Being a student in the Codger’s Camera Trapping Class

August 1, 2011 by pumapix

Camera Trap Set under Rock Overhang – Copyright: Chris Wemmer

Those of you interested in camera traps all have visited or should immediately go to Coder’s Camera Trapping Blog which is written by Chris Wemmer, better known as the Codger or simply Codg. Every year Codg teaches a workshop at the San Francisco State University Sierra Nevada Field Campus about everything having to do about camera trapping wildlife including the history of camera trapping, camera trap sets (what they are and what makes a good set a good set), using attractants, doing biological surveys using camera traps, building your own homebrews, and he even discusses animal psychology in regards to camera traps. How cool is that ?!?!

If you have the smallest interest in using camera traps to photograph wildlife you simply need to take this class!

Besides an immense amount of useful camera trapping knowledge, this workshop taught me some very very important lessons including:

– I need to become a far better naturalist. This is the key to all nature photography success. Chris was a Smithsonian scientist for decades, leading many exciting adventures, but most importantly he was and most definitely still is one of the most knowledgeable naturalists I have ever met. (He would never admit this of course, but trust me, its amazing all the things he knows!)

– I need to experiment more. Placing the camera in ‘obscure’ places seemed to become the theme for our workshop and it was really exciting to do so. Not only are the perspectives unique but the potential for interesting pictures is also quite high.

– oh yeah, the final lesson is to not use credit cards (still good on that account). That’s right you will not only get camera trap lessons but life lessons!

The whole experience is a blast. We had a great group of people participating in the class, people coming from all parts of life including Carl, a photographer who’s career spanned taking picture in the Vietnam War to being the director of photography at the Smithsonian (his Smithsonian photography focused on natural history as well as cultural images). Lissa, is a graduate student at SFSU using camera traps for her thesis (crazy cool, I know), and Audrey who recently graduated from SFSU is getting a lot of field and lab experience before applying to grad schools (her main interest are Coyotes so if you hear of any cool studies with these canines please let me know and I’ll pass it on to her). We even had people from past years show up, including Bill, Sean, and Ken (Ken writes another great blog, which you also need to check out), so you can see that once you take the class you are hooked!

Here are some pictures from the workshop taken by the other participants during the short span of the week we were in the Sierras. To see the images the cameras took that we placed there you will need to check Codger’s blog in about a month (I personally can’t wait!)

The Camera Trapping Gang – Copyright: Chris Wemmer

Codg showing us how to make a make-shift post for your camera trap – Copyright: Lissa

Ken making set in tree trunk, Carl is enjoying the view 🙂 – Copyright: Lissa

The crazy ‘obscure views’ we hope to get in a month – Copyright: Lissa, a self portrait here

Checking Camera Trap Images back at the Campus – Copyright: Lissa

Fred – Codg’s awesome dog – Copyright: Chris Wemmer

Enough said, time for you to head over the Codg’s blog and get fascinatingly lost in camera trapping stories. Thanks to all for making the whole week a blast!

Identifying Puma Gender by Genital Spots

April 25, 2011 by pumapix

How do you identify the gender of a puma? This is one of those cases where I realize how little I know and how little experience I have in regards to Mountain Lions. I am sure an experienced puma biologists could look at the picture below and say, duh, that’s a male, or duh, that’s a female…well even after doing some more research I once again have no clue.

Mountain Lion Rear View

Mountain Lion Rear View Close Up

From Ken Logan and Linda Sweanor’s 2001 “Determining the Sex of Treed Cougars“:

“Male adult and subadult cats have a conspicuous black spot of hair, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter surrounding the opening to the penis sheath behind the hind legs and about 4 inches (10 cm) below the anus. The anus is usually hidden by the base of the tail. In between the anus and black spot is the scrotum, which is covered with light to dark brown hair and will usually appear as another dark spot.”

“Female adult and subadult cats do not have this conspicuous black spot of hair. The area is entirely covered in white hair. The anus is directly below the base of the tail and the vulva is directly underneath the anus. Both the anus and the vulva will usually be hidden by the base of the tail.”

So my guess would be female, but then there is that little amount of dark hair just to the left of the tail, but is that too close to the anus. What do you think?

Note: This image was taken two weeks (almost down to the minute) after the second image from the Aptos Mountain Lion Characters Post

Aptos Mountain Lion Characters

April 21, 2011 by pumapix

As many of you have noticed I am completely and utterly fascinated by mountain lions, pumas, cougars, catamounts, or what ever you like to call them (did the webpage url and logo give that away???). It has always been my fascination getting pictures of them and seeing them in the wild. Though i have been able to get images, I have never seen one in nature (how is that possible you ask — camera traps!).

As anyone with any obsession, I can’t get enough information about them. Absolutely everything interests me about them including home range size, territoriality, density, prey species, den sites, when cubs leave their mother’s home range, and the list just keeps going on. I am telling you this as a forewarning for future posts under the Project Puma heading that will have anything and everything to do with mountain lions whether that is information or pictures just in case there is someone else as interested in this beautiful cat as I am.

This post is also supposed to serve as an introduction to the cat(s) of the area I camera trap in Aptos near Santa Cruz in the Monterey Bay area. As of right now there are two camera traps out there and I have gotten mountain lion pictures on three different occasions. I am not completely sure whether it is the same cat or different cats so I figured I’d ask you guys. Here are the three pictures followed by close-ups in the same order.

Taken on June 8th, 2010 at 4:35am

Taken December 25, 2010 at 9:31pm

Taken March 5th, 2011 at 6:32am

Is it all the same cat, I really don’t know. In other cat species researchers use the spotting pattern which is unique to each cat to identify them. For Puma concolor (the scientific name of the mountain lion meaning cat of one color) this isn’t really an option. What I was looking at is the black marking around the mouth, the black whisker markings, and the shape of the ears. Nothing leads me to say that its the same cat or different cats (in the second image, that is a tick in the ear, sadly not something to identify the cat by) — do you see something I am not? One thing for sure is that the second cat is much bulkier than the first, but the images were also captured months apart.

An interesting thing to note are the few faint slightly darker spots on the back leg of the first image, which could give us some clues of its age. Puma kittens are completely spotted loosing these marks as they become older. By ten months, the markings are difficult to see except on the hindquarters. The eyes turn from a light blue as kittens to yellow brown as adults (this change is complete by sixteen months). Young pumas are independent around 15 months (with a range of 10 to 18 months) leaving their mother’s territory and searching for their own. Based on the fact that I had not captured an image of a puma before this individual (for a period of 8 months) and its morphology it leads me to believe that this must be a juvenile looking for its own territory. If the second and third image are of the same cat, then I am glad to know its doing well in its new home!

Featured as ‘Wildlife Photographer Spotlight’ on Camera Trapping Campus

April 20, 2011 by pumapix

Camera Trapping Campus Screenshot

I am humbled by being featured on Camera Trapping Campus as their first wildlife photographer for their new feature ‘Wildlife Photographer Spotlight’. I met Jake, who writes the blog along with Christian, a few weeks ago to join him as he put out one of his homebrew camera traps. He is an awesome guy and I love reading their camera trapping stories. Please join me in following their blog, you will most definitely be entertained!

I also look forward to more outings with the Trapping Campus gang as it guarantees a fun time in the outdoors!

SLR Camera Trap Photography

February 4, 2011 by pumapix

Photographing wildlife with a SLR camera trap seems easy in concept. Place a camera trap in the wilderness, let it sit there, and have it take amazing pictures while you rest at home. This isn’t quite the case. One of the hardest parts about camera trap photography is getting your set-up to work like you want it to. The camera and flashes have to be ready to take a picture at moments notice, but need to also conserve batteries enough to last for an extended period of time. And then everything has to be safe in a serious down drench. Finally the biggest challenge of all is that you can’t buy professional camera traps at a store, ready to use out of the box. Even national geographic cameras use customized set-ups.

For inspiration, visit two of my favorite blogs. Chris Wemmer’s blog Camera Trap Codger which is not only filled with witty, educational, and fun writing but also accompanied by great camera trap images; as well as Jake Kirkland and Christian’s Camera Trapping Campus blog, filled with great stories and it hits close to home for me since I also got my degree from UCSC. All of them ‘hack’ much of their equipment to function for the camera trapping needs!

Once you have the equipment figured out the really fun part starts. Its time to hit the field to select your location for your camera trap. Natural game paths are always a perfect option, they provide ample chances for wildlife to walk by. During set-up, take the appropriate time since you can’t make any quick adjustments once the camera is in place. Using yourself always works:

Myself, getting some test shots in – reminder, comb your hair next time…

After you are done setting up you want to leave it be, it will take a while for your smell to be masked by nature’s more natural smells and some time for the animals to get used to the new objects in their environment (don’t think they don’t know its there).

After some time you will get your first shots. In the beginning most likely just your neighbors pet:

Neighbors dog checking out the camera

Maybe even some behavioral images:

Mule deer buck licking front leg

Of course many times you will get another curious human:

This one is having quite a lot of fun!

In the end though, when you get a shot like this, you are quite the happy camper:

Juvenile Mountain Lion at Night

Whenever you go to check the camera and replace batteries its like Christmas. You don’t know what you will get except a bunch of happy surprises. Camera trapping is a great way to get an intimate view into the lives of animals you may hardly see. It is something I very much cherish.

*If you are interested in purchasing any of the pictures displayed in this post, please check out my fine prints page for pricing.*