Innovation Anthology #466:
One project in the WHEC study, that’s Wildlife Habitat Effectiveness and Connectivity, involves the use of remote cameras.
University of Alberta researcher Holger Spaedtke describes the set up in the oil sands area north of Fort McMurray.
HOLGER SPAEDTKE: So those are the cameras that are triggered by motion and temperature. We are putting those cameras along the rivers in the oil sands area so there’s five different rivers we put those cameras on. Each camera is set anywhere from 100 and 150 meters away from shore. They are being deployed for about two weeks. And snap pictures of just about any wildlife that walks by and is big enough to trigger the camera.
Set out in the dense boreal forest, the cameras have been subjected to forest fires and floods. But over a two year period, the cameras have captured over 80,000 images.
HOLGER SPAEDTKE: We try to identify individuals on those pictures by applying certain rules. So the sum of pictures gives an idea of how many animals of each species frequent the area.
According to Holger Spaedtke, deer are the most abundant species, followed by moose and bear.
Thanks today to Syncrude
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
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Syncrude
Program Date: 2012-03-20