Pros and Cons

*Portable/Easy to use
Ability to estimate the density of different species (Bolen, 2012)

*Small footprint on environment
Camera trap research leads to conservation efforts (“Camera Traps,” 2014)

*Ability to identify presence of unknown animals
Ability to monitor a large range of land

Camera traps can be used multiple times for multiple studies (Can and Togan, 2009)

*Animals remain in their natural habitat

Multiple camera traps can be placed in a zoned area

Able to put camera traps at different angles

Multiple pictures can be taken in a specific area

Ability to spaciously spread out camera traps to maximize research

Ability to set camera traps for a short and/or long period of time

Ability to create capture histories in electronic databases (CAPTURE)

Ability to identify travel routes of different species (Soisalo and Cavalcanti, 2006)

*High costs to purchase camera traps (Can and Togan, 2009)
*Remains stationary
Expensive
Limits range of movement of a particular species
Limitations of closed models
“Trap-happy” condition can occur after first capture (usually caused by luring or baiting)
Bias towards movement of animals (Soisalo and Cavalcanti, 2006)
*Difficulty getting film developed
Camera traps are located in remote places (challenging for human monitoring)
Animals might avoid camera traps, because of light from camera
Cameras malfunction due to adverse climates, heat/moisture (“Camera Traps,” 2014)