Inside the Bushnell Core DS 4K Trail Camera
Teardown of Bushnell Core DS 4K Trail Camera, featuring insights into design and manufacturing quality. Video of teardown provided as a reference.
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Black Bears Eating Insects: Foraging Sign & Behavior
Only about 10-25% of the black bear’s diet is animal food, which in most regions is in the form of colonial insects and beetles. Recently we captured some great footage of a sow with cubs digging a nest of wasps … Continue reading →
Deep Tech: Trail Camera Detection Zones
Knowing the detection zone pattern can help produce more “true triggers” and fewer “false triggers.” In an earlier post Deep Tech: Trail Camera PIR Sensors I covered some of the details of PIR sensors. Based on feedback from subscribers, though, I realized that I had missed some subtle aspects of the Fresnel lens optics and detection zones for PIR sensors. In this post, I look more closely at trail camera detection zones, and how they work. I also give a straightforward way to find the detection zones in most cameras. I use this method to measure the detection zones for three camera models.
Continue reading →Grizzly Bear Root Grubbing: Foraging Sign, Favored Plants, Site Selection
With longer, straighter claws and a larger shoulder hump, grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis) are better diggers than black bears, and much more likely to dig for food. So it’s no surprise that roots comprise a greater portion of the … Continue reading →
Deep Tech: Rechargeable Li-Ion AA Batteries for Trail Cameras
In this post I look explore capacity vs. temperature and discharge rates for rechargeable Li-Ion AA batteries from TenaVolts, EBL, and Pownergy
Continue reading →Browning Spec Ops Elite HP5 Teardown
Teardown of Browning Spec Ops Elite HP5 (BTC-8E-HP5). The PIR sensor “blinders” are gone and there’s a new lens configuration.
Continue reading →Fisher Scent Marking
Many mammals use urine, scat, and glandular secretions to communicate information about their identity, territorial ownership, social status, sexual readiness, etc., and fishers, Pekania pennanti (formerly Martes pennanti) are no exception. In this piece on fisher scent marking, I review … Continue reading →
Inside the Browning Recon Force Elite HP4 (BTC-7E-HP4)
In this post I look inside a Browning Recon Force Elite HP4 Trail Camera. I find a couple of quirks which can be easily fixed.
Continue reading →River Otter Latrines: Finding and Identifying Them
Some animals drop scat indiscriminately, some distribute it strategically along travel routes, and others, like the river otter (Lontra canadensis), have special sites for eliminating, called latrines. But river otter latrines are more than toilets. Interesting behaviors can be observed … Continue reading →
Using Trail Camera to Trigger a DSLR Camera
One of the challenges facing the homebrew DSLR camera trapper is finding a good trigger sensor. In this post, I describe a system for using a commercial trail camera to trigger a DSLR camera.
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