{"id":2909,"date":"2026-08-04T10:14:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2026-08-04T10:27:45","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T08:27:45","slug":"how-can-camera-trapping-help-bear-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/2026\/how-can-camera-trapping-help-bear-monitoring\/","title":{"rendered":"How can camera trapping help bear monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0<\/span>WildINTEL<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>BIG_PICTURE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0projects successfully hosted a joint\u00a0<\/span>symposium<\/span><\/a> at the\u00a08th European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB 2026)\u00a0in Leiden, bringing together researchers from across Europe to explore the latest advances in camera-trap-based wildlife monitoring.\u00a0The symposium highlighted how technological innovation, citizen\u00a0science,\u00a0and international collaboration are helping to build the next generation of biodiversity monitoring systems.\u00a0How could those advances help bear monitoring at local, national, and European levels?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Better survey designs.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Reliable monitoring starts long before the first camera is installed.\u00a0The number and placement of camera traps should reflect landscape complexity and\u00a0species\u00a0ecology.\u00a0When properly\u00a0accounted for, survey design can improve estimates of occupancy, abundance, and long-term population trends.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Faster image processing through\u00a0AI and citizen science.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Large monitoring programs generate millions of images. Citizen science platforms, such as Zooniverse, together with AI-assisted platforms like TRAPPER, can dramatically reduce the time needed to classify images. Still, to maintain high data quality, expert validation of a subset of images is needed. Fancy spotting a bear moving in the Carpathian Mountains from your sofa? Check the Tatra workflow in the <\/span>European Camera Trap Project<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning images into ecological knowledge.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Modern analytical methods transform camera-trap records into ecological indicators relevant for conservation.\u00a0Examples include\u00a0mapping species distributions and occupancy,\u00a0estimating population density using Random Encounter Models, integrating structured and opportunistic camera-trap datasets to improve density estimates,\u00a0and\u00a0inferring\u00a0<\/span>habitat use<\/span><\/a> and activity patterns\u00a0just with camera-trap data – no\u00a0GPS collars needed.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Publishing FAIR biodiversity data.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>The symposium highlighted how common standards such as\u00a0CamtrapDP\u00a0and publication through infrastructures such as\u00a0<\/span>GBIF<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>GEOBON<\/span><\/a>\u00a0make camera-trap datasets interoperable,\u00a0reusable\u00a0and FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable).\u00a0For bear monitoring, this means that data collected by different projects and countries can contribute to assessments\u00a0of trends in\u00a0population status, which is pivotal to inform policy at national and EU levels.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Working with stakeholders.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>Even the best analytical tools only have conservation impact if they are adopted in the field by managers. Close collaboration between researchers, protected areas, wildlife managers and governmental agencies is essential to allow these new monitoring approaches to be implemented in the field.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0WildINTEL\u00a0and\u00a0BIG_PICTURE\u00a0projects successfully hosted a joint\u00a0symposium at the\u00a08th European Congress of Conservation Biology (ECCB 2026)\u00a0in Leiden, bringing together researchers from across Europe to explore the latest advances in camera-trap-based wildlife monitoring.\u00a0The symposium highlighted how technological innovation, citizen\u00a0science,\u00a0and international collaboration are helping to build the next generation of biodiversity monitoring systems.\u00a0How […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2911,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2909\/revisions\/2911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carpathianbear.pl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}