Tiger Tracker: Tales from a Conservation Biologist Conservation
biologist Firoz Ahmed. CREDIT: Anjan Talukder Elephants really,
really hate camera flashes. When conservation biologist Firoz
Ahmed installs camera traps in Kaziranga National Park, in
northeastern India's Assam state, he and his colleagues must
return every day to check on the reinforced metal boxes. Often,
the cameras have been torn down and trampled. Because the traps
are installed in pairs to capture each side of a passing tiger,
Ahmed has photographic evidence. "We've got kung-fu elephants.
They just come and kick our camera traps," Ahmed said. "That's
why we go every day, to put the camera in position again. Some
camera traps are not touched, and some are every day," Ahmed
told OurAmazingPlanet. Even a heavy steel box weighing 30 pounds
(12 kilograms) isn't elephant-proof, because tusks can poke
inside a camera lens opening, Ahmed said. "We have to have
equipment that can sustain an elephant trampling for an hour,"
he said. [See images of A