The IUCN wildlife monitoring team has placed 20 hidden cameras all over the Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park during the first week of June and the first spectacular results are here presented. Purchased in the framework of the project “Institutional support for Protected Areas in Albania”, they are helping the team to assess the presence and distribution of the wildlife species in the protected area. The findings will be included in the protected area database being currently developed, used for the management plan preparation, for raising public awareness as well as the long term monitoring of wildlife in Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park.
Camera trapping is a technique used in the last years worldwide for the research and recording of the wildlife presence. Main advantages of this technique are minimal disturbance to wildlife and possibility to confirm and prove the presence of particular species in the area. At the same time, camera trapping enables the determination of some behaviour and activity patterns of animals. In some cases this technique can also provide quantitative information on population of different species.
The Animal Ecology Team Experts Bledi Hoxha, PPNEA, and Francesca Pella, IUCN, held several days long training on this technique for the project local collaborators and the Shebenik-Jabllanicë National Park staff. At the end of the training a week was dedicated to setting the cameras in different sectors of the park, in order to cover as homogeneously as possible the area.
The process of camera trapping is now in its most exciting phase as the first pictures are being downloaded! The photo selection is accessible here.
The process of camera’s checking will continue every two weeks. This will be done by the collaborators and the Park staff, namely Enver Koci, Mitat Biçaku, Lavdim Qoshi, Erjola Katiaj, Lulieta Koçi and Bledar Pepa until August. We hope to share more thrilling results in the next “Advance Albania newsletter”. Stay tuned!
Prepared by Andrea Ghiurghi, IUCN and Mirjan Topi, PPNEA
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