Automatisoituja jyrsijälaskelmia

In ecology a whole lot of data is collected by systematic observations by people, instead of instruments. Maybe because most ecologists think it is great fun to collect the observations? Or because a lot the research is such that it is difficult to even imagine an instrument (like, what sort of device could clean away animal feces from permanently marked plots in the field???). But sometimes technological advancements are definetely welcome.

The last few years I have been involved in a funky technical development: making a camera that could be used to take photos of animals under the snow. Because? Because huge part of the world is covered by snow every year. And a whole lot happens under the snow. But mostly we need a shovel to get there, and by the time we are down there every single animal at a any reasonable distance has evacuated since long.  Who wouldn't? So who knows what happens under the snow... 

 Digging through snow

We tested this a year ago in winter close to Tromsø (it worked!), wrote a paper about the device, set out a bunch of new cameras ones last autumn in Finnmark - and now we are sitting and waiting and when the cameras do the research for us. Hiphei! This project also resulted in some popular scientific outreach (also here) (på norsk).