Understanding predator-prey dynamics using camera traps in the Bauges Reserve, France
Since June, the LWA EU C3 OFB team has installed 60 camera traps in a 52km2 area of the Bauges National Hunting and Wildlife Reserve (RNCFS), in order to monitor and study prey-predator interactions and human activities. These camera traps make it possible to study the co-occurrence of animal species (wild, domestic, human) in space and time, with the aim of better understanding how they interact with each other.
To date, over 500,000 photographs have been collected. The RNCFS des Bauges is home to a wide variety of species. Two large predators have been detected: 62 wolf sightings and 3 lynx sightings. We were even able to document an event that is rarely: a wolf in full form chasing an extenuated chamois!
A wolf on the trail of a chamois, caught in a camera trap
A lynx caught in one of the camera traps
The study will continue this winter with a reduced set-up, due to the inaccessibility of certain parts of the reserve due to snow, and will start again on the same basis next spring.
Stay tuned for more news!
The OFB LIFE WOLFALPS team
