Charli De Vos, the Research Technician and Ecologist at Phinda, is responsible for the camera trap survey. The survey is done over two consecutive periods of 45 days each - the first period takes place in the north of the Munywana Conservancy and the second in the south, documenting 90 days in total.
ACE volunteers supported Charli in setting up the camera traps and the collection of the camera SD cards. This is a lot of work as there are 208 cameras in total! Two cameras are present at each site, meaning 104 locations. This is so the team can view the animal from both sides, which is crucial for developing animal ID kits, especially if the animals have different markings on each side (such as the spotted coats on leopards and servals). This is because the markings are unique to each animal and act as a ‘fingerprint’ to help identify them. Phinda then use a program called African Carnivore Wildbooks to build these ID kits and with 208 cameras it means that, on average, each camera trap survey produces 120,000 images!
