Pictures in the night: the art of camera trapping

Something was eating the sausage tree’s fallen leaves at night time, but I wasn’t game to stick my head out of the roof top tent to find out what it was.

It was probably a buffalo, my wife, Nicola, suggested the next morning, seeing the now leaf-free hard-packed dirt of our campsite at Nyamepi on the edge of the Zambezi River at Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe.

All I could hear at night was a snorting, hoovering noise as whatever it was sucked the leaves from the ground. It was, I knew, a job for my new trail camera. I strapped the camera to the bumper bar of my Land Rover just before retiring to the relative safety of the tent and drifted off to sleep.

During the night the Landy shook – something big had brushed us. I wondered if it was an elephant vacuuming the leaves. The next morning the camera revealed all. It was a hippo, using its massive mouth to virtually inhale the individual leaves, and he’d carelessly bumped into our truck during his feeding frenzy.

Reading an article in Getaway a while ago about leopard researchers in the Cape (read: leopards in the Gamkaberg) I was intrigued to learn more about their use of camera traps – automatically activated cameras used to take pictures of game by day and night. I thought one of these might be fun to try out. Camera traps, also known as trail cameras and trophy cameras, use passive infrared sensors to capture digital still and video imagery. The sensors work the same as a house alarm or security lighting, and are triggered by movement.

Researching the cameras in stores in South Africa and online I found the one that suited me best in terms of function and price was available online, from China. As Nicola and I live in Australia we had access to a greater range of cameras than was currently available in South Africa, where the market tends to be dominated by Tasco and Bushnell cameras.

The model I went for was a Ltl Acorn 5210A with a 940nM illuminator. No, I don’t know what all that means, but the camera can take pictures of up to 12 megabytes each, and the infrared illuminator, which is similar to a camera’s flash, is invisible to the human eye.

Trying it out in the African bush on the edge of Kruger was great fun and produced good results in the first few days. Within a couple of weeks we had captured pictures and video of bushbuck, kudu and zebra by day and, most rewarding of all, a leopard and numerous hyena by night.

Leopard on a wildlife estate near Kruger

How to set up a camera trap

I’ve found that camera-trapping works best when sighted close (about three metres away) to well-used game trails. The camera’s range by day is up to about 20 metres, but at night the illuminator projects to only about five metres.

It’s best to set the camera up facing obliquely along a game trail so that the camera has time to register an animal’s movement, then snap a picture or take a video. If placed too close to the trail, at 90 degrees, the subject may move out of the frame before the camera has time to activate.

My camera can be set to take still pictures only, or a combination of stills and short videos. It has an 8 Gigabyte memory card (essential, especially if you wish to record video) and runs on eight AA batteries. The manufacturers claim these will last for six months.

Bushbuck caught on camera in the early morning

I tend to only set my camera at night, using a strap to fix it to a tree, as I’m concerned baboons will try to steal it during the day. Most cameras on the market can also be mounted in specially-made metal security boxes which, in turn, can be securely fastened to a wall or post.

Newer versions of the Ltl Acorn are fitted with a cell phone sim card and antenna and can be programmed to MMS pictures to the owner’s phone – perfect for that wildlife ‘fix’ if you don’t live in the bush full time, but have somewhere relatively safe (out of reach or hidden from hyenas and people) to leave your camera!

Need a place to stay? Click here to find accommodation near Kruger with Getaway Accommodation.

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