Wildlife Camera Trap Project

Working alongside Vincent Losasso and Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring (GWM), the Origen Foundation has committed to providing 33 camera traps to be placed in four locations across Costa Rica to monitor and capture images of the local wildlife.

Vincent Losasso is a wildlife biologist who believes that camera traps are an excellent tool to monitor, promote conservation, and share the beauty of Costa Rica’s wildlife. As the founder of GWM, he provides wildlife monitoring services to national parks, schools, non-profit conservation organisations and farms.

Costa Rica is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. The density of its natural environments and the behaviours, activity patterns, camouflage and adaptions of its wildlife can make them difficult to find and therefore study in their natural habitats. The use of camera traps is a solution to this, a way to capture images and footage of animals, at any time of day or night, that will allow for observation, monitoring and population studies.

Origen Foundation and GWM work side by side within the unique projects and diverse landscapes where Origen already operates. By placing camera traps in trees, nesting sites, tree cavities and caves, endless possibilities for biodiversity studies will be opened up – including with jaguars, Baird’s tapirs and other rare species or unique species.

The first set of eight camera traps has already been placed in Finca Los Mogos on the Osa Peninsula. Part of the Golfo Dulce Reserve’s biological corridor that links Corcovado and Piedras Blancas National Park, they cover tropical humid forest: magnificent areas of diversity with huge trees. Their placement here is to gather footage that will contribute to the functionality of this important biological corridor and demonstrate that this area can work as a buffer zone for tourists visiting the two national parks.

The second set of twelve camera traps has been placed at Finca Experimental Horizontes. In the Guanacaste lowlands, the finca is set in an area of tropical dry forest that is being regenerated after its use as a cattle station and arable farmland, and ranges from shrubby pastures and forest plantations, to evergreen gallery forest. Traps here can monitor returning populations of native wildlife as a measure of how the regeneration is going.

The third set of thirteen camera traps has been placed in the two different farms in La Colonia area. This area contains and surrounds the last large patch (more than 1000 ha.) of original rainforest without any protection in the northwestern quadrant of Costa Rica. This forest was accidentally protected by its location, socially isolated in this remote part of Costa Rica, and by its very steep slopes (the banks of the Cucaracho River Canyon), an area of high biodiversity with high (?) numbers of tapirs and jaguars.

Origen Foundation’s involvement in this conservation project is multi-faceted. Beyond donating the camera traps that will allow many local conservation projects to keep an eye on the animals and birds passing through their areas, the Foundation also:

– Shares the footage captured with universities and NGOs to allow the information to be shared with conservationists around the world, as well as providing an eyeline into wilderness outside of protected areas, which is usually unstudied.
– Shares and publishes the data that the camera traps generate in peer-reviewed journals, something that Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring has already begun.
– Uses both imagery and data for environmental education. The Origen Foundation is positioned to offer local environmental education materials for schools and, in association with the Ministry of Education, it can also be extend its reach nationally. The Foundation also makes use of social media to take the environmental education global.
– Incorporates the camera trap projects into the tourism experiences offered by Origen Escapes, giving guests the opportunity to visit trap locations during wildlife hikes or activities to retrieve data and view footage of what has been found. These tourism experiences not only educate the guests, they include a donation to the Foundation that will contribute to the maintenance and operation costs of the camera trap project on an ongoing basis.

GUANACASTE WILDLIFE MONITORING

Costa Rica is renowned as being one of the most biologically diverse places on the planet. Despite being home to an incredible number of species of fauna, seeing these animals in their natural environment proves to be quite challenging. Most species have evolved behaviors, activity patterns, and camouflage that allow them to find food and avoid predation, and these adaptations make observing and studying these animals difficult.

Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring aims to solve this challenge by using camera traps. Camera traps are motion sensor cameras that capture photos and videos of wildlife, day or night, when they move in front of the camera. Using this technology, GWM captures videos of the animals in the forest and shares the videos with their clients using a variety of social media and digital platforms.

The purpose of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring is to offer a wide array of professional wildlife monitoring services based in scientific methods using the latest technology.

The mission of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring is bring the stunning, unseen animals of Costa Rica into public view with the help of motion sensor camera technology.

Nai Conservation

Nai Conservation works on research and education projects to conserve the population and habitats of the tapir. Central America’s largest mammal, this charismatic creature is called the ‘gardener of the rainforest’; they are ecologically essential to the forest, keeping habitats stable and distributing seeds.

To protect this endangered species, Nai carries out projects that involve empowering communities and raising awareness, while a team of scientists and volunteers generate and collect data on population ecology, genetics and health that can be used as evidence to improve conservation action and wildlife management. As Nai so wonderfully puts it “the tapirs have been taking care of the forest for millions of years and saving us from climate change, now it’s our time to help them back.”

Osa Conservation

In the heart of the “most biologically intense place on earth,” as described by National Geographic, Osa Conservation is dedicated to protecting the globally significant biodiversity of the Osa Peninsula. Founded in 2003, their work is centered around a number of conservation and research stations used by scientists, researchers, students and volunteers to carry out research and data collection around both Osa’s habitats and species, with projects including sea turtle monitoring and protection, camera traps to monitor apex predators and forest restoration.

Osa Conservation focuses on four main objectives; protection of natural ecosystems, engaging communities in the stewardship of the nature around them, the promotion of a scientific understanding of the issues that face the Osa Peninsula, and building systems that will be sustainable in the long term.

Mision Tiburon

Founded by marine biologists and conservationists Andres Lopez and Ilena Zanella, Mision Tiburon is committed to the conservation and protection of sharks, and marine life in general. With years of experience and knowledge, through research, education and social and political advocacy, they aim to create a safer environment for both sharks and other marine life, and humans. Mision Tiburon efforts are mainly focussed on the education of oceanside communities, promoting the idea of healthy, balanced oceans and the importance of marine ecosystems and on scientific studies, through which they can provide solutions for shark management and protection. A prime example of this is the spotting, catching and tagging of the endangered scalloped hammerhead sharks in the Golfo Dulce, collecting data to eventually be able to establish a shark sanctuary to protect this vulnerable species.

Area de Conservación Guanacaste

Part of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, Estación Experimental Forestal Horizontes is an experimental forest restoration programme. Just over 30 years ago, land that was originally dry forest was given over to the conservation area after being used for cattle grazing and for growing rice, cotton and sorghum. Between then and now, it has been left to regenerate and in doing so has allowed researchers to track how areas with different levels of deforestation are able to recover and, through managed rewilding, to become a nursery for seeding trees of species that are endangered.

Today it is part of a managed dry forest, an extremely rare habitat, and one filled with unique wildlife, particularly birds, and fascinating and scarce tree species, which is all under the protection of dedicated park rangers.

ConnectOcean

ConnectOcean believe in the power of collaboration and innovation to achieve a shared vision of fascinating people, educating them, and empowering all to care deeply about the oceans on our planet.

Connecting communities to the ocean and fostering ocean stewardship. From teaching people to swim, to inspiring the next generation of change makers, their programs and activities are designed to empower a global community of explorers.

The STEM-inspired place-based education programs are anchored with strongly perpetuated citizen science and marine ecology themes. With the focus on creating hands-on activities to connect communities to the ocean, understand it better, and work together to conserve and protect this amazing ecosystem.

For more information on these projects or opportunities to donate directly then please contact us by filling and sending the bellow application form and we can provide a direct donation link.