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Rare Sumatran Rhino
captured on video
Press Release:
April 24, 2007, PixController, Inc.
On March 29, 2007 we received an email from a very excited
Stephen Hogg of WWF-Malaysia stating:
"The really great news is I have had one of your boards set in
the forest in Borneo for some time now trying to get the Sumatran
Rhino as you may be aware. Well after the trip last year that turned
out to be a disaster if you remember after the board broke down
before we could get the unit set after we were dropped by helicopter
into the site and took forever to walk back out ha ha I will never
live that one down haha. Any way we have had another one set and I
retrieved it last Friday and yes we got it the first ever wild
Sumatran Rhino caught on video trap, 2 mins of heaven it is awesome
it really is I cannot tell you how good this footage is it just
cannot be better".
Stephen has been using
PixController video motion controllers for several years and has had
great success in the past capturing a "first ever video clip" of a
Burmese Tiger. Stephen team does it again with a "first ever video
clip" of a rare Sumatran Rhino in Borneo using a video camera
trap. Although PixController, Inc. was not mentioned in the press
release from the WWF on the Borneo Rhino video we did receive this
message from Stephen Hogg in an email to us on April 24; "I
am however very disappointed. I went to great lengths here to get
your company mentioned as one of the main partners in this
exercise".
"The 2 minute video — showing the animal eating, walking to the
camera and sniffing the equipment — is the first-ever footage of
observing the behavior in the wild of one of the world’s rarest
rhinos.
Scientists estimate there are only between 25 and 50 rhinos left on
the island of Borneo. These last survivors of the Bornean subspecies
of Sumatran rhinos are believed to remain only in the interior
forests of Sabah, Malaysia — an area known as the “Heart of Borneo.”
The rhinos are so secretive that the first-ever still photo of one
was captured last year"
"The video camera trap that captured the rhino footage was developed
by Stephen Hogg, Head of Audio Visual at WWF-Malaysia. After
successfully testing the newly developed camera trap on Malayan
tigers in Peninsula Malaysia, it was set up in Sabah to capture the
Sumatran rhino. Photos and video footage can determine the condition
of rhinos, help identify individual animals and show how they behave
in the wild."
“We did a pilot test with two of my video cameras in an area that
the field team had determined was used by rhinos. The first time we
checked them, after four weeks, there were these fantastic images,”
Hogg said. “This is further proof that these video cameras do work
and are of value to our conservation work. This footage is awesome
and could not have been better.”
Video systems such as this are ideal for capturing video of
wildlife. They are left unattended for weeks and months at a time to
record any "animal" activity. A research team can cover wide areas
of interest installing several video systems at once. When movement
is detected, which requires body heat and movement, the Sony
camcorder will be powered up and set to record for as long as the
animal is present, or for a pre-set amount of recording time. After
the animal leaves or the pre-set time expires the camcorder is
powered down by the PixController motion controller and will wait
for the next event.
Upon release of the Borneo Rhino video has been played on ABC's
"Good Morning America" TV show, FOX Networks, NBC Evening News,
CNN, BBC, and
many other networks. We couldn't be happier for Stephen Hogg and his
team on the great efforts they put into capturing this amazing
video.
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