Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Drawn to the cameras

  • mistyfriday by mistyfriday

    I have been helping to classify on this project for quite a few seasons now. I don't know if it is just me, but it appears that there are so many more captures of animals coming in and looking at the camera. Perhaps the noise when it captures, or they observe something unusual. And then there is of course those animals that make a run for it during a capture. I wonder if there are any subtle changes in their behavior?
    Needless to say, I don't see all of the images, but the ones I see seem to have so many more camera interactions in them. Any input on this from others?

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  • davidbygott by davidbygott moderator

    Hi Misty, good to see you too are still drawn to the cameras! I don't think the cameras make any significant noise, but I do think that they may have become olfactory 'noticeboards'. We have seen warthogs scratch themselves on the boxes, elephants fondle them, probably all the cats spray-mark them or face-rub on them, so over time they collect a rich blend of aromas, and animals come up to check them and sniff out who's recently been there. When a herbivore catches a blast of fresh predator scent, that may cause a startle reaction. And so on. That's my theory!

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  • tillydad by tillydad moderator in response to davidbygott's comment.

    That seems like a sound theory - smell is such an important sense for these animals that they would certainly need to check out who the recent visitors have been .

    There may also be a small degree of the animals being startled by the noise, however minimal to us . The sense of hearing in these animals is so much better than our own and so what is a small noise to us may appear quite sudden, loud and alien to some of the more sensitive animals .

    Yet another fascinating element of behaviour that we are seeing on these cameras 😃

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  • mistyfriday by mistyfriday

    Thanks for your comments and insight. I was focused on sight and sound forgetting scent. Thanks for the education. Today I got the email from the chimp and see project people. Someone is actually doing a project about this. There is a beautiful sequence of an #elephant coming through the trees up to the camera and then reacts to it. From what you say, maybe it is the scent causing the reaction. Here are the links to the videos, I hope they work correctly #elephant ACP0007up5 ACP0007up9 ACP0007upc ACP0007upf See the Animal Selfies discussion.

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