in the media

amazing, our videos have been picked up by several media outlets, including national geographic!

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/news/animals-news/sumatra-marbled-cat-vin.html

snares

Poaching is still a very serious threat to Leuser's wildlife. During the last camera check, BPKEL staff has come across a number of snares which form an immediate threat to the tigers we've captured on film in recent months. All snares encountered have been removed,  next month we'll check out if this has discouraged the poachers sufficiently.

white winged duck

Our cameras have captured a very rare creature again, namely the white winged duck, it's said only 150 of these ducks still exist on the whole island of Sumatra, so it seems we'we been lucky again.
The marbled cat and a big male sumatran tiger are also in the new video..

Sound of the Siamang

If there's one animals we most certainly will never capture with our forest cams,  it is the siamang. This ape lives in groups high up in the trees, and as far as I know it does never come down to the forest floor. Attempts to film siamangs with a normal camera always ends up in a disappoinment, because they are shy and move through the canopy with an amazing speed.
However, I do have some recordings of their impressive call, which is very  loud and can be heard from many miles away.
If the player below doesn't show up, click here



Sound of the Siamang by sounds of leuser

AUGUST

All highlights from august are now bundled and online. Some of the clips you may already have seen, but there's also lots of new stuff. Until now we have 26 different species.

One clip is not in the august compilation but I like to show it anyway, because it could have been a really great video... only if the lens was not blurred by condensation.

The next camera check will be end of september and the footage will be online around mid oktober. Lets hope the otters come back again..

and btw, don't forget to LIKE our new facebook page!

eagle

Very surprising, a crested serpent eagle on the forest floor..

masked palm civet

We got a new and very interesting clip of a masked palm civet. It looks rather different than several pictures I've seen of this animal, but the masked civet is known to have quite some variation in fur and color pattern.

CATS

We got stunning new footage of three species of cats that have rarely been filmed in the wild, and probably never before in full color HD. Wow!

tail of the tiger

After we got it's breathing sound last month, this time we have the first fysical evidence of tiger presence. Unfortunately, "Si Belang", (the striped one) obviously likes to keep us in suspense...

eyes on leuser on vimeo in HD

leuser HD videotrap july

FIRST RESULTS FROM THE FOREST CAM'S

Last week we've checked the camera's for the first time and we can be quite satisfied with the results. Among  common animals like sambar deer and wild pig we got two species of cat and a banded civet. It's a big suprise we got a marbled cat just in the first couple of weeks of the project. Unfortunately it's only visible for a couple of seconds, but it might come back again.
In the last fragment there are two pigs that got suddenly very scared of something. When you put the volume up, there's clearly a sound of something breathing. What could it be? I think there's only one animal that chases full grown pigs... If we had only put the camera's on the the other side of the pool...
Next month new changes!

5 more camera's fixed

and one of them is on this picture...

new cams

5 new HD cams have arrived and will be installed next week.

first cams up and running!

fresh tiger tracks very near of one of our camera's







The first 5 cams are now up and running. 

Great news!

Eyes on Leuser has received a generous donation from the Prins Bernhard fund for Nature.
The project can now be extended untill end 2012, with more camera's on more locations.

I have just received the first 5 camera's. Next week I''ll be heading for Medan..

Camera trapping in North Aceh

videotrapping

There are several reasons why many of Leuser's animal species have rarely or never been filmed in the wild.  The Leuser Ecosystem is a huge area and many animals are nocturnal, scared of people and very rare. Also, the dense tropical vegetation makes it often impossible to see anything beyond a couple of meters and also makes it hard to move around.

To see animals like orangutan, thomas langurs and hornbills is not very difficult; just walk through the forest and you will find them for sure.  However, to get a glimpse of  Leuser's more elusive animals species such as one of the 8 species of cats, other methods are required.

Video trapcamera's are rapidly becoming very popular.  There are several companies that make these devices and they are getting more sophisticated and affordable every year.  By using trail camera's, rare animals such as the sumatran rhino on Borneo have only recently been filmed for the first time.

 For this project I'm thinking of buying around 10 cams, but I don't know yet which brand or model. There are quite some companies that make these things, but many don't seem to be very reliable. http://www.chasingame.com  is a great website to get to know which camera is best.



Visit Chasingame.com for Unbiased Reviews

pit viper: what sub species??

I added footage of a snake, I think its a pit viper, but don't know the latin name of this sub species. It's filmed near agusan research station, near blankejeren. 

start

Today I created this blog for a project that starts in april. On the video and photo pages you can find  pics and video footage of previous projects in Leuser between 2000 and 2010.