Camera Trap Too

[Fiat Lux]

Well, Josh opened the door...

These were taken using a Moultrie DGS-160, early 2008. This was my first digital cam trap (started with 35mm) and I didn't understand the night photos would be black and white (at 1/5 shutter speed). I'm primarily interested in the night stuff, so the search for a new "system" began.

[Josh]

Wow! You're having great luck with carnivores! I've been getting skunked by the felines. Of course, it's possible that there just aren't any at the sites I'm working...but it seems like good bobcat habitat to me, so I don't get it.

BTW...a fellow North Carolinian! I'm a transfer from Wisconsin, though (and recently, at that).

[Fiat Lux]

Hey Josh,
The truth is... I'm after something I'll probably never capture but, I'm bound to give it my best shot.

I want to capture a mountain lion. (It's a long story, been trying for around sixteen years.)

Welcome to NC!

[Josh]

Are you using any lures or bait in front of your camera sets?

The thin layer of snow/ice around here is killing me right now! Originally, wednesday was supposed to be my day to go out in the field check my cams...then the snow was on the ground and I don't want any tracks leading to my cams and tipping off a potential thief....so I figured it would melt by today. But today, there's still enough snow/ice in the woods to leave a trail of prints in the snow, so I had to grind my teeth and wait. It's supposed to be in the 40s around here all weekend. By Monday everything should be gone and I can check my cameras (I hope)!

[Eric D]

Are you using any lures or bait in front of your camera sets?

The thin layer of snow/ice around here is killing me right now! Originally, wednesday was supposed to be my day to go out in the field check my cams...then the snow was on the ground and I don't want any tracks leading to my cams and tipping off a potential thief....so I figured it would melt by today. But today, there's still enough snow/ice in the woods to leave a trail of prints in the snow, so I had to grind my teeth and wait. It's supposed to be in the 40s around here all weekend. By Monday everything should be gone and I can check my cameras (I hope)!

Are you using any lures or bait in front of your camera sets?...

Lets hope not!

Nice captures, hopefully with out baiting, ....not good for the wildlife!

[Josh]

True "baiting" (putting out piles of corn for deer, etc.) is illegal in many states. Most of the time because of the fear of disease transmission when many animals congregate around a pile of corn or apples, etc..

Putting out scent lures (which attract carnivores to an area to investigate the smell), or a scrap of meat likely has little impact on local wildlife, and is a good tool to employ when conducting an inventory of the species on-site.

[mjs1973]

I'm a transfer from Wisconsin, though (and recently, at that).

Where in WI are you from?

[Josh]

I grew up south of Madison. Then lived along the Mississippi River for about 9 years and then lived closer to Waukesha for a while.

[mjs1973]

I grew up south of Madison. Then lived along the Mississippi River for about 9 years and then lived closer to Waukesha for a while.

Ah. I'm only about 45 minutes south west of Madison.

[Josh]

I know that area of the state pretty well. Conducted research on snakes in the Spring Green area for about three years....not too far from Mineral Point.

[Fiat Lux]

Well...

For the record, I am baiting.

I've been photographing wildlife for a little over thirty years now and started baiting for the nocturnal photography (only) around sixteen to seventeen years ago. I have never heard any mention of any moral or ethical issues concerning baiting. So, any such concerns is news to me.

From the beginning:

I've been in my current position for just shy of fifteen years (caretaker, wildlife management). I was previously employed by USF&W.

While working for the feds one of the duties I was assigned was beaver control. We're talking about trapping and shooting beaver but the manager thought "beaver control" looked better on my time sheet.

Beaver are a big problem in this area. Beaver are responsible for a lot of damage. Beaver burrow into dams and dikes (ponds, lakes, waterfowl impoundments) to construct dens. Beaver plug-up water control structures and storm drains. Beaver build dams across the drainage ditches and creeks, which flood farm fields and timber (agriculture is the biggest industry in this county). I know of one beaver activity related death and I've had a few close calls myself (dams and dikes collapsing while operating equipment).

The reason I mention all of this is because this is when the whole nocturnal photography thing started. The beaver I trapped and shot were weighed, sexed, and then I had to dispose of them. I had designated places around the property for disposal (near the beaver activity but out of view). One day I was disposing of a carcass and noticed something was feeding on one of the beaver carcasses I'd left earlier. Whatever it was would feed on a carcass and then cover the remains with leaves. Was it trying to hide it? What about the scent? There was one thing for sure, it only fed at night.

I have an inquiring mind and I just had to find out what was eating the beaver. I built my first trail/game camera "trap". The trap consisted of a crude and simple wooden box to house the camera (a Nikon FE), a mousetrap attached to the side tripped the shutter, and I used monofiliment fishing line for a tripwire to trip the mousetrap. The trap was only good for one shot a night. I wasted many rolls of film (K64) just to get the one photo when it fired but I couldn't wait to see if I'd gotten anything so it was my own fault. Finally, the mystery carnivore was revealed when I got a butt shot of a bobcat. I was hooked. Then, one night, something else showed-up . The bobcats clearly loved the beaver and routinely returned to the carcasses, but they always fed on the beaver where they found them. That night something had dragged a fourty-five pound beaver about twenty-five yards from the site, fed on it, and then covered it up. Whoa. A bobcat dragging that a beaver that big that far? Not likely. It must be a bigger cat...

I moved here in March of '96 and my new employer had just gone to the expense of rebuilding one of the ponds. The reason... the beaver had burrowed through the damn and drained the pond. The beaver had also jammed-up the riser board structures in the waterfowl impoundments and the impoundment hadn't been drained in years. They made it perfectly clear, my first assignment was to be...beaver control. I believe my experience with beaver control may have been one of the biggest reasons I got the job. I chose a site for disposal of the carcasses and thus began a new "bait site".

The vast majority of the nocturnal photos have been captured at that site using a variety of cameras over the years.

I really don't see a problem with this type of baiting. Feeding the beaver to the wildlife is natural. Setting up a camera...why not? I'm aware some folks don't like to see dead animals in a photo but animals die all the time, for many reasons, and nature recycles the remains. Add to that, carcasses are hot spots for activity (find a carcass, set-up a camera).

Back when I was at F&W I was working a waterfowl census and discovered an area where the coons (I thought at the time) had unearthed a number of turtle egg nests. I counted fourteen nests in an area that extended about ten feet from the waters edge and about fifteen feet long. The egg eaters has cleaned-out all but one of them. There were a few eggshells outside that nest but , I believe, eleven eggs were still left in the nest. I built a wire cage, covered the nest up, and staked the cage over the nest. The plan was to try to get some photos of the turtles emerging from the nest. The next day something had managed to reach up under the cage and eat the remaining eggs.

My second bait...chicken eggs. I established a new site (to do some more experimenting with the new set-up) and some of the photos are from that site. I used them at the one site and after the possums overran it that was it for the eggs.

My third bait, for the beaver photos, was feed sticks trimmed from around the site. Beaver eat the cambium layer of trees and branches (they'll "girdle" old growth hardwoods and kill them).

After I got the photos...I did my job.

So, again, yes I bait.

Please explain the moral, ethical, biological, etc. implications. I am ignorant, educate me.

Whew