Exciting results from
camera traps!
The IUCN wildlife
monitoring team has placed 20 hidden cameras all over the Shebenik-Jabllanicë
National Park during the first week of June and the first spectacular results
are here presented. Purchased in the framework of the project “Institutional
support for Protected Areas in Albania”, they are helping the team to assess
the presence and distribution of the wildlife species in the protected area.
The findings will be included in the protected area database being currently
developed, used for the management plan preparation, for raising public
awareness as well as the long term monitoring of wildlife in Shebenik-Jabllanicë
National Park.
Camera trapping is a
technique used in the last years worldwide for the research and recording of
the wildlife presence. Main advantages of this technique are minimal
disturbance to wildlife and possibility to confirm and prove the presence of
particular species in the area. At the same time, camera trapping enables the
determination of some behaviour and activity patterns of animals. In some cases
this technique can also provide quantitative information on population of
different species.
The Animal Ecology
Team Experts Bledi Hoxha, PPNEA, and Francesca Pella, IUCN, held several days
long training on this technique for the project local collaborators and the
Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park staff. At the end of the training a week was
dedicated to setting the cameras in different sectors of the park, in order to
cover as homogeneously as possible the area.
The process of camera
trapping is now in its most exciting phase as the first pictures are being
downloaded! The photo selection is accessible.
The process of
camera’s checking will continue every two weeks. This will be done by the
collaborators and the Park staff, namely Enver Koci, Mitat Biçaku, Lavdim
Qoshi, Erjola Katiaj, Lulieta Koçi and Bledar Pepa until August. We hope to
share more thrilling results in the next “Advance Albania newsletter”. Stay
tuned!
Prepared by Andrea
Ghiurghi, IUCN and Mirjan Topi, PPNEA
From ; iucn.org