The winners of this years BBC Wildlife Camera-trap Photo of the Year competition were announced this week bringing us a striking set of images which capture intimate, surprising and rare glimpses into the lives of some extraordinary and elusive creatures (see some of the images below).
I've been experimenting with cheap off-the-shelf camera traps myself, placing them in my garden to try and capture footage of the foxes and badgers that dig, play and scat out there at night. I didn't even know we had badgers until I saw the clip below. In the BBC Natural History Unit, we're developing an impressive arsenal of high resolution camera traps to try and capture HD footage for use in our programmes. Over the next few years you'll start seeing the rewards, allowing us to feature animals in the wild that have until now evaded even our most cunning and determined cameramen.
Fox Vs Badger in my garden
Anyway, enough of my foxy self-indulgence...
The rise of the camera-trap
As forward leaps in technology go, camera-traps have been relatively unsung in the world of professional photography. Yet the introduction of sensitive, affordable digital camera-traps has proved to be one of the most important developments for field researchers, effectively multiplying the eyes of scientists and conservation workers. Camera-traps don’t need to sleep or eat, but keep constant watch on key patches of habitat, ready to detect the action and providing priceless insights into wildlife movements, populations and distribution.
Camera-traps are now considered a serious tool by some professional wildlife photographers, thanks in part to Steve Winters camera-trap image of a rare snow leopard that won him the prestigious title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2008.
Commenting on the use of trigger cameras rather than being sat behind the lens, Steve Winter said:
"I used to hate these cameras because they just gave you a record of an animal... Images are all about composition and light. If I cannot control that as if I would as I put the camera up to my face, then essentially I have failed. So I asked myself that if I did not like these cameras, how can I like them more. It turns out that snow leopards are the perfect species on which to use these cameras. They always come to specific locations to mark their territory. So I viewed the locations as movie sets. I put the cameras there, I put the lights there. I knew the animal would come; it was just waiting for the actor to walk on stage and break the beam." Source
Steve then did it again in 2012 winning The Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Photojournalist Award with these captivating images of Tigers in India.
"My aim with this story, says Steve 'was to try to document the beauty of tigers, the serious threats they face and the heroic efforts to protect them.' Despite millions of dollars spent on tiger conservation over four decades, tiger numbers continue to plummet. Fewer than 3,200 remain in the wild, the majority in India." Source
Steve also came runner up in the 2012 WPOTY for The Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species, capturing this beautiful image of a pair of tiger cubs at a waterhole.
"These 14-month-old Bengal tiger cubs, cooling off in the Patpara Nala watering hole in Bandhavgarh National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India, turned man-eaters before they were two years old. Between them, they killed three people. But the authorities didn’t kill the tigers. Instead, they captured them and moved them to a facility for ‘problem’ tigers in Bhopal, from which they will never be released. But elsewhere in India and everywhere in their range, tigers are being killed in huge numbers. Fewer than 3,200 tigers remain in the wild, down from 100,000 a century ago". Read more here.
BBC Wildlife Camera-trap Photo of the Year 2012
No doubt building on the success of Steve Winter's incredible images, the Wildlife Camera-trap photo of the year competition was established in 2010. This competition is primarily aimed at researchers and conservationists working in the field and recognises the most visually exciting or significant camera-trap images. It offers us the opportunity to share the discoveries and triumphs of field researchers, and those organisations the chance to win funding for their projects.
Here's some of my favourite images of cats from this years competition winners.
See more images here.
See more images here.
Source: discoverwildlife.com via Paul Williams on Pinterest Animal Portraits and overall winner: Leopard path by Zhou Zhefeng, China
Source: discoverwildlife.com via Paul Williams on Pinterest Animal Portraits commended: Snow leopard by © FFI/Panthera/Alex Diment, Zorkul Nature Reserve, Tajikistan.
Source: discoverwildlife.com via Paul Williams on Pinterest Animal Portraits commended: Fishing cat by Parinya Padungtin, Thailand.
