On February 17, 2011 a remote camera meeting was hosted in Calgary, Alberta by
Parks Canada and the Miistakis Institute. Participants included researchers who
use remote cameras for research and monitoring purposes, and included representatives
from provincial and federal government agencies, academia, and non-governmental
organizations. A total of 37 people from Alberta, British Columbia and Montana
attended the daylong meeting.
The impetus for organizing the meeting was we realized that many of us had
been using remote cameras for some time to try out the technology, but there
hadn't been much information sharing. The organizing committee thought it would
be timely to bring people from the region together to share what we've learned
- our challenges and successes - and try to stimulate more scientifically defensible/rigorous
use of remote cameras for research and monitoring.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss topics related to utilizing remote
cameras for monitoring wildlife and humans in natural settings. Specific questions
and topics addressed included:
1) For what monitoring/research purposes are people using cameras?
2) What are the data collection challenges associated with using remote cameras
and what are some recommendations to address these challenges?
3) What advances have been made in image recognition and data management software?
How can databases be best structured?
4) What are the legal aspects associated with using remote cameras that take
images of humans in natural environments (specifically on public lands)?
5) What are the statistical limitations and challenges associated with using
data derived from remote cameras? What study design(s) should be used?
6) Establishing protocols - can we use cameras as a long-term monitoring protocol?
The meeting included many productive discussions on the outlined questions
and topics.
Additionally, further questions were raised which provide potential fodder for
future research and a future remote camera meeting. Some of these questions
include:
*How to treat missing data from camera theft or failure and what are
the implications for detectability;
*How to deal with human use data that is extraneous;
*How to best design camera projects in light of research questions;
*How to design camera traps for target vs. multiple species; and
*How to design camera projects to provide useful information for land
managers.
Click here
for a copy of the meeting summary.
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