Researchers compile largest-ever photo database of Amazon wildlife

[UngulateNerd92]

• Researchers have compiled more than 154,000 records of camera trap images form the Amazon Rainforest, recording 317 species of birds, mammals and reptiles.
• This is the first study to compile and standardize camera trap images from across the Amazon at this scale, and covers Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.
• The authors say this camera trap data set opens up opportunities for new studies on forest fragmentation, habitat loss, climate change, and the human-caused loss of animals “in one of the most important and threatened tropical environments in the world.”

In the world’s largest rainforest, wildlife crawls, hops, flies and prowls through every nook and cranny. Most animals are adept at hiding from humans, though, so finding them can be tough. To do so, many researchers rely on camera traps — motion sensing, often camouflaged cameras placed strategically throughout the forest.

Scientists have been gathering camera trap images across the Amazon for the past few decades, but that data has remained scattered, until now. A group of researchers have compiled more than 154,000 records of camera trap images, recording 317 species: 185 birds, 119 mammals and 13 reptiles.

The new data paper, published in the journal Ecology, draws upon records from 147 scientists representing 122 research institutions and was led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and Friedrich Schiller University Jena.

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