A non-invasive approach to measuring body dimensions of wildlife with camera traps: A felid field trial.

ABSTRACT: Dimensions of body size are an important measurement in animal ecology, although they can be difficult to obtain due to the effort and cost associated with the invasive nature of these measurements. We avoid these limitations by using camera trap images to derive dimensions of animal size. To obtain measurements of object dimensions using this method, the size of the object in pixels, the focal length of the camera, and the distance to that object must be known. We describe a novel approach of obtaining the distance to the object through the creation of a portable distance marker, which, when photographed, creates a "reference image" to determine the position of the animal within an image. This method allows for the retrospective analysis of existing datasets and eliminates the need for pe

SUBMITTER: Paton AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11216788 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature