Wildlife cameras catch more than animal pictures

Wardens in Banff National Park say some wildlife research is helping them with law enforcement duties.

For the past few years, scientists have been using remote cameras as a way to study wildlife behaviour. The cameras are triggered by movement.  

But Parks Canada Enforcement Supervisor Terry Willis says those lenses are also catching the occasional backcountry offender in the act — including hikers or bikers who ignore trail closures in grizzly bear habitat, trespassers and dogs let off their leashes.

"We have gotten photos that we have been able to identify an offence and an individual and take that back to court and gotten successful charges on it," said Parks Canada Enforcement Supervisor Terry Willis.

Wardens say offenders and charges are rare and most get away with a warning or advice.

With thousands of square kilometres of wilderness to patrol they say the cameras have now become an enforcement tool.

"In the olden days, you know, you might just sit in the bush for a day or two and now you can get similar data by putting up a camera, leaving it and you could get better information," said Willis.

Environmentalists like Jim Pissot have used the cameras as well. He says they're less invasive when studying wildlife. And he's not concerned about privacy issues for people — yet, at least.

"With fewer resources and fewer men and women in the field, I think that enforcement agencies as well as education agencies will probably end up going to more remote sensing kinds of tools," he said.

"We've gotten a tremendous amount of sort of expected and a lot of unexpected data about how animals try to coexist with us," said Pissot, adding that the cameras also providing insights into how people use the backcountry.

Willis noted that the cameras can also be used to rule out suspected problems. "Often we'll think there's an issue, we'll go out there, put out a remote camera, three months later come back and there is no issue," he said.