Camera Trapping |
Amherst, MAWe have around 40 cameras located throughout the UMass Amherst campus and the surrounding town of Amherst. The cameras are found in a variety of habitat types, like forests and wetlands, to capture as much biodiversity as possible. If you stumble across a camera, you will notice that they are pointed toward open areas that animals would be captured without much interference.
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The Camera Traps
In 2016 we started to use camera traps as a noninvasive sampling technique for studying the wildlife here in Amherst. It enables the collection of population data without directly handling the animals and with minimal effort on the researcher's end. Data collected are diversity of species present, locations of high movement, species interactions, and sometimes relative abundance. Our traps are not baited.
Once the cameras are deployed, they are left out in the field for several months at a time, without intervention. During each semester at UMass, students in Professor Klingler's classes have to go out to each of the cameras for check-ups. This involves retrieving the photographs taken, changing the batteries, and making sure the camera is still working properly. If you have any questions about camera trapping, here are some useful links: |
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Our project has recently shifted in the method we use to process data. Previously, all photographs were located on a central hard drive and animals in the images were manually identified by students and volunteers. Now, our photographs are part of Wildlife Insights.
Wildlife Insights uses AI technology identify animals in photographs all the way down to species. The software is still new, so students still have to complete processing hours in their classes at UMass. Now it focuses more on improving and training the ability of the AI to detect and identify animals in the frame. Here is a link to our Wildlife Insights page where you can see more about our data: |