Snapshot Montana: UM Explores Animal Behavior with Camera Traps

With a little tech magic, students are not just learning about wildlife but actually seeing it in action — and they’ve got some wild stories to tell.

UM News Service tells us that University of Montana assistant professor of quantitative ecology with the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation Mahdieh Tourani studies some of the most important questions in wildlife ecology: How many animals are there and where are they spending their time? How do they interact with humans and one another?

HOW IT WORKS

These cameras use a combination of motion and heat-sensing technology to snap a picture when an animal passes. They’re often called “Camera Traps” because they are a useful alternative to physically capturing animals, which can be dangerous for both animals and scientists. Other advantages include a lower cost compared to other types of survey methods, and scientists no longer have to sit in the field for hours or days waiting to see animals that may not be present.

WHAT'S SUPER COOL TO THE PROFESSOR

Professor Tourani says, “The coolest thing about them is that there is a huge community that uses camera traps around the world. This brings lots of opportunities for collaboration.” 

"TRAPPING" MISSOULA

That spirit of collaboration extends to UM’s own campus, where students in the UM Wilderness and Civilization Program use camera traps to study Missoula’s wildlife. Students in this semester-long program have installed cameras at the same spots along Rattlesnake Creek at the same time for the past five years. The students’ cameras have caught over 25 different species, including black bears exploring Missoula’s Greenough Park and mountain lions traveling through the nearby Rattlesnake National Recreation Area.

Program Director Andrea Stephens says, “Last fall we caught a beaver, and then an hour later, that beaver was swinging from a bear’s mouth. The group went absolutely bonkers over that.”

SUPER SOFTWARE

After only a few weeks of capturing photos, each of the students’ cameras contains over 5,000 images. For a long time, the sheer volume of data was one of the biggest challenges to using camera traps for research. Professor Tourani helped develop a new tool for analyzing camera trap footage called Wildlife Insights. This software program can take thousands of images, identify the species present and generate maps of where species are and what they’re doing.

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Find out lots more about the amazing camera trap study going on at the University of Montana here.