Camera traps, devices used to capture wild animals using motion sensors, are saving animals from game hunters and spotting rare animals in the process.
In Togo, a country in West Africa, researchers were able to see images of Walter’s duiker, a small species of African antelope, for the first time in the wild, according to Gizmodo.
Rare species of aardvark and mongoose have also been discovered roaming nature in Togo using camera traps.
“Camera traps are a game changer when it comes to biodiversity field research,” Oxford University wildlife biologist Neil D’Cruze told Gizmodo. “I spent weeks exploring it in tropical forests apparently devoid of any species of large mammal. However, when you turn on your laptop and insert the memory card of camera traps that have been there patiently throughout the trip – and see species that have been with you all the time – it’s like having a glimpse of a parallel world. “
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For game hunters, who specialize in collecting wild animals in rural communities, their services, considered illegal and unsustainable overhunting, are no longer necessary for biologists to collect information. Some game hunters would kill rare animals to sell their rare carcasses to the market.
Walter’s duiker was discovered in 2010 when bushmeat specimens were compared to other known duiker specimens. However, recent images of Walter’s duiker are the first that scientists have ever seen. Few and far between, some rare species are not on the endangered list because the International Union for the Conservation of Nature classifies them as “data deficient”.
The Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, a Department of Zoology at Oxford University in England, also known as WildCRU, is trying to make a difference.
“This graceful antelope has, over the past 200 years, shown a great talent for avoiding scientists, but it has proved tragically less skilled at avoiding nets, traps and hunting dogs,” said Oxford University zoologist David Macdonald. “Tracing their whereabouts in the game meat markets is almost analogous to tracing the habits of deer in the UK, mapping their occurrence on butcher’s slabs.”
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