Researchers stunned after trail cameras capture elusive big cats in rare habitat: 'This is an incredibly hopeful moment'
The cameras were placed as part of the Landmark Foundation's Leopard Conservation Project in De Hoop Nature Reserve with support from the Morukuru Goodwill Foundation. The 30 "traps" took 4,223 photographs during 50 days. Two photos of African leopards were among the most exciting images captured, per the Herald's reporting.
"This is an incredibly hopeful moment," Morukuru Family co-founder Ed Zeeman said in a May news release from the family. "To confirm the presence of not one, but two leopards, is a testament to the power of patient, long-term conservation work."
Other images include baboons, Cape grysboks, and honey badgers. The leopards are considered to be one of "nature's best-kept secrets," according to the experts.
"This is exactly the kind of data we hoped to uncover," the Foundation's general manager, Bool Smuts, said in the release.
Leopards are considered "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. The species is listed as extinct in a long list of countries, including Cambodia and Israel.
Trail cameras are great tools for capturing hard-to-spot creatures to confirm their existence and health. Sometimes, though, a hard-to-classify animal is photographed, puzzling experts.
Alaskan outdoors officials have used cameras to monitor wolf health. Documenting their numbers and activities as they feast on carcasses can provide valuable insight, according to the state's Fish and Game Department. And the University of Minnesota said that predators are crucial parts of the environment, keeping certain prey species from becoming overpopulated, creating an unbalance.
"For example, wolves can prevent beavers from damming streams and creating ponds that turn forests into wetlands," according to the university report.
It's part of the specific role each critter plays, impacting our food system. Bees and other insects pollinate three-quarters of crops that fill our tables, Our World in Data noted. Fruits, cocoa, and coffee beans are among foods that rely on pollinators to some degree. Certain butterfly and bumblebee counts in 17 countries dropped by 25% since 1991, partly due to deforestation, pesticide use, and other human actions. Other populations remain stable, but the impact is troubling, the report continued.
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You can help to keep tabs on the creatures in your environment, too. Trail cameras cost less than $40. You might be surprised by what is passing through your backyard at night. The National Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count is a great way to help track population health, simply by documenting what you see at feeders from your kitchen window.
Taking a walk to observe birds has other benefits, as well.
"It heightens the senses up again. It kind of refreshes your instincts," veterinarian Scott Bastian, a bird expert from Southwestern Pennsylvania, said in a story by the Daily American about a count from 2019.
You could even incorporate birdwatching into a routine daily trip. By walking and watching, instead of driving, you will prevent heat-trapping tailpipe exhaust that harms humans and animals alike. A gas car spews thousands of pounds of planet-warming fumes each year, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
It will be interesting to see what creatures are captured next by the growing number of forest-watching cameras being deployed.
"Camera traps offer a non-intrusive way to monitor rare and wide ranging species like leopards," Smuts said in the Herald's report.
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