This week we completed a second trial week based around the upcoming Curious Minds Possum Project. This involved determining the best settings for the trail cameras, to ensure the balance between recording data at a manageable level and recording what is happening. We have been experimenting with a ten second delay and thirty second delay. While we are not tracking Stoats for this particular project it should be noted that we would be looking at a one second delay which would be required based on the speed of the animal. This would also mean as a consequence we would have a significant number of images each day as the wind or branches/trees moving would activate the camera.
In the first two weeks at the location where there is not a sound lure there has been significant possum activity including a possum that has twice removed the bait (a lemon and pear) from inside the trap without activating the trap. This appears to be at a significant possum traffic site.
At the site where the sound lure is located there has been significant rat activity including three rats that have been trapped at the location in a rat box (that housed the sound lure). This has been in contrast to the other side of the river (deployment site one) where there has been rat activity but not trapping for a considerable time.
While there are less images from this location at present we have been experimenting with the activation time and also the bait situation. We will eventually ensure that both set ups are identical including every aspect of the deployment to ensure that we are conducting fair testing to measure the sound lures effectiveness.
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