A 24-HOUR REMOTE SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM FOR TERRESTRIAL WILDLIFE STUDIES

The configuration, components, specifications and costs of a state-of- the-art closed-circuit television system with wide application for wil dlife research and management are described. The principal system comp onents consist of color CCTV camera with zoom lens, pan/tilt system, i nfrared illuminator, heavy duty tripod, coaxial cable, coaxitron syste m, half-duplex equalizing video/control amplifier, time-lapse video ca ssette recorder, color video monitor, VHS video cassettes, portable ge nerator, fuel tank and power cable. This system was developed and used in a study of Mississippi Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis pratensis) behaviors during incubation, hatching and fledging. The main advantage s of the system are minimal downtime where a complete record of every event, its time of occurrence and duration, are permanently recorded a nd can be replayed as many times as necessary there-after to retrieve the data. The system is particularly applicable for studies of behavio r and predation, for counting individuals, or recording difficult to o bserve activities. The system can be run continuously for several week s by two people, reducing personnel costs. This paper is intended to p rovide biologists who have little knowledge of electronics with a syst em that might be useful to their specific needs. The disadvantages of this system are the initial costs (about $9800 basic, 1990-1991 U.S. d ollars) and the time required to playback video cassette tapes for dat a retrieval, but the playback can be sped up when little or no activit y of interest is taking place. In our study, the positive aspects of t he system far outweighed the negative