Abstract:
An understanding of animal behaviour is important if conservation initiatives
are to be effective. However, quantifying the behaviour of wild animals presents
significant challenges. Remote-sensing camera traps are becoming increasingly
popular survey instruments that have been used to non-invasively study a variety
of animal behaviours, yielding key insights into behavioural repertoires.
They are well suited to ethological studies and provide considerable opportunities
for generating conservation-relevant behavioural data if novel and robust
methodological and analytical solutions can be developed. This paper reviews
the current state of camera-trap-based ethological studies, describes new and
emerging directions in camera-based conservation behaviour, and highlights a
number of limitations and considerations of particular relevance for camerabased
studies. Three promising areas of study are discussed: (1) documenting
anthropogenic impacts on behaviour; (2) incorporating behavioural responses
into management planning and (3) using behavioural indicators such as giving
up densities and daily activity patterns. We emphasize the importance of
reporting methodological details, utilizing emerging camera trap metadata standards
and central data repositories for facilitating reproducibility, comparison
and synthesis across studies. Behavioural studies using camera traps are in their
infancy; the full potential of the technology is as yet unrealized. Researchers are
encouraged to embrace conservation-driven hypotheses in order to meet future
challenges and improve the efficacy of conservation and management processes.
