Trap cameras enable scientists to take pictures of elusive, rarely seen animals in the wild, without being there to press the shutter button.  The cameras are placed in the animal's natural habitat and are automatically triggered to take a picture when an animal passes by.  Scientists can be far away and do not need to disturb the animal in order to take its picture.  

During the summer and fall of 2005, the Snow Leopard Trust is supporting and helping to carry out trap camera studies at two sites in the Kyrgyz Republic and a third site in western China.  These will be some of the most extensive trap camera studies of snow leopards conducted to date, and will help refine the techniques for these studies as well as gather a lot of information about snow leopards in the wild. This work is being done in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Quick Links:

• How do trap cameras work?

• What questions about snow leopards can scientists answer with trap cameras?

• How can the knowledge from trap camera studies help save snow leopards?

• What have scientists learned so far from trap cameras?

• What are the next steps in research involving trap cameras?

• How is the Snow Leopard Trust helping with trap camera research?

How do trap cameras work?

 There are two fairly common types of trap cameras.  One type uses active infrared technology.  An emitter placed on one side of a trail sends out a beam of infrared light, which can't be seen by people or snow leopards.  An infrared detector is placed on the other side of the trail, across from the emitter.  When a passing animal breaks the infrared beam, a camera which has been hidden along the trail and focused on the point where the animal will break the light beam takes a picture.  Often, a pair of cameras is used to photograph both sides of the animal.

In the other type of system, known as passive infrared, the camera is linked to a detector that is constantly scanning the surroundings for sources of infrared wavelengths.  Warm-bodied animals give off infrared as the heat from the animal's body radiates out into the environment.  Essentially, passive infrared cameras are rigged to take a picture whenever a moving source of heat is detected within the scanned area. 

The Snow Leopard Trust is using passive infrared trap cameras in its studies.  This technology requires less equipment, is less expensive, and easier to set up and operate.  However, the tradeoff is that you can't predict exactly where the animal will be when the camera is triggered because the passive system scans a broader area than the active system.  The relative merits of both systems will be easier to compare at the conclusion of the Trust’s current study.  

What questions about snow leopards can scientists answer with trap cameras?

The photographs taken by trap cameras enable scientists to identify individual snow leopards by analyzing the patterns of spots and rosettes on their fur.  These patterns are as distinctive to snow leopards (and to a practiced human eye) as individual human faces are to us.

Trap camera studies can also help scientists estimate how many snow leopards are found in an area.  This is done through a statistical method known as "capture-recapture."

Scientists note how many individual snow leopards the camera takes a picture of (or "captures") during a certain period of time--for example, one month.  Then they monitor how many of the same snow leopards the camera also takes a picture of ("recaptures") during the following month.  Computer programs use statistical modeling to convert these pieces of information into an estimate of the total number of snow leopards in the area.

In the past, such studies have yielded good estimates of tiger, jaguar, and common leopard populations, as well as many other species outside the cat family.

One of the goals of the Snow Leopard Trust's trap camera studies in 2005 is to determine the most reliable method for estimating snow leopard population levels.  Population estimates based on the trap camera studies will be compared to estimates based on several other methods.

How can the knowledge from trap camera studies help save snow leopards?

Like other methods for determining snow leopard population levels, the results of trap camera studies can aid in the planning and evaluation of conservation programs.

For example, conservation programs might be focused in an area where there is a particularly high concentration of snow leopards, or where the snow leopard population has recently begun to decline.  An increase in the snow leopard population in the area after a conservation program is started would be an important indication that the program is a success.

The results of the Trust's 2005 trap camera studies will be used in the development of a national Conservation Action Plan for snow leopards in the Kyrgyz Republic.  In addition, the Kyrgyz government is considering increasing the size and making other management changes to the Sary Chat Ertash Reserve, one of the sites of the study, and the study results may also influence these decisions.

What have scientists learned so far from trap cameras?

Previously, trap camera studies of snow leopards have only been carried out in a few small areas in northern India. Rodney Jackson, of the Snow Leopard Conservancy, has used active infrared cameras to estimate the number of snow leopards in Hemis National Park, in the northern Indian state of Ladakh. Snow Leopard Trust researchers have also used passive infrared cameras to study snow leopards in India.  These initial studies suggest that trap cameras are a good method for capturing snow leopard pictures.

What are the next steps in research involving trap cameras?

In the studies being carried out by Snow Leopard Trust researchers in 2005, individual cats will be identified and the capture-recapture statistical method will be used to estimate the population size at three study sites:

• The Sary Chat Ertash Zapovednik (Strictly Protected Area) in the central Tien Shan Mountains of the Kyrgyz Republic. This reserve was established in 1995 specifically to protect the snow leopard and the wild sheep and goats that are the snow leopard's primary large prey.
• The Jangart hunting reserve, in the southeast Kyrgyz Republic near the Chinese border.  For many years, highly restricted access to this area protected the wildlife species that live there.  Recently, guided hunts for wild mountain sheep and goats have been conducted.
• The Tomur Protected Area, which lies in the Chinese Tien Shan Mountains near the Kyrgyz border.  

At each study site, 46 trap cameras will be set out along known or likely snow leopard travel paths.  The cameras will be arranged in pairs--one on either side of a trail--to capture photographs of both sides of the animals, making identification easier.  The studies will run for 6-8 weeks in each location.

How is the Snow Leopard Trust helping with trap camera research?

Kyle McCarthy, a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, is leading the trap camera studies in the Kyrgyz Republic and China.  His work is supported in part by the Snow Leopard Trust Grants Program.  Co-funding comes from the Wildlife Conservation Society of New York. 

In studying the ecology of large carnivores, Kyle McCarthy is following in the footsteps of his father, Snow Leopard Trust Conservation Director Tom McCarthy, who will advise on the studies.

Other key collaborators include Snow Leopard Trust staff in the Kyrgyz Republic; Kubanych Jumabai Uulu, a Kyrgyz graduate student; Prof. Todd Fuller of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; the staff of the Sary Chat Ertash Zapovednik and its senior biologist, Alexander Vereshagin; the Community and Business Forum (CBF), a leading Kyrgyz conservation organization; and Maxim Kulikov, Snow Leopard Project Coordinator for CBF.  In China the project will be conducted by Dr. Ma Ming, of the Xinjiang Conservation Foundation and Dr. Raghu Chundawat, the Snow Leopards Trust’s Regional Science and Conservation Director.