Catching images of wild animals, especially rare ones, can be exceedingly difficult for photographers. But the Smithsonian Institution recently released more than 200,000 wildlife images captured by automated cameras hidden in forests, mountains and savannas across the globe.
Called Smithsonian Wild, the project harbors five years’ worth of photographs collected in seven countries by dozens of camera traps that take photos when animals wander nearby. Some are equipped with night vision, strobe flashes and other gizmos, and some can record video.
“Each camera-trap image is a record of an animal in space and time, a record of life on Earth. To my knowledge, this is the largest database of such photos in existence,” said the Smithsonian’s Robert Costello, co-leader of the project. “If you create a research-grade repository that’s safe and secure, it’s going to be useful to researchers for a long, long time.”
Jaguar, April 2008, Peru.
Giraffe, March 2010, Kenya.
Giant pandas drinking from a pool, April 2008, China.
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