A team of researchers found a way to observe Serengeti wildlife with no interference from humans: hidden cameras.
According to BBC News, the candid photos are part of a publicly organized project called Snapshot Serengeti, and a study on the observations is published in the journal Scientific Data. Identifying the animals reportedly required a massive volunteer effort.
CLICK HERE to see photos of the animals, via Live Science.
"Whereas most camera trap surveys have been small, and run for just a few months, this covers 1,125 square kilometers (over 434 square miles) and has run continuously since 2010," study lead author Alexandra Swanson, of the University of Oxford, told Discovery News.
The researchers set up 225 hidden cameras triggered to capture images with motion sensing and infrared technology. The cameras covered 1,000 square kilometers in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, Africa.
The cameras were first installed in 2010, so much of Swanson's work for the following years entailed exchanging batteries and data chips. Aside from getting photos of some of the Serengeti's rarest animals, the researchers were particularly interested in seeing the different species interact.
"For part of my dissertation, I looked at how lions and cheetahs divide up habitat hotspots on very fine timescales," Swanson told BBC News. "The lions beat up cheetahs - they kill them, and steal their food. So, I was interested to see how cheetahs managed to co-exist given that the lions were so mean to them.
"And with the cameras, you can see how they avoid the lions, kind of in the moment, sneaking in just when the lions leave the scene."
