Elusive Bush Dog Photographed in Panama
Posted on January 21, 2016
The elusive bush dog Speothos venaticus has been photographed in Panama using camera traps. The traps were set up as part of a study conducted by researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI).
Digital camera traps were used that take pictures automatically when their infrared sensors detect an animal's body heat. Even with these cameras the rarely spotted animals were difficult to catch on film. Photos were obtained on only 11 occasions out of more than almost 32,000 camera-days. Camera-days is defined as the number of cameras multiplied by the number of days they were in operation.
Bush dogs are short-legged stubby animals that hunt in packs of about ten. They feed primarily on large rodents like agoutis and pacas. They are described as fierce for their size and have been chasing tapirs, which weighs about 20 times as much as a bush dog. The bush dogs are rarely spotted by humans even though they are active during the daytime. The main threat to bush dogs is habitat loss and encroachment. The researchers say they don't appear to be directly persecuted by humans.
Smithsonian Research Associate Ricardo Moreno, co-author of the study, says in a statement, "Our group of biologists from Yaguará Panama and collaborators are working on an article about big mammals using camera trapping data that spans Panama from the Costa Rican border to the Colombian border. The bush dog is one of the rarest species that we photograph."
