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Research

Clouded Leopard Camera Trap Database Interns

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As part of WildCRU’s commitment to training and outreach during 2019 and early 2020 we hosted an intern programme to give people an opportunity to learn a variety of skills linked with camera trapping for conservation whilst consolidating and standardising WildCRU’s clouded leopard camera trap database of over 6 million images from a wide range of biodiversity. Ultimately, we hope to make the database available online in a format accessible to a wide community of researchers.

We are extremely grateful to our interns for their dedication in working on the, sometimes daunting, task of tagging large numbers of images. Each intern has written a short blog about their time with WildCRU.

Charlie: I recently graduated from the University of the West of England studying BSc Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Science. I am a keen field biologist with experience in camera trapping in Borneo and Madagascar during my degree. Following graduation, I was looking to gain experience working in conservation before taking my studies further. WildCRU provided an excellent opportunity to work in a world-leading research environment while contributing to meaningful conservation projects. My internship project is based in Nepal and focused on conflict between humans and tigers, and how they make use of the same space. I am also contributing to a paper outlining the benefits of involving communities in camera trapping projects.  Following my internship, I spent 3 weeks in Lewa National Park, Kenya, assisting the Masaii rangers with their wildlife monitoring efforts. This opportunity came about through contacts I met at WildCRU. After this, I will be seeking more internships and work experience in the field.

Lynn: I obtained my MSc in Conservation Biology in 2018 from Lund University (Sweden). During my time there, I first got experience with wildlife conservation and management, mainly focused on Scandinavian wildlife, including Europe’s four large carnivore species. Having found my passion, I continued in this line of studies by conducting my MSc thesis on Bornean clouded leopards in Indonesia. After graduating, I left to Costa Rica for 6 months to work as a research assistant and lead the camera trap surveys aimed at felids and Baird’s tapir. Upon returning to Europe, I applied for the WildCRU camera trapping internship to expand my skill set in database management and to learn from the many wildlife researchers who work there. During my internship at WildCRU, I assisted with tagging camera trap images from Western Thailand and learnt the importance of ‘bycatch data’, being the pictures of non-target species. These often go unnoticed and are forgotten once the main research questions have been answered. And even if these species and pictures are not the main topic of the research project, they can be valuable sources of data for e.g. undergraduate and graduate students interested in such topics, but who may not have the time to undertake fieldwork to collect their own data. After completion of the internship, I returned home and continued looking for jobs in wildlife conservation, wanting to continue my career studying and protecting the world’s threatened wildlife, with the opportunity of several PhDs.

Amelia: I studied Computer Science at undergraduate level but always held a love for wildlife and was determined to tailor my degree towards conservation where possible. Outside of academia I volunteered wherever I could, my interests took me from locally volunteering with The Wildlife Trusts to marine conservation in Fiji. With this experience I then completed my Masters in Endangered Species Conservation. My research project involved producing leopard population estimates using camera traps in South Africa. Following my masters I worked on BBC’s Springwatch, monitoring the remote cameras and helping to develop the wildlife stories. I then chose to apply for the WildCRU internship to further my camera trapping knowledge, meet inspirational people and to give me a better understanding of what a PhD would involve. The internship has improved my knowledge on camera trapping, particularly for large scale projects and built my confidence using new analysis software. The knowledge of the people at WildCRU means I have gained much more than just camera trapping knowledge. I am now working for the BBC Natural History Unit alongside my position at WildCRU which allows me to combine my passion for conservation with science communication.

Ben: I have taken great pleasure over the past three months adding metadata tags to camera trap images from the Laos Clouded Leopard Project as a Wildlife Conservation Research Unit intern. Hopefully, the comprehensive set of tags now attached to each image will enable future researchers to efficiently address a range of questions, thereby informing conservation efforts.

My reasons for choosing the WildCRU internship programme span from a keen overarching interest in the work of WildCRU, to a number of positive aspects of the internship programme itself. Throughout my BA in Biological Sciences I was intrigued by WildCRU’s research-led approach to conservation, an interest I pursued by organizing tutorials with a number of WildCRU members and attending several presentations at WildCRU’s Geopolitics Conference. Beyond this keen interest in WildCRU’s work, my proximate reasons for applying were threefold. First and foremost, I felt that with my previous experience with camera trapping, from participation in the MammalWeb initiative to a short project in Sabah, Borneo, I could contribute to the WildCRU’s work. Secondly, I intend to utilize camera trap data in my upcoming MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. With this in mind, I saw the WildCRU internship programme as a means to augment my knowledge of camera trap study design and analysis, yet more broadly, an opportunity to interact with and learn from experienced conservationists. Finally, the flexibility of the programme attracted me; ultimately this flexibility enabled me to pursue academic interests in Vietnam and sporting commitments in Japan.

It is pleasing to report that each of my ambitions for the internship programme have been realized. Thankfully Dr Rasphone, the researcher responsible for the Laos Clouded Leopard data, is delighted with my contribution to the project. More broadly, as a result of conversations with various WildCRU members and wider recommended reading, my knowledge of the role of camera trapping in research is far more comprehensive. I will continue building on my understanding of camera traps in conservation in conjunction with WildCRU as part of my MSc project, specifically with the Living with Tigers Project, Nepal. Overall, the most rewarding aspect of the internship was meeting and talking to the members of the WildCRU – the conservations I had with numerous accomplished conservationists at various stages of their careers were truly invaluable. With such insights spanning from the day-to-day coordination of conservation projects to global issues in conservation, I feel far more prepared to venture into the world of conservation and make a positive contribution.

Matt: After working with the WildCRU team, I have enjoyed every second of repetitive clicking and endless page turning through my Borneo Mammal ID book whilst tagging the thousands of images collected by these lovely people over the past however many years. I was working on the Clouded Leopard Project with Andrew Hearn. I applied for the internship hoping to fill some of the holes in the content of my undergraduate Geography course at Oxford, as I felt my knowledge of practical conservation methods was lacking. I’ve enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere at Tubney and have learnt a lot. Now in my third year, I have the opportunity to do my thesis at WildCRU, analysing camera trap data from Borneo that has not been analysed before, as part the WildCRU Camera Trapping Database. At WildCRU, the people are lovely and always go out of their way to help you on projects that are often not really related to your internship. For example, I spent my summer co-organising an expedition in Sarawak. Having little experience working in Borneo, everyone went out of their way to help or advise and gave me useful information that I likely wouldn’t have found anywhere else.

Hannah: Since graduating with an MSc from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology, I’ve spent most of my career in the field. I’ve surveyed elk in Canada, monitored arctic fox families in Sweden and trapped Eurasian lynx in Romania. I know how to track wildlife and set camera traps in the field, but, as my field skills flourished, my data analysis skills fell behind. Then I came across WildCRU’s camera trap internship and it sounded like the perfect opportunity to develop my skills in data analysis. I was drawn to WildCRU’s research-led approach to conservation and I was keen to learn more about the different ways the organization uses camera traps to monitor wildlife and inform conservation efforts. When I found out I was being assigned the dataset from Togo, West Africa, where WildCRU is carrying out the first camera-trap initiative in the country, I was thrilled. As part of my role, I’ve been helping to generate baseline data on the biodiversity of a largely unexplored area. It’s been such a huge privilege to contribute to such an exciting research project that carries huge implications for conservation.

I was equally excited to work alongside the scientists and conservationists at WildCRU who dedicating their lives to the conservation of the natural world. It’s been wonderful to work alongside Amy Fitzmaurice, who coordinates the internship and WildCRU’s camera trapping database, and Neil D’Cruze, the researcher responsible for the Mammals of Togo project. Working alongside these dedicated scientists and getting to know the team at WildCRU has not only enabled me to learn from accomplished conservationists, it’s also been an inspiration to witness their passion and dedication to their work. While working at WildCRU I was able to continue my other work in habitat restoration and wildlife monitoring in the Scottish Highlands. As such, I’ve been able to do a great deal of work in both positions in a short period of time. Thanks to the flexibility of the internship, I’ve noticed both my skills and my confidence flourish. My experience at WildCRU has left me feeling inspired, experienced and well-prepared to take the next step in my career in conservation. I’m truly grateful to Dr Neil D’Cruze, Ms Amy Fitzmaurice, and of course, Professor David Macdonald for this wonderful opportunity.

<< The Team

• 
  Charlie
• 
  Lynn
• 
  Amelia
• 
  Ben
• 
  Matt
• 
  Hannah