Tracking wildlife activity in its natural habitat is integral to conservation attempts and has been fundamental to our understanding of animal behaviour.
Technology has made this easier than ever before and CCTV technology such as trail cameras have been at the forefront of this innovation.
In this post we will look at the role of CCTV cameras in monitoring wildlife activity.
What are the benefits of using CCTV to study animals?
Avoid disturbing animals
The key to understanding animal behaviour is to observe species in their natural habitat. A camera man stood 50 metres away would be enough to cause anyone to alter their activities, and animals are no different.
CCTV installed days, weeks, or even months in advance will become just another part of the habitat to nearby animals and won’t make any sudden movements that cause them to flee or become alert.
Save money
Conservationists and animal behaviour researchers simply don’t have the time or money to spend months on end waiting to capture the perfect shot.
With CCTV, they don’t have to. A camera can be installed in a single visit and monitored from anywhere in the world remotely from a mobile phone.
If any problems occur, they can then return to the site and make the changes that are required. CCTV has made many wildlife projects viable that would otherwise have been dismissed due to a lack of funding. These projects has unearthed some wonderful things about the wildlife around us and we have a great amount to thank CCTV for.
Raise Awareness
CCTV style trail cameras have produced stunning footage and images that have spread across the globe and are the basis for some of the most popular wildlife television shows of all time.
By capturing footage that would otherwise never have been seen and showing it to as wide an audience as possible, conservationists have raised a huge amount of awareness on how human activity has affected the natural world and the changes that need to be made.
Of course, we still have a huge distance to go in this regard but there have been positive moves as a result of these findings and many species that may well have gone extinct without action are flourishing once again.
Other Uses for CCTV
Besides wildlife observation, here are all sorts of different uses for CCTV technology.
The first that springs to mind is undoubtedly security. CCTV is a mainstay of the modern security industry with a huge number of different home and business products currently on the market. Alongside traditional fixed CCTV systems mounted on the wall or ceiling or a building, there are now technologies such as mobile Trust Hire CCTV towers that require no mains electricity and can be installed in any location in an instant.
CCTV is also used for planning purposes, monitoring things such as traffic patterns or construction project progress. This then allows those in positions of authority to make more informed decisions based on the footage recorded.