Monthly

Achievement Report 30th April 2012 Ecuador - Amazon Hub Case study: Camera Trapping Success In 2011, the GVI Amazon team of staff and volunteers laboriously undertook a sand-padding project to better know what mammals the Yachana Reserve held. Over a period of months they lugged sand over challenging terrain, laid it out, sheltered it as best they could from the vast quantities of rain experienced in the rainforest and noted the footprints left by the forests most elusive animals. This method proved to be tricky and inefficient in such a climate, and it was clear that in order to properly monitor the Reserve, camera traps were needed. Once arrived, GVI Amazons first set of camera traps were put out with bait such as cologne at points of interest within the Reserve, with varying success. It was with the start of the new year, however, that things turned around. News reached the staff that the government was planning to tarmac the rocky, dirt road through the Reserve. This caused much concern as the affects of the associated destruction, chemical run-off and increased noise and light pollution could be huge. It was thus decided that if the resurfacing of the road could not be stopped then data for a before and after comparison should be gathered as evidence to deter the development of similar projects in the future. Such data had previously been collected for a multi-taxa study on edge effects that is currently being edited for publication. However, due to the fact that the camera traps were a new survey technique for GVI Amazon, there was no data for mammals. Volunteers and staff alike enjoyed devising the methodology and learning how to use the traps. Previous studies show that mammals frequently use man-made paths and that camera-trap studies such as ours were most successful when the cameras were placed along these paths. As such, five traps at a time were set up at different distances from the road along the previously established access trails. The results since then have been very pleasing; five transects - approximately 4200 camera trap hours have been completed; two traps have caught ocelots (Leopardus pardalis) on film; the database now has some good-quality pictures of nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus), Black Agouti (Dasyprocta fuliginosa) and pacas (Cuniculus paca); and a species new to the Yachana Reserve Species List the Crab-eating Raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) has been captured on camera three times. Nevertheless, despite such results, there have been hitches along the way. The cameras, though waterproof, do not seem to be surviving the harsh humidity to which many of our electronics have succumbed. Data collection is currently paused as we try to fix a few of them and in the mean time we are moving in a new direction. Currently, for the remaining cameras, canopy camera bait traps are being constructed and all involved are excited about the potential results.

 Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) captured 300m from road.

Photo not part of study. Crab-eating Raccoon (Procyon cancrivorus) also found at 100m from the road.