Jul
25
Freeze Frame

Last week we posted an image of a monkey, a long-tailed macaque, in Borneo using a camera trap of one our partners to check his teeth before going to his dentist. I am sure monkeys have dentists so just humour me. I then heard that this monkey had gone viral and immediately panicked thinking “oh great, another emergining zoonotic disease to plague humans” but later found out they just meant social media viral as this little photo was seen on ABC, London papers, across the US and NBC nightly news: http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/48233798/#48233798

Macaque saying "hello to the ladies"

I think the word camera trap is confusing for some so basically it is a motion sensor camera used by researchers and hunters to gather data on wildlife. Our colleagues at Danau Girang Field Centre in Sabah, Borneo use them to look at both the types of and quantity of carnivores along the Kinabatangan River. Further south at the Tabin Wildlife Reserve, we support the same group looking at populations of Banteng, an endangered species of wild cow -yes – I said wild cow and endangered species in the same sentence.

Banteng cow with males in background

Normally wildife ignore these camers although the primates like to see their reflection in the small camera lens. Sometimes they pose for a photo whereas elephants may not be as happy with their profile and tear the camera off the tree, testing the patience (these are fairly expensive pieces of equipment) of researchers. Others, like this curious chimpanzee from the Faleme Chimpanzee Conservation Project in Senegal, well, I am just not sure what he was thinking:
There is so much more going on out in the world of animals then we ever realize. They go about their day to day business of eating, sleeping, eating some more, trying not to get eaten, and then sleeping again. But in between that busy schedule, these “not so hidden” cameras are catching wonderful photos of their personalities, even if the photo is not so clear like this Civet carrying her cub in her mouth courtesy of Danau Girang Field Centre.

Civet and baby - look in her mouth. No, she is not eating it, she is carrying it.

So next time you see a wacky animal photo, we may not know what they are thinking – ok maybe they are thinking “I will smash you camera and your glass eye!” like this elephant below, but they all have personalities and clearly they have appointments to keep just like the rest of us.

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