11 projects across 4 continents - NatureSpy Year in Review 2022

Wildlife conservation is at the heart of what we’re all about at NatureSpy.

As a conservation social enterprise, we use the profits generated by our online shop to support and run conservation projects. In 2022 we worked with 11 fantastic projects across Europe, Africa, North America and South America. None of this would be possible without our online shop customers – so we’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you for your support! In this review we share some 2022 highlights from the projects we've been working with, from lions in Zambia, to spectacled bears in Ecuador, to pine martens in Yorkshire and much, much more...

Article by Ed Snell - Project Support & Development at NatureSpy

The conservation projects we currently work with all use camera traps in diverse and innovative ways for wildlife monitoring, research, recovery and protection. Many of them have a human element too, through public engagement and human-wildlife coexistence. We work with these projects in varied ways, ranging from providing equipment and technical support, to survey design and fieldwork support on the ground, through to running our own projects too. Check out our project pages to learn more about how we tailor our support to individual projects to help them achieve their wildlife conservation aims. At this moment there are 367 camera traps out with our project partners, all thanks to profits generated by our online shop!

In our 2022 year in review we cover themes of cats, bears, wolves, pine martens, eagles, mountain hares and Africa. It's packed with links to more in-depth articles, so follow those links for a deeper dive if something grabs your interest!

A chilly camera check - Voyageurs Wolf Project

Cats

A number of projects we’re currently working with have a feline focus! Camera traps and cat conservation go hand-in-hand. Cat species tend to be elusive no matter where they are in the world, so camera traps provide insights into the world of felines that wouldn’t be possible otherwise. From detecting rarer species, to understanding the distribution of various cat species across an area through to identifying individual animals from their unique spots or markings. They are of course some of the most photogenic species in the world, too!

Saving Wildcats are carrying out vital work to restore Scotland’s rarest and most threatened mammal back into the landscape: the Scottish wildcat. Scottish wildcats are now so threatened that the only way to bring them back is through captive breeding programmes. The project use camera traps for monitoring the wildcat enclosures, and for surveying potential release sites for wildcats. In 2022, Saving Wildcats hit a fantastic milestone with the birth of wildcat kittens at their dedicated breeding for release centre. It is hoped these kittens will be some of the first to be released into the wild from 2023. The wildcat breeding programme is also being supported by our partners at Aigas Field Centre and Alladale Wilderness Reserve.

For the last couple of years we’ve been supporting Rainforest Concern with their camera trapping efforts in 3 of their reserves in Ecuador and Chile. In fact, for the last 2 years we’ve entirely funded project fieldwork for trail camera monitoring in their Neblina reserve in Ecuador, which includes field technicians, biologists and of course kit! Working with Rainforest Concern has been a real highlight for us here at NatureSpy during the last year. Not only does the camera trap data collected make for incredible footage to view but it also helps strengthen habitat protections and gives greater insight into the elusive wildlife within. Highlights of 2022 were undoubtedly the feline visitors to the trail cameras in these reserves, with the cats of Neblina being especially willing to show up on our camera traps including some very secretive ocelot and oncilla. Pumas were also a big feature, even showcasing some incredible behaviour on the cameras such as mating. The reserve in Nasampulli gave us one of our favourite captures of 2022, a kodkod, the smallest cat species in the Americas!

Felines are of course a big feature of the African projects we work with too! Shinganda Wildlife Wilderness and Musekese Conservation both record lions, leopards and cheetahs on their cameras – check out Musekese Conservation's latest blog ‘keeping up with the big cats’ for some amazing big cat footage, including some curious lions that had a go at adjusting a camera trap setup!

A kodkod visits a camera trap in Chile - Rainforest Concern

Bears

It’s no secret that we love bears at NatureSpy (check out our logo!). Sadly, many bear species are currently facing significant pressures, including loss of habitat, hunting and poaching. We’re pleased to be supporting two conservation projects that have a focus on bears: Rainforest Concern and Bioterra.

Andean bears are known as a keystone species and are biological indicators of habitat quality, so they play a significant role in maintaining the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Their crucial role in seed dispersal is one of the many ways in which other species depend on these bears, so their continued survival is incredibly important. A big part of Andean bear conservation is from habitat protection and monitoring, both of which Rainforest Concern are actively engaged in and progressing. Supporting their Andean bear monitoring work is something we’re very proud of here at NatureSpy and the Rainforest Concern bears had a busy 2022! Most heartening was the presence of juveniles on the camera traps as well as a number of individuals. This is great news for sustaining habitat protection and learning more about their numbers, distribution and activity. Like the pumas, the bears also demonstrated some interesting behaviours with some getting very inquisitive about the cameras, which meant we had a couple of camera trap fatalities due to curious bears!

Bioterra is an NGO run by a group of researchers in Croatia, who monitor and research a diverse range of species including bears, wolves and lynx. We’ve been supporting Bioterra with their camera trap work since 2016 and they are continuing to send us brilliant footage from the Velebit mountains and Biokovo Nature Park. This blog from earlier in the year is a masterclass in picking an excellent spot to camera trap bears, wolves, lynx, wildcats and more!

An Andean bear strolls towards the camera - Rainforest Concern

Wolves

Monitoring and researching wolves is challenging as they roam across vast landscapes and are highly skilled at keeping a distance from people! Camera traps are an important tool for learning about wolf presence, observing behaviours and keeping up with wolf packs. We’re really pleased to be supporting two exciting wolf conservation projects in the United States: Voyageurs Wolf Project and Wood River Wolf Project.

Based out of the University of Minnesota, Voyageurs Wolf Project researches wolf ecology, covering themes that include wolf behaviour and interactions with other species. The team at VWP are well known for their stunning camera trap footage of wolves and other wildlife in the area! The project use camera traps for a diverse range of research needs and we were treated to an insight into how they use camera traps to estimate pack and population sizes by Project Lead, Thomas Gable, back in February. Camera traps are of course designed to work well in all weathers – which means that VWP can still pursue research through long, cold Minnesota winters. Field Biologist Austin Homkes took us out on the snow mobile (in our imaginations) back in April. Snowy conditions make for some truly stunning wolf footage!

Wood River Wolf Project are our newest project partner and we began working with the team at the beginning of their fieldwork season in spring 2022. Wood River Wolf Project is part of the International Wildlife Coexistence Network and promotes the coexistence of livestock and wolves by proactively using nonlethal measures to prevent wolves from preying on livestock. Their approaches have proven very successful, with sheep losses 90% lower than those reported elsewhere in the state of Idaho – averaging just 4 losses per year. Back in September, Field Manager Logan Miller introduced us the project’s work and how camera traps play a key role in understanding wolf and livestock movements.

A wolf wanders by - Wood River Wolf Project

Africa

We’re proud to be supporting the excellent work of two conservation projects in Zambia: Shinganda Wildlife Wilderness and Musekese Conservation. The diversity of wildlife in this region is amazing, as we saw last year when Shinganda recorded footage of 51 different mammal species during their 2021 surveys, including leopards, elephants, hyenas and many more iconic African species. Camera traps serve a dual purpose for both projects, with wildlife monitoring at the core, but these areas sadly suffer with wildlife poaching, so the camera traps are also used to monitor and deter poachers.

We started working with Shinganda back in 2019, supporting the project’s camera trap surveys across a 200km² protected area. This wildlife restoration project protects habitats for wildlife that live and roam in the area and connects to the vast 22,400km² of Kafue National Park (an area slightly larger than Wales!). Camera traps primarily help the project to learn about the presence or absence of different species across the area, which is an indicator of how their wildlife restoration efforts are going. Back in November, the team at Shinganda shared a snapshot of stunning Zambian wildlife with us, taken from just the first 40 days of their survey this year.

In 2021 we began working with Musekese Conservation, who are situated in Kafue National Park. Wildlife poaching is a challenging reality that many conservation projects have to manage. Musekese Conservation use camera traps to determine if their anti-poaching patrols are proving effective at increasing wildlife numbers. A core part of their work focusses on the distribution of the 5 large carnivores in the area: lion, leopard, cheetah, spotted hyaena and painted dog. In August, Will Donald, Research Coordinator at Musekese Conservation, shared the project’s findings from their 2021 camera trap survey that looked at the distribution of these 5 large carnivores. In 2022, the project has team up with Panthera to survey carnivore and herbivore distributions on a larger scale - more info coming on this in the new year!

We're going to need a wider field of view! - Elephants at Shinganda Wildlife Wilderness

Pine Martens

In recent years there’s been a surge in pine marten conservation efforts across the UK that are helping the species to recover from historic persecution and pressures associated with habitat loss. Ever since we began our search for pine martens in Yorkshire in 2013, we’ve been captivated by this fascinating species, which lead to us create the Yorkshire Pine Marten Project in partnership with Forestry England.

Following the completion of our Heritage Lottery funded pine marten project in 2021, we’ve been working towards the objectives in our Pine Marten Conservation Strategy for Yorkshire. Pine marten records continue to be infrequent in Yorkshire, but in the last 18 months we've picked up footage across multiple camera traps that has revealed some interesting findings. In late 2021, we picked up our first pine marten footage in the area in 4 years. Following that, we’ve recorded our first daytime/colour footage of a pine marten in Yorkshire and active use of one of our 46 pine marten den boxes installed as part of the project. We've also recorded the first ever footage of a pine marten preying on a grey squirrel in Yorkshire, which is an important finding for red squirrel conservation. In autumn we published our annual update on the Yorkshire Pine Marten Project that covers our activity and findings over the past year, including; new records and sightings, pine marten den boxes, new research in the works and public engagement (including our recently published visual guide to British mustelids to help with pine marten identification).

Due to their elusive behaviour, pine martens can be challenging to monitor! We’ve been working with various project partners on innovative methods to monitor these sneaky mustelids to support their conservation. We’ve seen success with feeding stations in the Scottish Borders that help with identifying individual animals from their bib patterns and we’re currently running the same survey approach in the Scottish highlands at Alladale Wilderness Reserve. We’ve also been working on non-intrusive methods for monitoring pine marten den boxes using thermal imagers.

A pine marten approaches a feeding station at Alladale Wilderness Reserve

Eagles

Trail cameras are well suited to monitoring species that travel along the ground, but when it comes to monitoring birds there are some unique challenges, such as climbing cliffs to reach nests!

Eagle Reintroduction Wales are doing the groundwork to restore golden eagles and white-tailed eagles to the Welsh landscape, from which they’ve been absent for over 150 years. Bringing a species back to a landscape after a long period of absence requires research to find out if it's still suitable for that species now, given that land use may have changed substantially, and factors like climate change may have introduced new challenges. Ecologically similar species can be studied to understand how absent species may respond to current conditions and this is what the team have been doing at ERW. Earlier in the year, Sophie-Lee Williams, Project Manager at ERW, shared findings from the project’s fascinating work monitoring peregrine falcon nests with camera traps to gain insights into how eagles could persist in the landscape now.

Peregrine falcons on their nest - Eagle Reintroduction Wales

Mountain Hares

It’s a critical time for mountain hare conservation in Britain as the species is now classed as near-threatened, and in 2021 was given full protection in Scotland. Last year we supported Alladale Wilderness Reserve with a species inventory survey using camera traps and found what seem to be several hotspots for mountain hare activity at the Reserve.

Sightings of mountain hares in person are usually uncommon since the species has excellent camouflage, is mainly active at night and at higher elevations. This is of course where camera traps come in! This year we partnered with Alladale Wilderness Reserve and Mossy Earth and headed to the Reserve to get a mountain hare survey up and running. Mountain tops are unique places to run a camera trap survey, check out this blog to learn more about our experiences and see plenty of stunning views of the glens! The data from this survey is currently with students at the University of Hull, so expect updates in the new year on our findings!

A mountain hare takes off at Alladale Wilderness Reserve

 We are excited to continue working with our project partners in 2023 and can’t wait to see what they have to share from their camera traps! Check back to our News section and follow us on the socials for regular updates.