Trail Camera Tips by Jerry Springer
Swamping
In wildlife biology the term
swamping can refer to the situation
where certain species of animals will
have most of their young around the
same time, producing more prey than
their predators can possibly take,
thereby ensuring that a number of
young will survive predator attacks.
I now use the term swamping a
little differently when applied to trail
cameras. When I find the right location, I “swamp” it by placing multiple trail cameras — maybe as many
as six or seven — in close proximity.
Doing this helps capture animals that
a single camera setup might miss.
For example, in one location last
summer I had a trail camera aimed
at a water tank in the belief that
because of very limited water in the
area, every animal that came into the
area would stop to get a drink. One
day I decided to place six trail cameras
around the area to try to determine
from which direction a certain buck
was coming.
What I learned instead was that
not every animal in the area went to
the water tank. I got photos of a number of animals walking behind the trail
camera I had aimed at the water tank
and still others of animals passing
by in directions away from the water
tank. In fact, some animals were only
captured on one trail camera and not
on multiple trail cameras even though
the swamped