Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature

by Roland W. Kays

A riveting collection of photographs that captures wild animals in their native habitats. In Candid Creatures , the first major book to reveal the secret lives of animals through motion-sensitive game cameras, biologist Roland Kays has assembled over 600 remarkable photographs. Drawing from archives of millions of color and night-vision photographs collected by hundreds of researchers, Kays has selected images that show the unique perspectives of wildlife from throughout the world. Using these photos, he tells the stories of scientific discoveries that camera traps have enabled, such as living proof of species thought to have been extinct and details of predator-prey interactions. Each image captures a moment frozen in the camera’s flash as animals move through their wild habitats. Kays also discusses how scientists use camera traps to address conservation issues, creating solutions that allow humans and wild animals to coexist. More than just a collection of amazing animal pictures, the book’s text, maps, and illustrations work together to describe the latest findings in the fast-moving field of wildlife research.

Candid Creatures is a testament to how the explosion of game cameras around the world has revolutionized the study of animal ecology. The powerful combination of pictures and stories of discovery will fascinate anyone interested in science, nature, wildlife biology, or photography.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Photography, Animals, Natural History

280 pages, Hardcover

Published May 1, 2016

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever bookmarked a webcam? Maybe one at an African watering hole or at a bird’s nest? Have you found yourself obsessively checking back, to see what’s been happening, which animals are visiting or what the parent birds are feeding their chicks?

This book gives you another look into the secret lives of animals. Biologists are getting more & more creative about collecting data without invading animal lives overtly. I’ve read in the past about setting bait with barbwire surrounds, meaning that the animals that claim the bait will leave behind hair on the barbs from which genetic info can be gleaned, but this is even less invasive—let a remote camera gather your data.

The only downside that I can see is that animals DO notice the cameras, with greater and lesser amounts of hostility. Chimps check them out, but generally leave them alone once they’re sure the camera isn’t harmful. Elephants, on the other hand, seem to use the “Hulk smash” form of camera exploration.

I spent over 15 years in volunteer natural history education, often feeling like I had been studying for that position since I first began to read, and yet there were animals covered in this collection that I had never heard of. Plus interesting ways of using camera trap data to learn more about these elusive creatures’ lives. However, the book begins with an animal we all feel familiar with: tigers. (Because the world and the internet are all about teh kittehs.) Field work with big predators can be difficult (they are elusive) and even dangerous (the big ones can kill humans), so remote cameras are a boon to the researcher.

Covering animals from Aardvarks to Vampire bats, in this book you get the “greatest hits” from camera traps from all over the world. I particularly appreciated a few illustrations from the Canadian Rocky Mountains, just west of my city. U of Calgary’s Environmental Design department featured a display a number of years ago of photos from some of their trail cameras which were fascinating. A group of hikers on a trail, followed seconds later by a cougar or a grizzly bear.

Nature lovers will be rewarded by reading this book & enjoying the great photos. Since I recommended that our public library purchase this book, I am very pleased that it is such an interesting volume.

[Justus Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Review first published in Shelf Awareness).

In Candid Creatures, Roland Kay, head of the Biodiversity and Earth Observation Laboratory at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, collects images from automated camera traps that help us understand and decode animal behavior and habitats. Kay collaborated with 153 research groups to feature the 613 photographs in this remarkable collection. Candid Creatures is distinctive in the astonishing quality of its photographs depicting a diverse cast of animals, from tigers to the less well-known servaline genet, a small-prey hunter in African forests.

Camera traps have enabled the scientific community to research and estimate animal numbers and habitats and identify habits and behavior patterns they would otherwise be unable to witness in person. Ideal for observation, the technology is relatively noninvasive, though as is evidenced by many of the photographs, some animals do take notice. Animal and habitat conservation efforts receive much-needed support thanks to the increased visibility and concrete evidence of the plights these animals and areas face--though Kay is quick to note that scientists are not the only people using this form of photography. Camera traps are widely used by hunters and have become increasingly popular with hobby naturalists and animal lovers. People without the ability to set their own traps can access live Internet feeds and apps to discover nature without threatening or disturbing habitats. Kay's writing and research show how such photos expose a complicated ecosystem people are just starting to discover.

[Jonas Gehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is in three parts, pictures of different animals, a more integrated look at different habitats and some different issues that camera traps have helped with as supporting evidence. The main feature of the book are the different pictures of animals taken with camera traps which are often beatiful and is clearly the main attraction of the book. So much so that it often feels like the text was not really necessary and especially in the first section the text is mostly uninteresting, as there is not a lot of good information in it. The later sections read a lot better because of the focus on an overarching theme instead of a single animal species and the level of the writing picks up.

[Janet Pesaturo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a how-to book, but rather a work designed to inspire interest in wildlife and to show how camera trapping has allowed scientists to gain insight into the private lives and rarely observed behaviors of wild animals around the world. Not limited to any one region, it includes an interesting mix of mostly charismatic animals. A range map is provided for each one, as well as interesting tidbits of information about the species, and how trail cameras have advanced our understanding. A beautiful, inspiring, well-written, informative book.