Secret lives of animals captured by hidden camera

Story from PRI’s The World. Listen to audio above for full report.

The group Conservation International has installed cameras in tropical areas in Brazil, Costa Rica, Indonesia, Laos, Suriname, Tanzania and Uganda. The cameras shoot pictures 24/7 for a study of mammals.

Conservation International has organized all 52,000 of these images and has released a study based on what these pictures reveal.

Jorge Ahumada, with Conservation International, explained the “camera trap study” on The World: “We use cameras to capture animals doing what they’re doing. So the camera works with a heat censor, and so whenever there’s a change in the heat signature in front of it — if a warm body walks in front of it — then it will trigger a number of images, and that’s how we get these animals.”

Photo: Southern pig-tailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) in Indonesia. (Photo courtesy of Wildlife Conservation Society, a member of the TEAM network.)

View a slideshow of these pictures on The World website.

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PRI’s “The World” is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. “The World” is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston. More about The World.