Remote camera images

Camera trapping uses specially-designed digital cameras placed at strategic locations in the park, and the animals take their own pictures!

These cameras are usually attached to trees along a trail and when an animal walks by it triggers an infrared motion detector, which in turn triggers the camera shutter. There are about 25 remote cameras currently set up in the park.

Biologists download the images from the camera’s memory card which details the recording location, date and time. The images are classified by species observed, age and sex of the animal (if discernible), and number of animals in the group. This information is maintained in a database of wildlife observations and used to monitor wildlife populations.

These cameras are also used to document the number and type of trail users in the park. While traditional infrared trail counters can tell that something passed along a trail, they don’t establish whether it was a hiker or a deer that triggered the counter. A camera records whether it was an animal or a human, and whether the person was riding a horse or a bike, or using skis or snowshoes, etc.