Camera Trap Tips

Being successful with deploying DSLR camera traps or trail cameras has more to do with your approach, grit, and being a willing student of nature than anything else. The technology, although important, is a distant second. Here are a few tips that have worked for me over decades of filming wildlife with remote cameras.

GET TO KNOW A FEW PLACES WELL

Find your own Walden Ponds. Spend time in them frequently during different times of year, time of day, weather, etc. Snow, mud, rain, clear skies, embrace it all. Why? Because over time you’ll see changes that you wouldn’t see otherwise. Learn how the air flows over the country. Animals that depend on their nose for survival pay attention to air currents. When it comes to predators, lean into the prey animals and study where they are concentrated during certain times of year, and why. Study the riparian areas like your life depends on that knowledge. This is typically the best habitat in an entire ecosystem.

AVOID SHORTCUTS

Avoid using any type of scent, audio, visual or food lures to bait wildlife in front of your cameras. Not only is this harmful to wildlife but you’ll learn absolutely nothing about wildlife using lures. Give yourself the gift of learning their natural, wild behavior. By avoiding shortcuts you’ll be forced to pay attention to more connections in nature and in the end have a much richer experience everytime you step off the pavement.

One of the greatest benefits of using camera traps is being able to capture this completely wild behavior. Wild animals do not put up your human scent or presence. You’ll learn a tremendous amount about wildlife, their habitat and habits and something about yourself as another mammal in nature.

FIND WILD PLACES WITH WILD WILDLIFE

Although it’s easy to set up a camera in your backyard, you won’t learn much about the wild behavior of wildlife as these animals are habituated to humans. Find some public ground and begin exploring potential travel routes of wildlife. Learn how to confidently and safely navigate on and off trail. There is great joy in find a place that nobody else has and returing to it time and time again throughout the year with nary another soul around. Check out my Ten Essentials Plus page to learn about tips for being safe in the backcountry.

CAMERA SETUP TIPS

You’ve found a spring or wildlife trail and now you’re ready to set up a camera. Think about the animals you are interested in filming or photographing. The camera height should match the midline of the body cavity minus a few inches. This is where the internal organs sit and they give off the strongest heat signature, something that is used by the passive infrared sensor (PIR) on the camera along with motion to trigger the camera. For mountain lions I prefer a camera height between thirteen and fifteen inches. I rarely place a camera above my knee in height.

If you are setting up on a trail, the ideal situation is finding a section of trail that is rising away from the camera at a rate of a foot or two every hundred yards. This ensures there is ground, terra firma, behind the animal. This magnifies the heat signature coming off the animal into the sensor. The camera will trigger quicker and longer, allowing for a longer video clip or more images.

CHOOSING A CAMERA

In addition to my current favorite camera below, I’ve included a list of other items you might consider to capture the highest quality footage. There is very little difference in cost between a camera that Sasquatch feels comfortable walking in front of (think blurry black and white video or images) and the camera that captured this lion crossing the stream.

If you’re interested in filming mountain lions and other wildlife with remote cameras, or you simply want to learn how mountain lions navigate and hunt across the landscape, consider signing up for the Mountain Lion Workshop. I’ll walk you through the steps I use, A-Z to find mountain lion activity consistently and film these apex predators successfully. You’ll have a detailed map of the area you want to explore, up to 100 square miles, and the specific steps necessary to achieve the same results. To be successful requires significant time afield but I guarantee that this workshop will save you years of figuring out what took me over 30,000 hours in the field to master.

One Recommended Camera (Contact me to help you find the best price)

Browning Recon Force Elite HP5: https://browningtrailcameras.com/products/recon-force-elite-hp5

This camera records the best daytime color and black and white nighttime video of the Browning Recon Force line of cameras. This camera includes a timer, allowing you to set when the camera is active. I use the timer when I find a freshly killed elk or deer carcass, setting up for night video only to avoid birds during the day. There are many other excellent uses of a timer.

ACCESSORIES

Batteries: Hixon Rechargeable Lithium AA Batteries

Hixon AA Lithium Rechargeable batteries, better than Energizer Lithium batteries.

Important Note: These batteries require buying the Hixon charger. You cannot use another AA battery charger. This will cost you a one time purchase of the charger. Order the first set of batteries with the charger.

Avoid using alkaline batteries. They discharge on a 45 degree slope and once the batteries get to 74% they will give you call kinds of problems. For example, instead of getting a full 20 second clip at night (default), you’ll get seven seconds then three seconds then 12 seconds. It will be all over the map. Avoid NiMH batteries as well. They are worse than alkaline batteries. Again, AA lithium batteries are the way to go. And instead of recycling AA batteries, by the rechargeable lithium batteries. After three for four charges you’ll be using batteries for free, for 400 years!

SD Memory Card: Sandisk 32GB class 10 cards

For the SD cards, buy the full size cards that write at 80 - 100 MB per second. You can pick these up on Amazon for about $9.00 per card! That's a screaming deal. Don't buy anything less than a 32GB card. I’d recommend a 64GB card if you are using the Browning Defender Wireless camera, filming the nesting cycle of a bird, or anytime you are visiting the camera every few months.

Metal Security Case for Camera: CamLockBox

Yes, you’ll pay an extra ten or fifteen bucks for these boxes but they are by far the best when it comes to fit and finish. I have nothing but good things to say about this company. I use these boxes where there are bears as the boxes reduce the amount of damage the camera will sustain. These are simply the best I’ve used in three decades.

Cable Lock for Camera and/or Camera plus Metal Case: MasterLock Python Lock - keyed alike, 5/16 cable

Purchase the cable locks from AllPadlocks.com. You'll want the 5/16 cable used with the MasterLock Python lock. When you order locks, use the option for "keyed alike" so that if you have more than one camera all of the locks are opened with one key. That saves me a lot of time with 43 cameras in the field.

Camera Tripod: Sabrent Universal tripod

Finally, if you are using these in areas where trees are limited, consider a short tripod. I like the Sabrent Universal Tripod. This gives you ultimate flexibility. Just make sure you set it up where nobody will see it as it won't be locked. I place rocks against or on the legs to sturdy the tripod. This gives you unlimited flexibility without relying on a tree.

Another feature of this Sabrent tripod that is so handy is the built in ball head that locks tight, even for heavy DSLR units. It is easy to see and with a quick release of the knob you can level the camera, tighten and know that the horizon, trees, etc will be level, avoiding the challenges of adjusting the image or video later and losing part of the scene due to cropping.

Video Player: VLC Media Player

The free VLC Media Player is a great video player. You can modify the brightness, saturation and many other elements on the fly. But the best feature is the ability to save a video frame as an image. I always capture video with these cameras. I never have the camera set in image mode. And I typically capture one minute or two minute videos. The image below was created with the VLC Media Player.