discussion / Camera Traps  / 2 June 2022

How do you store your camera traps?

Hi folks: I'm looking for creative ideas for storing camera traps when they aren't in the field. I've got drawers in the lab, but the cameras become a bit of a tangled mess. Just curious what you've tried and found successful? 

 

--thanks!

 

erika




I am located in Muyuna Lodge, deep in the Amazon Rainforest, Peru and struggle to keep my Trap Camara's safe with this high humidity. Silica gels won't work and I've even tried to store them in Rice but not very safe. 

 

Electricity is limited so I don't have many options.

Any ideas?

I normally store them (& other tech like my acoustic recorders) in Pelican-style crates (I use Seahorse, similar kind of fairly waterproof crates, but much less expensive than Pelican). I throw a bunch of packets of silica beads in as well. Duct-taping around the seal of the crate also helps to keep moisture out. I usually wrap & tie the cords or straps around each camera/recorder so they don't get too tangled.  

Not necessarily the camera traps themselves, but I also love using SD card organizers (like this or this), great for keeping SD cards from different cameras organized!  

I store my Cameras in one gallon plastic bags with a zipper lock. Most cameras will fit in that size bag. There is a note card that goes in the bag, The note card lasts longer in the bag and does not smear which it will if you write on the outside and is very important if you are running a lot of cameras. You can make a nice note card with a word processor and lay out everything you want to note. The Notes can be whatever you want to track but the most useful is the brand and model, the date the camera was purchased, The Date it went into the storage bag, Notes on if the camera has been updated. The camera number, the password if the camera needs a password, The person who put the camera in the bag with their full name and the date, A note on how the camera did on it's last deployment, Camera works fine, YES, or whatever might be wrong is listed. I would also list any special features that the camera can perform, such has WIFI enable, Cell Camera, etc. I also make sure the Cameras number is easy to see on the card. When the cameras go out they should have a camera number on the inside of the camera so you can track it in your field notes and make sure all the bags come back from deployment so they are ready for when the cameras come back in from the field. 

The batteries are removed from the camera, When I bring a camera in from the field I test each battery with a  battery tester. If all the batteries are still good that information is noted on the bag card that the batteries were tested and their strength. Keeping the batteries with the camera keeps you from mixing batteries of various strengths. Remove any bad batteries and note if a new one has been added. If you decide to replace all the batteries, Note on the card that they are NEW and their strength because all new batteries should be tested to make sure you did not get a bad one. If batteries are not available put that on the Note card, NOTE, removing the batteries will usually require all the settings to be redone, I still put on the note card, CAMERA NEEDS NEW SETTINGS. 

I also put in the SD Cards, with SD size on the Camera Card. Some of my older cameras only take a 32 gig or smaller, while my new cameras take 125 Gig SD cards. If putting out a camera for a very long run I want to grab one that can take a large SD card. I usually have two SD cards for each camera so they can be swapped out but keep the same cards. Put on the Camera Card that the SD card should reformatted before the next deployment or you can reformat the SD card before the batteries are removed, but NOTE on the camera card that the SD cards are formatted and ready to go. This is a good idea so you know before storage that the SD cards work. 

Last I add one packet of Silica Dry packs. The bags are 5 grams. I use DRY and DRY. I got them in a 50 packet bag from Amazon, about 8 bucks. They are cheap and do a great job of removing all the moisture from the Camera, batteries, SD card, and keeps them dry for even very very long storage. 

Hope this helps, when the camera number goes up the more you need to keep them organized.