Using Video Equipment In Research (or Chasing bees)

Hello and welcome to my blog about using video equipment in research.

As my profile on the CEG Durham and the CEG Durham research page suggest, a fair bit of the research carried out the lab group involves observing the behaviours of wild animals in the field. Most of you may immediately think of the use of cameras to snap photos of elusive mammalian predators like tigers and snow leopards or to monitor birds on their nests like we have done here in the School of Biology. However, cameras can also be used to film much smaller taxa and to capture fine details of behaviour. My own research uses cameras to make observations of pollinators foraging behaviours within individual plants. Here is an example of a video from my research. 

When studying ecology (especially animal behaviours), video cameras are great tools to use. They allow one to review and slow down observations, something really useful when you study bees and other pollinators that dart about at high speed. Also, using multiple camera set-ups can effectively allow one individual to collect data that would otherwise require additional observers.   

Despite the great usefulness of camera equipment for anyone wanting to study (or just observe) animal behaviour, I could find very little information on how to go about filming and photographing animals, especially smaller pollinating insects. Most information I found talked about how filming is carried out for TV documentaries and assumed you had access to specialist photography equipment, limitless funds, or a large amount of photography training. Often you may hear claims along the lines of ‘you absolutely need’ this very large and expensive camera. While, I'm sure having such equipment is great, I am going to assume that it is well beyond the budgets of most ecology researches (especially if you want more than one camera).

British bumblebee, Bombus pascuorum, visiting a hedge nettle, Stachys sylvatica.

In addition to talking about my research and pollinators, I hope this blog can offer some advice and tips to anyone who wants to film and photograph animals for research, especially in the case of pollinators. I will assume that you, like me, don’t have access to hugely expensive equipment (all my equipment could be bought in your neighbourhood electronics stores). I’ll also assume that you, like me, have limited photography training.     
  

A common American bumblebee, Bombus impatiens.

I want to begin by giving a shout out to Dr Sean Twiss, of Durham University’s seal ecology lab, who provided me with useful advice on use of camera equipment early in my research. 

Now I’ve got this little justification done, I’ll follow soon with a post about getting appropriate camera equipment.    

By Michael Harrap

Michael is an MRes student who studies pollinator foraging behaviours within vertically arranged inflorescences.

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