Greta and Alan bring up an interesting set of points here. So I will follow up with my question on this topic. I am running both tomahawk traps and camera traps in the same area, mostly for raccoons and opossums. I want to mark the raccoons and possums I catch with a tag that will clearly show up on the cameras, even at night. Has anyone else done this? What tags have worked well?
Dr. Russell Burke Professor Department of Biology Hofstra University 516.463.5521 The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces. ALeopold. -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Alan Eduardo de Barros Sent: Thursday, February 24, 2011 9:20 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Using game cameras to estimate population densities of small mammals Dear Greta, You need be able to identify individuals. With large mammals, usually with cats, this is generally based on strips or dots fur patterns. In general two cameras are used to get pictures from both sides of an individual. Since with small mammalls fur patterns may be homogeneus I believe that you would have to catch them at least once and come up with some visible marker which could rest for all the study period. Since you would need investments on traps anyway I am not sure if it would be an advantage to invest on cameras as well, rather than run a traditional recapture with traps. But if funds are available the use of cameras could be possible. I would borrow some and run a trial experiment first if possible. All the best, Alan 2011/2/23 Greta Gramig <greta.gra...@ndsu.edu> > Hello Dear Friends, > > I've been conducting some studies regarding post-dispersal seed predation > in > agricultural systems. I've used game cameras set up at my experimental seed > feeding arenas to capture images of the animals that visit these arenas. So > far, my interest has mainly been in documenting what kinds of animals are > feeding on the seeds. > > I'd like to use this technology in a study that will look at trophic > perturbations caused by large seed subsidies in natural systems. In this > instance, I'd probably want to assess the population density of various > species of animals that consume seeds. > > I've read papers where "camera traps" were used to collect data for mark > and > recapture estimates of population density for large mammals. But I can't > quite see how I would use this method for small mammmals. Does anyone out > there have any experience with this sort of thing? > > Many thanks, > > Greta Gramig >
