WCS Scientists Provide More than 50K Camera Trap Images for Massive Study on Amazon Wildlife
by Stephen Sautner, Wildlife Conservation Society
May 16, 2022
WCS scientists working in the vast Amazon Basin have contributed more than 57,000 camera trap images for a new study published in the journal Ecology by an international team of 120 research institutions.
The study consists of 120,000-plus images taken in eight countries, representing the largest photo database to date of the Amazon’s staggering array of wildlife. The images show 289 species taken from 2001-2020 from 143 field sites.
The WCS images from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru reveal playful jaguar cubs, a giant anteater lounging in a mud wallow, elusive short-eared dogs, along with tapirs, white-lipped peccaries, crested eagles, toucans, pumas, Andean bears and dozens of other species. Jaguars and Andean bears are priority species for WCS.
Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.3738