2.4 Implementation 205
10.2.5 Cost components 210
10.3 How a wildlife monitoring system can improve protected area effectiveness: examples from the TEAM Network 213
10.3.1 African golden cats in Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Uganda 214
10.3.2 Effects of hunting at the Volcán Barva transect, Costa Rica 215
10.4 Conclusions 216
11 Camera traps and public engagement Paul Meek Fridolin Zimmermann 219
11.1 Introduction 219
11.2 Principles in citizen science 220
11.2.1 Categories of public participation in scientific research 220
11.2.2 General approaches to programme development 220
11.3 Citizen science research process with a special focus on camera trapping studies 221
11.3.1 Data collection and identification 221
11.3.2 Data management and cyber-infrastructure 222
11.4 Examples of camera trap citizen science projects 222
11.5 What is the future of citizen science camera trapping? 225
11.5.1 Training 226
11.5.2 Data integrity 227
11.5.3 Motivation, engagement and retention in citizen science 228
11.5.4 Cultural sensitivity and privacy 229
11.5.5 Technology and e-innovations in camera trapping 230
11.6 Conclusions 231
Appendices 237
Glossary 273
Index 279
