How did Hidden Habitats begin?
The idea for Hidden Habitats came off the back of some time that I spent on a conservation research project just outside of Corcovado National Park on Costa Rica’s beautiful Pacific coast. Corcovado is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world, home to many species of flora and fauna, such as scarlet macaws, tapirs, jaguars and various types of primate. It was a specific project focused on another remarkable animal that started all of this however.
During the 8 or so weeks I spent at the camp, I was fortunate to take part in a research project aimed at documenting and studying the Neotropical river otter (Lontra longicaudis). The project involved early morning starts to trek several hours along the various streams that flowed around the area. Once far enough away from camp, the small group of volunteers would search for signs of this elusive creature, usually in the form of scat (a scientific name for poop). It was easy to distinguish the Neotropical river otter scat due to its eating habits, primarily crustaceons, whose shells would not be digested and remain visible. Finding this tell tale sign would tell us that we were in a good spot for the next stage of the process: setting up camera traps.
The group was taught the importance of where the camera traps (a remote, motion-triggered camera) were placed. Ideally you’d place it close to where we saw evidence of the animal presence. However, we also learnt that you should try to find locations where the animals are most likely to pass by or spend time. For the Neotropical river otter, this meant any kind of perch such as a log or rock where they might take their catch to consume, or narrow gaps on the banks which they might use to move up and down the stream unnoticed.
Having not use remote camera traps before, it was a really interesting process and a lot of fun to try to get into the mind of the otters and try to predict where they might travel. Once we had decided where to place the cameras, the project leader asked us to get down on our hands and knees, doing our best otter impression to test the cameras were firing and aimed correctly. Sadly I no longer have these photos, but it was fun to see them a couple of weeks later once we collected the cameras. This is definitely something I’d like to incorporate into Hidden Habitats, where every student who takes part receives a printed image of themself pretending be a small critter, primarily testing the camera, but also as a fun souvenir from the experience.
There are few things that have got me more excited than re-tracing our steps to find the cameras, having left them to quietly go about their business for a couple of weeks while we worked on other projects. Returning to camp with various SD cards (we would typically replace the SD cards and leave the cameras in the field, with a fresh set of batteries of course) was so thrilling, knowing there could be any number of things in those files. Obviously we were hoping for plenty of otter images, but it doesn’t always work like that. A lot like fishing, all you can do is set yourself up for success in catching a particular species and hope for the best. I have very fond memories of getting everyone together in the evening at camp, all huddled around a laptop to see what we got. There were always your usual suspects (squirrels, opossums, mice etc), but occasionally you’d click to reveal something truly special. Seeing the screen flick to an image of a large puma strolling beside the stream was something I’ll never forget. Wow. We also got our fair share of neotropical river otter images too, which was great and ultimately made the project a success.
Fast-forward around 8 years, I was gifted a remote camera trap for a birthday. I hadn’t really thought about them since being in Costa Rica, but I loved the gift and spent a lot of time setting it up capturing the local wildlife. It was around this time that I started thinking about how effective it could be as a tool in the classroom to teach young students about the animals that live around them and to provide the opportunity to go through the same process that I found so enjoyable in Costa Rica. While it’s still early days and Hidden Habitats hasn’t really launched yet, I’m so excited about the future and what this could become. Thanks for reading.
