Using it the Right-way 

You can learn more about the 2 Ha Plot: Tracks, Scats, Diggings & Signs Survey on the “How we check on things” page and in the Environmental Monitoring Method 2 Ha Plot: Tracks, Scats, Diggings & Signs Survey.

Aerial Surveys 

This is a method where a helicopter or small aircraft is flown over a large area of Country to look for Feral Camels. You can use this method to monitor how many Feral Camel there are and where they are living on Country.  

What can you learn?

• Presence/absence – if and where Camels live on Country
• Population size – how many of Camels live on Country

Camera Traps

Camera traps can be used to monitor Camels. They can be set to automatically take photos or videos when an animal passes the camera. You can make your monitoring more efficient and cost effective by monitoring multiple species (including native and introduced species) with this method.

You will need to buy good quality remote cameras, but not much training is needed for deploying cameras or identifying species in the images. Images can also be processed first with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, which can be useful when you have large numbers of images.

What can you learn?

• Where Camels live:
  • Occupancy – the proportion of sites occupied by a species.
  • Changes over time – are species being detected at the same sites every year, or are they disappearing from some and/or appearing at other sites?
  • Habitat preferences – does the species only occur in particular habitats?
• Detection frequency – how often are they being detected in an area?
• Behaviour – what they are doing in the photos?
• Activity – You can know when they are active or pass through areas. This can also be used as an indicator of how large the population might be.
• You can collect data from seeing Camels in an image. You might be able to identify their age, sex, group size, health (skinny or fat) etc.

Using it the Right-way

• Animals use lots of different habitat types, so make sure the cameras are spread across all of the different major habitat types found on Country. If possible, have replicates in each habitat type.
• Use this method in areas suitable for camera trapping i.e. open enough to take photos or along trails, good access.
• Avoid putting cameras in areas prone to flooding or becoming seasonally inaccessible, or make sure you bring in cameras before it becomes inaccessible.
• Camels are generally diurnal but can be active at all times of day.
• If there is an obvious path or area that Camels use, you can set up cameras to face this path. Angle the camera down the path, so that you increase the amount of time the camera has to take pictures as Camels pass by.
• Camels have a large body, so should easily trigger the camera sensors. You can use the standard camera trapping set up (height of 30 - 40 cm from ground) to monitor them/alternative height or set up e.g. in tree, lower or higher etc.
• Place cameras 1 kilometre apart.
• Whenever possible, proof image classifications (including images with “nothing” in them), especially when using AI.

You can learn more about camera traps on the “How we check on things” page and in the Environmental Monitoring Method Landscape Scale Camera Trap Monitoring.