Determined not to disturb wildlife, researchers in Uganda are using a technology that dates back to 1906.
In 2023, a study made headlines of how wild animals fear human voices more than the roar of wild predators. The researchers found that wild animals are twice as likely to run away if they hear the sound of people talking.
But understanding these animals is vital for research in conservation and biodiversity. So how do we gather important data without disturbing their peace?
Uganda has embraced technology to confront this question and at the forefront lies a powerful ally: camera traps.
These cameras, which are triggered by nearby motion, trace their roots back to 1906 when the National Geographic Magazine featured George Shiras’ captivating night wildlife photographs. These images, known for their candid animal behavior, marked a significant milestone in wildlife photography and laid the groundwork for modern conservation efforts.
Shiras, born in Pennsylvania in 1859, would become an advocate for camera hunting, with a passion for photographing wildlife and a commitment to protecting the wild.
According to National Geographic, he “mimicked a hunting technique he learned from the Ojibwa tribe called jacklighting, when fire is placed in a pan at the front of a canoe and the hunter sits in the bow of the boat.”
This technique allowed Shiras to photograph the animal standing still, as their attention was caught by the flames.
An expanded purpose
The evolution of wildlife night photography comes not only with improved technology but also with an expanded purpose. While still used for capturing the beauty of the unknown, today, wildlife researchers globally are also using camera trapping to monitor populations.
Bosco Atukwatse, Field Coordinator at Volcanoes Safaris Partnership Trust (VSPT) in Uganda, said that camera trapping is “particularly focusing on animals with unique identifiable features.”
Consider leopards, hyenas, zebras and giraffes. The patterns and stripes of these creatures have a unique arrangement on each animal within a species, akin to a human’s fingerprint.
According to Atukwatse, the camera traps first capture the images of the different animals and then formulas are used by researchers to analyze the animals’ unique features.
“We analyze these data sets in a Bayesian model, where we come up with parameters of operation, such as operation densities. We then detect the movements of animals, determine their home range and finally narrow it down to numbers,” Atukwatse said.
Understanding healthy and unhealthy populations
The idea started off Dr. Alexander Braczkowski and Uganda Wildlife Authority’s nationwide carnivore census across the country’s parks in 2018, to bolster the monitoring of carnivores in Queen Elizabeth National Park and across the country.
The results could be explained this way:
“One, the lion numbers were not so bad. But we saw an unhealthy population — a healthy population is where you have a good number of females of a certain species compared to the number of males,” said Atukwatse.
“So for lions, we have a sex ratio of 2.9 males to one female. That is a skewed sex ratio, meaning it is two, or let’s say two and a half males per female. It is supposed to be the vice versa.”
The camera traps helped Atukwatse’s team to discover that there is a chance people are seeing the same lions on a daily basis.
“After spotting a lion while driving in a truck, you may return the next day and observe another lion in the same location. However, you are unsure if it’s the same lion or a different one,” he said.
Thanks to the lions’ unique whisker spots, now the team is looking at capturing this data to identify the king of the jungle’s home range.
The same goes for leopards. The findings in Queen Elizabeth National Park have revealed there are only two leopards per 100 square kilometers, indicating a potentially unhealthy population density.
According to Atukwatse, the leopards were monitored “by determining how many individual leopards were captured on camera traps and how frequent an individual leopard was captured.”
“Additionally, we track how many times the same leopard appears on different camera traps and calculate the distance covered, which helps us understand the leopard’s moving ability.”
Conflict between farmers and wildlife
A couple of factors can explain the numbers above, Atukwatse said.
“There’s a notable movement of male lions crossing between Congo and Uganda. The frequent movement of lions across borders poses risks as the porous borders become vulnerable points for poachers who set snares, leading to lions getting trapped,” he said.
“These regions not only attract poachers but also witness cows grazing within the park boundaries. Lions, known for their opportunistic hunting behavior, are naturally drawn to easy prey like cows. This often leads to conflicts when farmers discover their livestock has been attacked. In retaliation, they set traps or poison the carcasses.”
And when these lions return for more, it is poison they are consuming.
Despite these challenges and others such as the tragic incident in 2021 where six lions, over 40 vultures and an unreported number of hyenas were poisoned and mutilated in Queen Elizabeth National Park, conservationists remain committed to implementing mitigation strategies.
Other technology is used to track lions, including an online system that receives signals from radio collars attached to them. Although this system provides valuable data on their movements, it’s crucial to supplement this with physical checks to ensure the lions’ wellbeing.
“Recently, we encountered a lion entangled in a poacher’s rope,” Atukwatse said. “And if we had delayed a bit, that leg would be chopped off — actually, we have a couple of casualties in the park which are missing a leg.”
Deterring revenge kills through compensation
To deter retaliatory killings of wildlife, a compensation program is being implemented through a partnership with Uganda Carnivore Program, another NGO operating in the northern region of Queen Elizabeth.
“Additionally, Uganda Wildlife Authority has allocated 20% of park entrance collections to fund this scheme,” Atukwatse said.
This means that when an animal injures or kills livestock belonging to community members, they receive compensation. This approach helps deter retaliatory killings and promotes coexistence between humans and wildlife. Though Atukwatse, to some extent, thinks this compensation idea seems “theoretical”.
On site, the veterinary department will ensure that carcasses are promptly removed from the point of attack, to avoid tempting lions with more food, but also denying the locals a chance at using the carcasses as bait in retaliation.
Capturing other forms of movement
Atukwatse said they have some photos and videos of poachers running with fish, water and dogs in the parks.
“So they expose everything, because one thing is these cameras are quite camouflaged. You can actually place them somewhere in a thicket, someone will just pass without noticing,” Atukwatse said.
When poachers are captured on video, footage is shared with authorities and an ambush is laid.
“Of course these camera traps won’t segregate on what to capture. They will always capture whatever passes there. So that is also important in a way that there’s a likelihood of even finding what other people haven’t ever seen. I mean a new species or a very rare species or a critically endangered species,” Atukwatse said.
In fact, these same camera traps have recently captured the first-ever recorded pangolin in the park. Pangolins are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
“You see, now it adds value to the conservation status for pangolins in the country. We tried to reach out to specialists in pangolin conservation and they gave us ideas on how we should run this if we could actually set more camera traps, so that we could try and see if we could capture some of them with babies or spot one in danger for rescue, because they’re also not excluded from being trapped by wire snares,” Atukwatse said.
Capturing the unknown
The team anticipates capturing previously unseen nocturnal wildlife — thanks to the thermo and motion sensors on the cameras — unveiling hidden treasures yet to be witnessed by human eyes.
“You know, there are a lot of moments that happen at night in the wild field, as compared to those that we are able to see with our eyes,” Atukwatse said.
“So these camera traps, which are motion sensors, will always capture, as we are there to see and share with the world.”
Esme Stewart, Project Assistant at Volcanoes Safaris, said the pangolin was an amazing discovery.
“It’s a very rare sighting by the camera traps. But also on a regular basis, we see the chimpanzees in the gorge. We see videos of them. We see monkeys and different other primate species. Even hippopotamus have been sighted on it. So it’s not just showing kind of amazing first sightings, but also what’s happening on a daily basis,” Stewart said.
To this, we joked: “The man behind the camera traps suffers from breathtaking views!”
Keeping privacy in mind
But while he enjoys the view, does the anticipation of capturing unseen wildlife through camera trapping pose a risk to human privacy, considering the presence of nearby villages, grazing activities and local communities engaging in daily tasks like gathering firewood or cutting grass for thatching their houses within Queen Elizabeth National Park?
Last year, Mongabay published a similar story: When wildlife surveillance tech ‘watches’ people. It reported that in 2017, a camera near Corbett Tiger Reserve in northern India captured an unintended image of a woman. Positioned to monitor passing tigers and elephants, the camera overlooked an area used by villagers lacking toilets. Unaware of the camera, the woman’s private moment became public when the person behind the cameras prided in sharing her pictures on local social media groups.
Ugandan conservationists may be updated on the professional use of camera footage from camera traps, but somehow the locals just need assurance, especially when the same technology is used in areas inhabited by people.
But Atukwatse questions why there should be human privacy in a protected area.
“There shouldn’t be any privacy in the protected area, especially when they are not accompanied by rangers or if they are not authorized,” he said.
Augustine Mudukoi, Project Coordinator at Volcano Safaris agreed.
“We initially had challenges with some movements within the park. People would sneak in from the communities, do their business and march out unchecked. When we started laying camera traps on most of the trails we alerted most of them and, by being aware of what cameras might capture, suspicious movements were reduced,” Mudukoi said.
Andrew Kato, a Volcano Safaris guide, appreciates the role of cameras in his work.
“It has enabled us to capture images and videos of animals that are active during the night or in our absence, such as leopards, pangolins, hyenas, hippos and even shy chimpanzees. These visuals not only inform our guiding experiences but are also utilized by our marketing department to showcase the diverse wildlife found within the park,” he said.
A technology that doesn’t threaten jobs
And it doesn’t look as if the technology will be affecting employment in the park.
“These cameras cannot place themselves in locations. They need monitoring, changing of battery and SD cards,” Mudukoi said.
“One challenge we face is losing cameras to elephants, as they sometimes knock them off trees or drag them through thickets and water bodies, resulting in lost footage,” he said.
Additionally, a recent incident involved the disappearance of SD cards, leading to speculation that certain cameras may have captured images of staff members’ relatives. Consequently, a keeper’s brother had to get rid of such sensitive information.
Ultimately, when used responsibly and with positive intentions, camera traps hold tremendous potential. As the camouflaged tools can be used for research, tourism and marketing purposes without alarming the way of the wildlife.
Three questions to consider:
- Why is it important that we monitor populations of animals such as lions and leopards in national parks like Queen Elizabeth in Uganda?
- Are there other ways we can research animals in the wild without getting physically close to them or disturbing them?
- Do you think it was fair that a woman’s private moment, captured by a camera trap, was shared on social media?
