A series of images almost lost…!

A black leopard on a wildlife trail in Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, western Thailand.

It is now late April in the forest of Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary, my favorite-place in Thailand. The first rains have come and doused the dangerous forest fires that spread through the sanctuary during the dry hot season starting in March.

A full-frame shot of the leopard.

As usual, I’m setting-up camera traps at various mineral deposits (natural seeps) around a ranger station deep in the interior accessible only by a dirt road. These waterholes are visited by all the large mammals including tiger and leopard, and provide excellent opportunities for some great animal shots.

An elephant on the trail.

As I was going through a few of my old camera traps changing out cards and batteries, I decided to have a quick look at a 2GB card that was in my Sony S600/SSI/1020, one of my first cams using a Pelican box.

Looks like the bigger elephant lost the end of its tail.

Imagine my surprise to see a shot of a ‘black leopard’ in mid-afternoon walking on the trail. Other denizens caught include elephant, tapir, sambar, wild pig and muntjac (barking deer) over a month period back in February to early March of this year. The cam recorded some 400 images on two ‘AA’ lithiums mostly elephants and sambar. It truly was a bonus and I actually closed out the program with this cam.

Mature sambar stag.

I actually forgot to download the card and if I had formatted it, only a recovery program could have got them back as long as I had not filled the card with other images. Been there done that…!

Young elephant checking out the cam.

The black leopard brought back fond memories of this place more than 15 years ago. I was sitting in a tree blind up by the hot springs when a black leopard walked in about 4pm and posed for me at several places for over an hour.

Another sambar stag.

These were in the old days of slide film, and I did not know how good the shots were until the film was processed. Here are a few images from that lucky sequence many years ago.

Asian tapir rear-end.

The morel of this story: Make sure you double-check and download all your cards before formatting, or you may loose some valuable images like I almost did…!

Wild pig in the late afternoon.

Look for the, bear necessities. The simple bear necessitites. Forget about your worries and your strife. I mean the, bear necessities. Oh, mother nature’s recipies. That bring the bear necessities to life.

I was quite surprised when I saw these videos the first time and then read the lyrics from The Jungle Book movie, just how good a fit they are. There definitely seems to be some form of enjoyment going on. Its a bit like a life lesson for us all – simple pleasures are usually the best…read more

You can see more of my Thailand Wildlife articles, videos and photographs at WildlifeThailand.com

Paul W.

An Asiatic Black Bear (Ursus thibetanus) exploring at night in Thailand’s Eastern Forest Complex.

Asiatic Black Bear – Ursus thibetanus.

You can see more of my Thailand Wildlife articles, videos and photographs at WildlifeThailand.com

Paul W.

The Lord of Thailand’s jungles, a wild male Indochinese tiger, Panthera tigris corbetti. Hunted to near extinction throughout the world over the last century, he is one of perhaps 200 to 300 surviving tigers in Thailand.

He is one of a very small group still surviving in Thailand’s Eastern Forest Complex. He hangs on to his existence deep in Thailand’s forests against all hope and especially against the ravages of poaching and of habitat loss.

His survival is largely due to the hard work and dedication of the staff of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation.

A wild Thai male Indochinese tiger - Panthera tigris corbetti.

Paul W.

You can see more of my Thailand Wildlife articles, videos and photographs at WildlifeThailand.com

Odd-toed ungulates and other fauna in Western Thailand

Some 40 million years ago, the tapir evolved and was found on many continents including North America. These creatures are now thriving in only two areas of the world: Southeast Asia has one species and South America three. The Asian tapir is the largest and have a very distinct two-tone black and white color pattern that acts like natural camouflage, especially at night where the black breaks up its outline. These odd-toed ungulates are now becoming quite rare due to poaching for their meat, and encroachment in tapir habitat.

These creatures were camera trapped from early January to late February 2013 using three homebrew camera traps.

A young tapir with a distinct ear marking on a wildlife trail.

Another more mature tapir a week later.

A mature female tapir.

Other animals caught include elephant, gaur, sambar, porcupine and red jungle fowl.

Elephants posing for the cam.

Gaur pass through

Sambar are very common here.

A couple of porcupines.

A red jungle fowl rooster at the waterhole.

Somethings you just don’t expect to see when you are looking at the results of a few months camera trapping….

Paul W.

You can see more Thailand Wildlife articles, videos and photographs at WildlifeThailand.com

A home-brew’s final stint at a fox den in Amboseli National Park, southern Kenya

Bat-eared fox cub in its den

I took a Sony S40/Plano 1449/SSII/4 double AA externals to southern Kenya in December 2012 to be used in quick set-ups with minimum security (no Python locking cable) mainly to be used by the side of the road. The first location was Amboseli National Park near Mount Kilomanjaro where I captured a rare carnivore: a whole den of bat-eared foxes.

A mature bat-eared fox near its den.

As me and my driver/guide Patrick Njoroge were on game drive, we noticed two adult foxes running away from their den that was about 10 feet from the road. I got some nice shots of the adults in great light. I decided to leave the cam overnight in some rocks near the ground as the site looked promising.

Another mature fox on the run in the afternoon

While setting up the cam, I heard the pups in the den and one of them actually barked at me. I sat in the truck and waited, and in a few minutes a young one popped its head out shown in the lead photo. I had a great time shooting the little carnivore with my Nikon D3s/600mm.

Bat-eared foxes checking out the S40

We left shortly thereafter so as not to disturb them and let the home-brew do its work. That night, two adults and four cubs were caught by the S40. The next morning I was elated to see that this family was surviving in Amboseli. I downloaded everything from the card immediately. It’s a good thing I did too…!

Getting closer seemingly unafraid of the flash

Later that day we moved to Tsavo West National Park situated east where I previously had set-up a Bushnell Trophy Cam at a waterhole deep in the park. With no cable, the S40 attached with tape was vulnerable but I thought who would steal a cam way out here. Boy, was that ever a big mistake. That night, a hyena came and took the cam, and the Bushnell recorded it all as seen on my previous post ‘Bad Hyena Night’.

Young cubs unafraid.

It’s hard to believe an African hyena would actually take my cam. Somehow, the creature must have been attracted to the salt residue left by my hands is the only explanation I have. The next morning on our way out, we looked around but could not find it. We left but I accepted the fact the S40 was gone but it had done a brilliant job of catching the foxes and that was that…!

My favorite S40 shot.

I wonder where the S40 is? Could it be down the hyenas den still tripping? Is it a chew-thing for the hyena cubs? I will never know.

The moral of this story; whenever you can, always download your card or you could loose a lot….!

Enjoy.

This is what happens when you get lax….or was it just an oversight…? Needless to say, I lost my great little Sony S40 cam in a Plano 1449 and SSII with double AA externals to some tenacious hyenas. It was a great little cam and took good photos. And yes, it was the S40 hacked by Joe 12-Ringer I won in last year’s camera trap competition held by this forum. I took this homebrew to Kenya as a quick-setup cam mainly to be used by the side of the road and hence, there was no ‘Python’ locking cable. Unfortunately, I also lost a whole bunch of photos the cam took because I used some sticky tape to hold it in position above a Bushnell Trophy Cam. The rest is history and a first for me.

PS: I do have two spare S40s with boxes and sensor boards that will be built some time in the near future. They are great little cams…!

Building, preparing, setting up and maintaining automatic cameras is a very difficult task. It takes a lot of of time, effort, patience and luck. Luck is a major factor, you need the luck that your camera system does not fall foul of the elements and you need the luck that you picked the right spot and some animals will pass by. Many times you will have not quite got something correct and you need to adjust the camera slightly, tweak it left, tweak it right. And sometimes you just get a concerned passerby who sees something is not quite right and decides to give a helping hand.

Two Asian tapir video camera trapped at a waterhole deep in the ‘Western Forest Complex’ in the daytime. This male and female visited this mineral seep several times over two days. These ‘living fossils’ are seldom seen in the day and this video is some rare footage….!