Photo Credit: )1999 Jacalyn Willis
Photo Credit: )1999 Jacalyn Willis
Photo Credit: )1999 Jacalyn Willis
| One way to find out what mammals are passing through an area is to set up a camera that automatically takes their photos. These three photos show Greg and Jackie preparing and placing the cameras in locations where they have seen mammals or tracks of mammals. These cameras are made by the TrailMaster Company (see their website for more information). |
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The cameras are connected to a device that
senses infra-red light. The sensor receives a beam of infra-red from
another device that produces a beam. The two devices are set so that an
animal will pass through the beam and interrupt it. Animals cannot see
the beam, nor can we. The beam of light causes an electric circuit to be
completed. |
| When the beam is interrupted, the circuit is broken, and the camera is triggered to take a picture. The camera automatically winds, the film is ready for another photo. This infra-red mechanism is something like the system that opens automatic doors in supermarkets. Can you locate a beam in your supermarket doorway? |
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The following photos are pictures that the animals took of themselves, when our cameras sensed their presence. Some mammals were moving around at night, and they must have been startled when the camera flash went off! But some animals kept coming back, so they couldn't have been very frightened.
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Brocket Deer |
Paca - A large rodent |
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This is an ocelot. |
Common Opossum |
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Coatimundi |
Agouti |
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"Royal Blue", a male squirrel was caught in a trap that Greg
carried carefully out of the forest and into the laboratory. Royal Blue
was anesthetized with a gas until he was groggy. Then we took him out of
the trap and laid him on a soft fabric cloth. Handling squirrels when they
are asleep means that they do not become distressed and panic and perhaps
hurt themselves struggling. They also don't feel it when we pierce their
ear. And we have a chance to carefully measure and fit the necklace so that
it's not too tight or too loose. |
| This is what Royal Blue looked like when he was being fitted
with his jewelry. He slept peacefully and we weighed him (455 grams) and
checked him for parasites: can you see the tiny tick on the edge of one
ear? |
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This close-up of Royal Blue shows his beads,
his big incisor teeth, and his long whiskers. |
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