Can a monkey or a seal or a penguin take pictures? Sure, if it has a crittercam! Last month, more than 50 scientists from all over the world gathered in Washington, D.C., to talk about special cameras that allow them to see the world from animals' points of view.
Greg Marshall, inventor of the first crittercam, organized the conference. Twenty years ago, he had the big idea for his small invention. While scuba diving off the coast of Belize, in Central America, Marshall noticed a shark with a parasitic fish called a remora attached to its belly. Wouldn't it be cool, he thought, if a tiny camera were mounted on that shark, just like the remora? Marshall began to experiment by placing cameras on dogs and cats. The first wild animal he equipped with a camera was a leatherback turtle. "We tracked her for three or four days," Marshall told TFK, "but then the camera fell off."
A Birds-eye View of the WorldMarshall and other scientists have attached cameras to turtles, whales, lions and crows. The first crittercams were a bit bulky, but as technology and design have improved, the cameras have become smaller. Crittercams allow researchers to see where animals travel and eat, and how they live. "We learn new things just about every time we attach a camera to an animal," says Marshall.
Biologists who study crittercam videos have learned that emperor penguins hunt along the underside of sea ice. They have also seen that adult green sea turtles in Baja California and Australia are not the vegetarians they were once thought to be. The turtles feast on small animals and dead fish. Scientists now also know which critical feeding habitat to protect in order to help the endangered monk seals of Hawaii. They've seen it on film! And just last month, researchers reported that the crows of New Caledonia, in the South Pacific, are even smarter than anyone knew. The clever crows not only use sticks as tools to catch insects, but they also save their favorite stick tools to use again!
Scientists hope someday to attach miniature video cameras to critters as small as bats or hummingbirds. The future of animal filmmaking looks exciting. Lights, camera, action!