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Scientific Papers
Custom designed camera traps: lessons learned from a case study in Costa Rica
This study, co-authored by Wild Cat Imaging Project founder Benjamin Luke, presents one of the first detailed assessments of how wildlife in Costa Rica responds to custom-designed DSLR camera traps, using footage and images captured across Tortuguero National Park and Cloudbridge Nature Reserve—including Luke’s documentation of a melanistic oncilla reacting to white flashes.
The research found that while custom systems can produce exceptional imagery, they also trigger negative behavioural responses in several species, including jaguars and small felids, underscoring the need for clear guidelines to minimise disturbance and prioritise animal welfare over photography.
As these advanced camera traps grow in popularity among biologists and photographers, the authors highlight the responsibility to monitor their impacts using video-enabled commercial traps and to ensure that ethical wildlife practices remain central to all fieldwork.
Jaguars scavenging on a common bottlenose dolphin carcass in Tortuguero NP, Costa Rica
This short communication, co-authored by Wild Cat Imaging Project founder Benjamin Luke, documents the rare behaviour of two female jaguars scavenging on a common bottlenose dolphin carcass in Tortuguero National Park—only the second such record in the Americas. Using camera-trap footage, the study shows both jaguars dragging, feeding on, and returning repeatedly to the carcass across several days, even scavenging together at times despite jaguars’ typically solitary nature.
The findings highlight the species’ opportunistic feeding strategies along coastal habitats, where they exploit marine resources when available, adding valuable insight into the adaptability and social tolerance occasionally displayed by this population.
Distribution and habitat use patterns of the
endangered Central American clouded oncilla
(Leopardus pardinoides oncilla) in Costa Rica
The first comprehensive study of the endangered Central American clouded oncilla in Costa Rica reveals that this elusive felid relies heavily on intact, high-elevation cloud forests with dense tree cover and access to permanent water sources, highlighting the species’ dependence on some of the country’s most fragile ecosystems. Using over 59,000 trap-nights of camera data—including WCIP’s photograph of a melanistic oncilla—the researchers found that habitat use is driven almost entirely by environmental factors rather than proximity to humans, with the strongest strongholds located along the Caribbean slope of the Talamanca Mountains and within the Arenal–Monteverde complex.
These findings underscore the urgent need to protect cloud forests from climate change, maintain continuous forest cover, and expand monitoring and mitigation efforts for one of Mesoamerica’s most threatened wild cats.
