Wildlife Camera Trap Network From TEAM Captures Its One Millionth Animal Photo

In an effort to provide comprehensive, real-time data about the health of the planet's forests, a group of scientists has set up a vast network of camera traps in hopes they can visualize the pulse of a threatened ecosystem.

The Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring (TEAM) Network collected their one millionth photo from the experiment in early February, which has produced extraordinary images of normally unseen animals just living their lives. What was the millionth photo of? A curious jaguar poking around the equipment for a few minutes in Manu National Park, Peru.

The motion-activated cameras have been placed in 16 different sites in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and more than 60,000 photos are collected at each location every year. All of the data is released publicly in near real-time as part of an open source system sponsored by Conservation International.

TEAM hopes the massive flow of information will help conservation biologists better understand the impact of climate change and deforestation on ecosystem health.

Photos and captions courtesy of TEAM Network.