Camera-trapping for mammals

Camera traps have been around for a while now, and many people will have seen them used on TV to find rare animals in all parts of the world - most notably the tigers in the mountains of Bhutan.

But you don't need to go to exotic places to use camera traps - do you know what is visiting your garden?  I discovered three previously unknown cats visiting mine after dark!

Now, with financial assistance from the Pembrokeshire Biodiversity Partnership, we have three camera traps to use across the county to see what mammals are out there.  The target species are stoats, weasels, polecats and hedgehogs - animals that are under-recorded in general - as well as some of the smaller critters like mice, voles and shrews.

The overall idea is that anyone with a rural garden, smallholding or farm can host the traps for a week, then they are moved on to another site. 

To get an even coverage across the county, I'm hoping for people to volunteer sites in each 10km square.  Once every square has one week of coverage, we'll be looking for second, third and fourth sites in those squares.

What is a 10km square?  For the uninitiated, the 10km x 10km squares are shown on the map below:

If you are interested in taking part, contact me here