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Chad Love: Do Trail Cams Make the Woods Less Wild?
This recent story in Slate magazine thinks so:
"According to one study, there has been a 50 percent increase in the number of scientific papers involving data from camera traps every year for the past decade; at any given time, there may be about 10,000 deployed in research projects. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Exact figures are hard to come by, but industry sources say that as many as 300,000 are sold every year, mostly to hunters."
I don't use trail cams, for those of us who hunt on public land know that what you hang up today will invariably be stolen and pawned or stolen and hung up somewhere else tomorrow, but I find it hard to swallow the argument trail cams are a major distraction for wildlife.
"That the traps have some kind of impact on the animals is obvious from the images themselves, which often show animals startled by, fleeing from, investigating, or even attacking the traps...WWF has posted footage of a rare Javan rhino attacking a video camera trap."
Wildlife adapts to minor intrusions. You could take a full-size mannequin, dress it up like Ronald McDonald, set it up in your favorite patch of woods and it would have a far greater chance of being leg-humped by a roaming dog than actually disturbing any wildlife. Habitat loss is a major distraction for wildlife. Being the pic of the day on Bubba Joe's MySpace page isn't.
What's far more disturbing to me is the effect of trail cams on our own sense of wildness and solitude. Who cares if the Javan rhino develops a complex, I'm just scared that if I stop behind a bush to take a leak, by the time I get back home I could be the laughingstock of the Internet.
I'm currently using a half dozen trail cameras for a research project, and we get pictures of everything from deer to fishers. I've never had a picture of an animal fleeing the scene, all they do is look at the camera and go back to eating. Some are there for hours. This just shows how some people can totally blow an issue out of proportion.
Posted by: Wes | September 17, 2008 at 04:53 PM
I'm currently using a half dozen trail cameras for a research project, and we get pictures of everything from deer to fishers. I've never had a picture of an animal fleeing the scene, all they do is look at the camera and go back to eating. Some are there for hours. This just shows how some people can totally blow an issue out of proportion.
Posted by: Wes | September 17, 2008 at 04:54 PM
oops, sorry about that
Posted by: Wes | September 17, 2008 at 04:55 PM
I don't use them myself. I know many people do and enjoy seeing what's on their property.
I guess I just enjoy seeing the sign and "hoping" the buck that made the rub or scrap is a giant (a photo might jar me back to reality).
I can report that while scouting a potential new piece of hunting property a couple of years ago I came up a trail camera that was on land where it wasn't supposed to be. The owner should have a nice close up of my butt for his trouble.
Jim
Posted by: jstreet | September 17, 2008 at 07:17 PM
I have a camera but dont no how to use it, so i don't even trouble putting it out. i'd rather like Jim said see the signs and hope to see the big buck myself. In a way the cameras kind of take away from the scouting aspect of hunting. Instead of trying to learn deer patterns now a days people just stick up a camera.
Posted by: Jimmy | September 17, 2008 at 07:31 PM
Chad Love
I haven't been blogging here much lately. I don't know if you've been contributing for awhile or not, but it's really nice to see you as a "blogee" rather than a "blogger"! I always enjoyed your blogs as it seems you always have your feet on the ground and keep "us" sportsmen/women in mind.
As far as trail cams. I love the stupid things, but I have become technilogically challenged in the last 5/10 years, and have difficulty getting the things to work properly. I bought one with a 35mm camera. I got two rolls of film with a few deer, no bucks and a ton of feral hogs and cattle! Now, I can't seem to get the thing to work again! Oh, well!
I think I'd rather just be surprised at what pops out!
I had a friend that set trail cams up near his feeders a month before season. He had pictures of some really nice bucks and hunted hard. His "pictured" bucks NEVER came to his feeders during the season. Other than inspiring him to hunt harder and more often, it did him no good to have the pictures, it only added frustration.
If you want to use trail cams, so what? Use 'em. Deer are very adaptive creatures and will either vacate the area or pay them no mind!
My nephew and I found a trail cam hanging near a feeder. I talked him into urinating under the feeder and mooning the trail cam. It made no difference! I even took two deer from under the feeder and the fellow that set up the feeder took one. A fellow hunter took three from the blind also!
Bubba
Posted by: | September 18, 2008 at 09:06 AM