Tips for wildlife paparazzi

How camera angles reveal the secret lives of elusive predators

On my first visit to New Zealand, I was amused to see fellow backpackers flipping through glossy magazines filled with paparazzi shots of A-listers. I remember thinking, what a strange profession, hiding in the bushes to snap a shot of someone and follow their day-to-day routes.

Fast forward a couple of decades and here I am, fascinated by research articles on the optimal camera angle to capture elusive creatures. Turns out, the world of conservation has its own paparazzi. Moreover, I feel everyone should know their tricks!

When it comes to elusive predators, capturing them in their tracks is more than a curiosity, it’s a conservation tool. Camera traps are effective in estimating animal densities, before and after control even in the most adverse habitats, like wetlands.

The A-listers in this article are elusive foreign predators, feral cats and mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels), always on the move and few and far between, like true celebrities. The red carpet is the New Zealand bush – an exclusive venue lined with a crowd of endemic icons watching in fear as the foreign stars steal the spotlight. The photographers? Not screaming paparazzi, but silent, motion-triggered camera traps, stationed like field agents waiting for a predator in sight.

But here’s the million-dollar question: Does the camera angle make or break the shot?

Just like in Hollywood, where a low angle shot can flatter or fail, the positioning of a trail camera can dramatically influence what gets captured in the frame. Nichols et al. (2016) asked exactly that: Should camera traps aimed at cryptic predators, like feral cats and mustelids, be set up horizontally or vertically for the best results?

The red carpet

Conducted in the pastoral Toronui Station, Hawke’s Bay, the researchers placed 20 pairs of camera traps—each pair with one camera horizontally and the other vertically. A horizontal camera faces forward at animal eye level. A vertical camera looks downward, much like a security camera.

To increase the chances of a sighting, the cameras were positioned at the ecotones or edges of forest fragments where possible.

To lure the stars, they used bait: not truffles, caviar or fur coats but rabbit meat and ferret-scented bedding. The cameras were left running for two months, waiting for their moment to shine.

The Scoop: Horizontal lands the money shot

When the footage was reviewed, the results were clear:

• Horizontal cameras recorded about 1.5 times more images of the target predators than vertical ones.
• They also captured significantly more independent encounters—meaning more unique visits, not just a burst of shots from one animal loving the spotlight.
• Total photos (including non-target species) were also higher with horizontal setups.
• False triggers (empty shots) were similar between both orientations.

In short, if you’re trying to catch a predator in the act, horizontal cameras are your go-to paparazzi.

But vertical isn’t out of the picture

Interestingly, vertical cameras had an unexpected benefit: image clarity. Because they face straight down, they often captured finer detail—like coat patterns on cats. This could be important when trying to identify individual animals, for tracking their movements or population size estimates based on mark–recapture.

However, there’s a catch. Cats are big. The narrow vertical field of view meant that 63% of cat photos taken from above only caught part of the animal.

Tips for conservation’s paparazzi

This study is more than a technological tweak. It is a lesson in field strategy. For conservationists using camera traps to monitor invasive species, the setup matters:

• Horizontal orientation is best for maximizing detection rates.
• Vertical orientation may still be helpful for species or individual identification, if the field of view can be adjusted.

And crucially, the orientation didn’t affect the rate of false triggers, so there’s no trade-off there.

Final frame

Whether you’re tailing Taylor Swift in LA or tracking a mustelid in the New Zealand bush, one thing is clear:

It’s all about the angle.

For conservation science, that angle could mean the difference between missing a species or getting the data needed to protect native wildlife. For our most wanted A-listers the red carpet might be made of forest floor, but the flash of a camera still tells a powerful story.

This article was prepared by Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Science student Ine Schils as part of the ECOL608 Research Methods in Ecology course in the Department of Pest-Management and Conservation.

Reference

Nichols, M., Glen, A. S., Garvey, P., & Ross, J. (2017). A comparison of horizontal versus vertical camera placement to detect feral cats and mustelids. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 41(1), 145–150.