Aug 3, 2016
Scientists have used hidden cameras to study and explore as long as we've had them. Today's camera trap equipment lets professionals and Citizen Scientists in on the hidden habits of critters that are often so shy - especially mammal predators - that they're impossible to simply see. SNAP! These gizmos provide an "Animal Selfie" view of nature!
Earthworms' guest Roland Kays has compiled pix
from the files of camera trappers world-wide into the first book
ever showing their best views of rare, endangered and also
healthy species. Candid Creatures - How Camera
Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature (2016, Johns Hopkins
University Press) presents selections from millions of
possible photos. We get to see individual species AND an
exciting, important report of camera-trapping conservation
research.
You can participate in this vivid, accessible biodiversity
work! Kays is collaborating with the Smithsonian as leader
of the eMammal project,
a volunteer effort to study the effects of hunting and hiking
on wildlife. Citizen Science recruitment is on, for adults,
families, teachers and students. Camera-trapping equipment is
so common now, Wal-Mart sells it.
Let Earthworms know if you get involved!
Roland
Kays heads the Biodiversity and Earth Observation
Laboratory at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and is
a research associate professor at North Carolina State University.
He is also the author of Mammals of North America, a field guide
that has become a smart phone app.
Music: Dirty Slide by Brian Curran - performed
live at KDHX-St. Louis, December 2015.