Wildlife monitoring on Protected Areas using camera-traps

February 2019

The GKS initiative acquired a number of camera-traps with funding received from the WWF Table Mountain Fund.  The camera-traps are being used to monitor wildlife on some of the new Nature Reserves that have been declared through the GKS initiative.  Wildlife monitoring is an important part of managing Protected Areas, since it generates information that can be used to inform management decisions.

The GKS project team received some help from Cilla Pickering (from Conservation Outcomes) to design and implement a well-planned and systematic wildlife monitoring programme on the Kromensee Nature Reserve with the camera-traps.  The GKS project team also received training on how to properly set the camera-traps, where to place them, how to keep a monitoring record, how to manage and analyse the large amounts of monitoring data that are being collected, and much more.  As a result, the GKS project team has been maintaining a wildlife monitoring initiative on the Kromensee Nature Reserve since August 2018.  Besides gathering useful data for wildlife management purposes, the camera-traps has also produced a number of interesting photos of a variety of species, including Honey Badger, Antbear, Cape Grysbok, Bushbuck, Common Duiker, Bushpig, Large Grey Mongoose, Red-necked Spurfowl, Goliath Heron, Grey Heron, etc.