Rangelands camera-trapping of medium and large mammals

KEY DETAILS

Principal Investigator: Dr. Matthew Rogan
Date; 24 February 2024
Version; 0.2.0
Programme; Rangelands Biodiversity Project (RBP)
Study Site; Lewa-Lolldaiga-Borana-Ngare Ndare (LLBN)
Key partners; Contact email; mrogan@naturalstate.org

1. PREAMBLE

Natural State’s objectives and activities are detailed by a set of accepted Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). These documents describe the steps involved in all Natural State projects, from data collection to data processing and storage. Each SOP documents key project details and provides methodological details specific to the project. The objectives and background of the project, features of the study area, and details on survey and sampling design may be found in the project Design Document (DD) which is available in the Related Documents section below.

1.1 SOP PURPOSE

To provide a clear step by step guide to the methods implemented in the project, therefore allowing for consistency in data collection and repeatability of all steps involved in a project’s data collection, processing and storage. This is crucial to Natural State’s mission of facilitating nature restoration at scale by using the latest technology and methods to revolutionise impact monitoring for carbon, biodiversity and human well-being.

1.2 SOP SCOPE

This document details how this project will be implemented. All methodological steps are explained, and the principal team members overseeing the project are listed in case further clarification is required. It also further directs readers to where they can find additional information relevant to the project. This document is intended to be printed out and taken to the field for reference sake.

2. GLOSSARY

Camera-trap: A remote camera with a defined automatic trigger (e.g., motion, time-lapse)
Centroid: A point at the center of a corresponding sampling grid cell denoted by a geohash, a longitude coordinate, and a latitude. Here, the centroid of the CPP.
Centroid cameras: A camera placed at the centroid of each grid cell. When the centroid has a reasonably good field of view, the camera should be placed within 5 m of the centroid, facing the centroid. If there are obstructing factors, the camera can be placed up to 30 m from the centroid. All centroid cameras should be interpreted as following a randomized sampling design.
Deployment: The period of time a single remote sensor is active within the environment at a single, defined station as part of a survey.
Deployment group: Temporally distinct sets of geographically or thematically grouped and contemporaneous (e.g., seasonal deployment groups).
Dominant woody vegetation: The primary species that provides structure to the habitat within or around a sampling unit. Must stand taller than the height of the grass. The dominant woody vegetation might not be the most abundant type but is rather the one that consistently provides maximum vertical structure within the grid cell.
Features, Sampling: Physical fine-scale characteristics of the landscape that correlate with animal movement and space use such that detection within a used habitat patch is assumed to be greater on or near such features than away from them.
Float detectors: Deployments of sampling devices that are placed at locations largely at the discretion of the field team to maximize detection probabilities for animals that use the surrounding habitat.
Grid Cell: A geohash or other rectangular area within which one or more sensors may be deployed as semi-independent sampling units.
Habitat type: Coarse, subjective classifications of the amount of woody cover in a heterogeneous savanna typically measured within a ~100m radius of the sampling location (see open grassland, open woodland, and closed woodland).
LLBN: The Lewa-Lolldaiga-Borana-Ngare Ndare landscape.
Project: A concerted, data-driven effort to robustly measure variation in Biodiversity, Carbon, or Human-wellbeing in response to one or more sources of heterogeneity in a designated landscape.
Remote sensor: An electronic sensor with automated data collecting capabilities that operate independently of a human handler.
S123: Survey123, a field-data collection app from ESRI which NS uses for recording all field observations and survey metadata.
Sampling design: The set of field methods employed in a survey and the manner of their use.
Sampling protocol: Explicit survey methodology that describes the design, effort, duration, configuration, and operation of a survey.
Site, Sampling: A distinct, discrete spatial unit defined in at least two dimensions where sampling occurs.
Station: A point location where sampling occurs in space.
Study area: A defined geographic region of interest within which one or more surveys investigate ecological patterns at one or more sites.
Survey: A set of simultaneous deployments or related deployment groups of remote sensors over a defined period of time at a coordinated set of stations for the purposes of collecting data on the environment and its biological communities as part of a NS project.
Survey design: The theoretical and practical methods for choosing the spatiotemporal distribution of sampling units in a survey.
Treatment: Spatial management effects with ‘control’ indicating the absence of the management effect.
Vegetation structure: Variation in height and woodiness of vegetation that extends above the grass.

3. PROJECT OVERVIEW

3.1 PROJECT AIMS

Natural State’s camera-trapping of savanna mammals aims to:

Non-invasively collect presence observations of wild mammal species across habitat types or gradients and management regimes.
Non-invasively collect partial counts of wild mammal species to inform estimates of relative abundance and intensity of use across habitat types and management regimes.
Non-invasively collect opportunistic opservations of other taxa such as birds and reptiles.
Collect observations of humans and domestic animals to measure their activity across habitat types and management regimes.

3.2 PROJECT BACKGROUND

Natural State’s mission is to catalyse large-scale restoration globally by revolutionizing impact monitoring, developing new financial mechanisms and supporting local changemakers. As part of this, NS aims to develop and optimise impact monitoring systems to reduce costs and provide independently verifiable results on interventions.

Passive monitoring of biological communities is a staple of long-term and large-scale ecological monitoring. Passive monitoring, deploying remote sensors continuously or intermittently to gather information about the landscape, tends to be less invasive and less resource-intensive than most active monitoring approaches (e.g., animal tracking, direct counts) and thus offers much lower costs to scale. Over the last 30 years, motion-triggered cameras (i.e., ‘camera-traps’) have emerged as the most used passive monitoring approach for mammalian populations and have proven especially versatile for studying cryptic species and community assemblages.

All NS camera-trapping work is carried out as part of a specific NS survey. The aims of the survey dictate the sampling design sampling domain. This document describes core competencies related to NS’s camera-trap monitoring work as well as overviews of survey metadata and data processing. All information in this document is superseded by the design document and operating procedure for each survey.

3.3 STUDY AREA

Lewa-Lolldaiga-Borana-Ngare Ndare

The Lewa-Lolldaiga-Borana-Ngare Ndare (LLBN) study area is a savanna rangeland landscape in the central highlands of Kenya that extends north from the lower slopes of Mt. Kenya, straddling the boundary between Meru and Laikipia counties. The four main properties are located at 0.11 = 0.34° latitude and 37.07-37.53° longitude. The study site-centered ecosystem (SCE) exhibits three main “arms” with on extending south around the western edge of Mt. Kenya, one extending east along the southern side of the B9 highway to the northeastern edge of Meru County, and the longest and largest arm extending 130 km northwest to Maralal with some isolated islands of similar ecosystem to the north and west. The entire SCE is located between -0.3° and 2.3° latitude, and between 36.3° and 38.1° longitude.

Rainfall is highly variable, but is typically between 400 and 600 mm annually. During droughts, total annual rainfall can drop below 200 mm. Rainfall generally follows a north-south gradient with more rainfall at higher elevations in the south. The landscape sits at 1400-2370 m with higher elevations in Ngare-Ndare forest and south-central Lolldaiga and the lowest elevations in Lewa and northeast Borana. Soil types are highly variable throughout the landscape but consist primarily of Luvisols (Haplic and Vertic) and Dystric Regosols. Vegetation communities are predominantly Acacia-Commiphora bushlands and thickets with montane forests at higher elevations (Dinerstein et al. 2017).

Currently, camera-trap surveys are conducted across Lewa and Borana Conservancies as well as Lolldaiga ranch.

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy is mostly owned by The Nature Conservancy but has a number of small, privately owned enclaves. The reserve is almost exclusively used for photographic tourism but does have some livestock grazing, especially along the community road and in a section nicknamed ‘Bosnia’ where the community have grazing rights. Over the last 30 years, the conservancy has increasingly adopted elephant and large-mammal exclosures as a major management practice aimed at increasing tree cover on the conservancy.

Lolldaiga ranch is principally a livestock ranch but is also used by free ranging wildlife. Historically, the ranch was intensively grazed but recently new management has implemented a regenerative grazing regime based on intensive grazing by a few large, fast-moving herds. The grazing regime is intended to stimulate grass productivity and prevent selective grazing by livestock herds.

Borana Conservancy is a dual use wildlife and livestock ranch that also includes privately owned enclaves. In addition to photographic tourism, the conservancy produces cattle and has a partnership with a local community that extends limiting grazing rights to community herders. Borana has a few large-mammal exclosures, especially along the river that runs between Lewa and Borana.

The methods described here are broadly applicable to any savanna landscape.

3.4 PROJECT TIMELINE

In 2022, NS conducted a pilot study using intensive fine-scale sampling across treatment and control areas of large mammal exclosures. This work preceded this protocol.
In Q2-Q3 2023, NS conducted camera-trapping as part of the Rangeland Baseline Survey to sample bird and mammal communities across varying management regimes within the three properties. Each 500m X 500m sample site consisted of three camera stations and one acoustic station.
In Q3 2023, NS conducted a baseline survey as part of before-after-control-impact survey with 36 camera and acoustic stations evenly distributed across three treatment types.
In Q3 2023, NS introduced and S123 form for capturing camera-trap metadata in the field.
In Q4 2023, NS trained and validated a machine learning species classifier for camera-trap images from East African Savannas.
In Q1 2023, NS began collecting camera-trap data as part of the Carbon-Biodiversity Survey in the LLBN landscape.
In Q2 2023, NS expects to produce population metrics for large mammals species using hierarchical ecological models (e.g., occupancy, N-mixture) fit to data from the Rangeland Baseline Survey.

4. SAMPLING PREPERATION

The equipment mentioned in the list below needs to be gathered, checked and packed before sampling begins. If any sensors need to be configured prior to commencing sampling this will be documented below the equipment list.

NB: Ensure that landownders and managers have been notified of the planned fieldwork in advance.

4.1 EQUIPMENT LIST

Camera traps - Browning Elite HP5 or Solaris Weapon 4K. Cameras must be programmed with the correct date and time and up-to-date with the latest firmware. Each camera must be tagged with a QR code for scanning into S123.
Eneloop Pro Rechargeable batteries (for Browning cameras)
SD cards (minimum 64 GB). Each SD card must be tagged with a QR code for scanning into S123.
Casings and straps for securing cameras.
Wooden poles for holding cameras.
Handheld GPS with spare Eneloop Pro batteries and preloaded with coordinates of prospective sites.
Two fully charged mobile devices with cameras and preloaded with the S123 app and camera-trap form.
Cloths for cleaning cameras.
Slashers for clearing vegetation.
A mallet.
Spare cameras, batteries and SD cards.
Water and a medical kit in the vehicle.

4.2 DEVICE CONFIGURATION

Browning Elite HP5 Configuration Settings

Setting	Selection
Operation Mode	Trail Cam
Photo Quality	Low (4 MP)
Photo Delay	5 Secs
Multishot Mode	Off
HDR	On
Temp Units	Celsius
Image data strip	Off
Motion Detection	Normal Range (60 ft)
Battery Type	NIMH
Trigger Speed	Normal (0.7 Seconds)
IR Flash Power	Blur Reduction

Editorial Notes

Solaris Weapon 4K cameras are still going through testing and do not yet have prescribed configurations.

NS is continuing to refine its configuration of Browning HP5 cameras and is likely to implement ‘time-lapse plus’ rather than the ‘trail cam’ mode in order to record 1 photo each morning and evening as an indicator of camera operability. NS is further considering switching to ‘Fast’ trigger speeds and ‘Long Range’ motion detection.

5. SAMPLING PROCEDURES

Unless otherwise noted in a survey design document, all camera-trap stations should be sampled for 30 days with devices checked after two weeks.

5.1 CAMERA DEPLOYMENT

The field team should arrive at the grid centroid or other station coordinates and note their surroundings. This includes discussing the habitat type and dominant woody vegetation and noting any features that occur within 75 m of the centroid.

Camera Placement

If the station is designated as type ‘fixed’, then the field team should assess whether the station has a clear field of view and whether a suitable tree is available or whether a pole is needed. If the field is clear then the camera should be placed within 5 m of the station coordinates facing towards the centroid or angled to replicate past sampling as best as possible. The camera should be positioned to maximize the field of view at and around the centroid point. All other factors being equal, in open habitat cameras should face north or south to avoid glare from the rising and setting sun. If the centroid point falls in dense vegetation without a viable field of view, or on bare rocks or other features unsuitable for camera trapping, the camera may be placed anywhere within the 30 m radius of the centroid point that maximizes its field of view. If there is a game trail or other camera feature within 5m of the centroid (or within 30 m in cases where there is no field of view within 5 m), it is appropriate to position the camera such that its field of view encompasses the feature.

If the station is designated as type ‘float’, then the field team should choose what feature within 75 m of the cell centroid is most suitable for camera-trapping and likely to maximize detections of animals. The team should assess whether there is a suitable tree or whether a pole is needed. If this is the first deployment, the team member designated as the recorder should begin capturing the survey metadata in S123.

Camera Setup

Once a tree is selected or a pole is driven into the ground, select a camera and scan the barcode into S123. Choose and SD card and scan its barcode before inserting into the camera. If using a Browning Camera, insert a full complement of 8 fully charged Eneloop Pro batteries. If using a Solaris camera, ensure it is fully charged and that the solar panel is clear of dirt.

The person recording the camera metadata in S123 is responsible for ensuring the configuation settings are correct. First navigate to camera setup mode and then ensure that the date is correct and that the time is set to UTC (i.e., 3 hrs prior to EAT). Then delete all images (if using a Solaris camera, choose the format option). Ensure that each of the settings listed above are correct. Video settings do not need to be checked or changed. The camera name should be edited to the station label as designated in the GPX file of prospective sites.

When all camera settings have been edited and confirmed, cameras should be placed such that the motion detector is 45 cm above the ground and angled parallel to the slope of the terrain. Vegetation should be trimmed within the camera’s viewshed upto 15 m from the camera unless specified otherwise. In cases where vegetation cannot be cleared and obscures the field of view, cameras can be set as high as 2 m and angled slightly downwards. When placing cameras along tourist roads, emphasis should be put on using trees. If no tree is available, cameras along tourist roads can be placed on wooden poles, but not on metal poles.

Record details of the camera deployment in S123. The recorder must be standing within 2 m of the camera to ensure that he location is recorded accurately. Run the test setting on the camera to ensure the camera is functioning properly and angled to maximize detections. In S123, Browning camera detection distance should be set to 18 m.

Set the camera to its normal operating setting and record a photo of the white board with the station label, date and time info.

After setting a camera, confirm all steps in the camera deployment checklist have been followed:

Confirm the camera’s ssettings were checked.
Confirm the camera’s date and time were correct and recorded in UTC.
Confirm the empty SD card was inserted into the camera after its barcode was scanned.
Confirm a full complement of batteries.
Check all appropriate fields have been filled in Survey123
Confirm the recorded settings in S123 match the settings programmed in the camera.
Confirm the station is correctly recorded as type ‘fixed’ or ‘float’.
Confirm all features the camera is covering have been recorded.
Confirm the camera was set at the correct height and at a suitable angle and orientation.
Confirm the camera has been turned on.
Confirm the camera’s detector has been tested at a distance up to 5 m.
Confirm all necessary vegetation has been cleared without interfering with carbon sampling.
Confirm the camera is secure.
Confirm the camera recorded a photo of the white board with the sampling point ID and the date and time.
Confirm all equipment and other items have been collected.

When returning to the office, one team member is responsible for checking the deployments in S123 to ensure that the locations were captured correctly.

Report any challenges or issues to the PI or project officer.

Camera Check

Check the deployment coordinates on S123 prior to departing the office and ensure the exact station coordinates are loaded into a handheld GPS (do not rely on the coordinates of the prospective sites from the survey design). Ensure that all equipment including spare cameras and a full set of replacement batteries and SD cards is in the vehicle.

When approaching a camera, first allow it to take a picture to determine if it was still operational then check the battery and turn the camera off and scan the camera into S123. As a team, determine what, if any steps need to be conducted. Trim any vegetation as necessary and record the activity in S123. Replace batteries and SD card and scan the new SD card. Place the old SD card in a clearly marked bag. Record other details in S123 or redeploy the camera as needed. Recheck the date, time, and camera configuration settings are correct.

Set the camera to its normal operating setting and record a photo of the white board with the station label, date and time info.

After checking a camera, confirm all steps in the camera check checklist have been followed:

Confirm batteries were replaced and the camera has a proper charge.
Confirm the SD card was replaced and the new card was scanned.
Confirm vegetation was trimmed as needed.
Confirm all metadata has been captured in S123.
Confirm the camera is secure.
Confirm the camera is at the correct height and parallel to the ground.
Confirm he camera recorded a photo of the white board with the sampling point ID and the date and time.
Confirm all equipment and other items have been collected.

Camera Retrieval

When approaching a camera, first allow it to take a picture to determine if it was still operational then check the battery and turn the camera off and scan the camera into S123. Capture all metadata in S123 and check the site for any equipment or other items that may be left behind.

6. POST PROCESSING

This section details all steps that need to be followed after returning to the office from the field to ensure that samples are properly processed and stored and that data is uploaded and saved to the correct location.

6.2 DATA ENTRY AND UPLOADS

All metadata must be captured in the S123 app. If data cannot be entered into S123 in the field, then it must be entered when returning to the office and locations edited manually.

Within 3 days of retrieving SD cards from the field, all data must be uploaded to the ‘ns-ii-field-data-camera-trap-landing’ blob container within the ‘nsiifielddatacameratrap’ storage account under the ‘natural-state-field-data-sub’ subscription using the Microsoft Azure bulk uploader.

Editorial Note

NS will implement a system to record the end of the deployment period during the data upload process and capture this info through S123.

7.1 DESIGN DOCUMENTS

DD_RBP_RBS_v0.2.0

DD_RBP_C2Bio_V0.1.1

7.2 OTHER RELEVANT SOPS

SOP_RBP_C2Bio_v0.1.1

S123 Data upload SOP [in development]
CT Data Annoation SOP [in development]

7.3 DATA ELEMENTS

S123 data collection form - Camera-trapping

8. REVISION AND VERSION HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION

v0.1.0 - Initial operating procedure following the RBS survey and adoption of S123 for capturing metadata. v0.1.1 - Update of Browning Elite HP 5 settings following device testing

9. SIGNATURES OF CONFIRMATION

Principal Investigator: _____________ Date: _____________

Director of Impact Insights: ___________ Date: _____________

10. APPENDICES

None currently available