Wild dogs on candid camera

Even when they do know a dog or dogs are present, it can be hard to plot movements well enough to set traps or put out bait with confidence.

To combat this, South West Natural Resource Management is perfecting the use of motion activated security cameras complete with email notification.

Minutes after a wild dog passes one of six cameras set up around the south west, images can be emailed to landholders so that he or she is aware of the incursion.

Landcare project officer for SW NRM, Jed Sommerfield is the man overseeing the project and he’s enthusiastic about its speedy information delivery.

A mobile phone activated camera set up by Quilpie shire’s Rural Lands Officer Damien McNair in the Bulloo catchment recently snapped an image of a bitch and three pups at 6.48am, which was emailed to Mr Sommerfield at Charleville by 7am.

“He thought this was what was happening and the photos spoke for themselves,” Mr Sommerfield said.

While he wasn’t aware that anyone had gone out and shot a dog as a result of the telemetry system, he said it was helping people place control more strategically.

“You can put one on a grid when you’ve done some fencing and see if dogs are jumping it," he said.

"People managing cluster fencing then know they’ve got something inside.

“They are also good for confirming a pattern of movement.”

The tool, using a pre-paid Telstra SIM and $50 credit, is more cost effective than the current motion cameras with SD cards, according to Mr Sommerfield, because they eliminate the need to travel back and forth from a location, then upload images and send emails to third parties with sightings.

“Every time you’re going past, you’re disturbing the area,” he said.

To date there are six motion cameras in the field in the state’s south west, two in the Quilpie shire, three in the Murweh region and one in the Maranoa.

They can be put up in highly active areas with the sensor on, where every image taken is emailed to the owner, or at strategic points, where cameras can be programmed to take pictures at set times.

Alternatively the user can ask the camera to take a picture and have it sent to him or her.

Mr Sommerfield said having the camera set up to send images as data was significantly cheaper than sending them via MMS.

A picture sent as data in an email was costing around one cent, whereas an MMS is priced at about 50c.

“The units are roughly $1000 each and frankly, I would be more inclined to invest in this rather than three of the normal motion cameras (roughly $300 each) with SD cards,” he said.

“We’ve shown now what they can do, so that anyone can go to a distributor and install the same system.”

The person they used took them through the set-up of cameras and email connection in the shop.

The detection method needs a mobile signal to be effective, which Mr Sommerfield said made the need for mobile phone towers in rural Queensland even more necessary.