By Ekaterina Igorievna Nikolaeva, Wildlife Data Specialist, ANO WCS
Every spring, at the end of the camera trapping season, we return to the forest to retrieve our cameras. For us, this is a time of both great anticipation and, at times, bitter regret. When we approach the locations of our camera traps, we look closely: is it still there? Has it fallen, or has it been stolen?
When we see a hole in a tree instead of a camera, we always hope that it was not stolen, that maybe it just fell to the ground. Sometimes this happens, but for a surprising reason: curious bears (both brown bears and Asiatic black bears), for some reason, really dislike our cameras in the forest, so they try to rip them off the tree and throw them on the ground. Reviewing the photos from this camera trap, there is a close-up picture of the muzzle, eye, or nose of a bear. Hopefully, he leaves the camera trap right under the tree, and it can be quickly found. But sometimes the bear carries the camera away or tosses it down the slope. Then the camera trap is very difficult, if not impossible, to find.
But that’s not all! Sometimes when we find a camera on the ground, there is a hole in it! Angry woodpeckers can peck a hole right through the Fresnel lens (part of the system that allows cameras to detect movement and therefore capture an image). It’s not clear why woodpeckers like to do this so much!
