CCTV puts wildlife in spotlight

These badgers were filmed in a garden in Newcastle

CCTV cameras are being used to uncover the wealth of wildlife living in urban areas around the north-east of England.

The WildPlaces project is using motion sensitive equipment to film and photograph animals such as badgers, foxes and deer in people's gardens.

The resulting footage is being posted online, including on the social-networking website Facebook.

They hope to raise awareness of the varied wildlife living in urban spaces.

'Springwatch phenomenon'

WildPlaces was launched by the North East Wildlife Trusts in May 2009.

In the first couple of months the team captured the secret lives of badgers, foxes, deer, hedgehogs and otters on their motion sensitive cameras.

Kara Jackson is project officer for WildPlaces in Northumberland

Cheryl Nicholson, the project manager, said the project was inspired by the BBC's Springwatch programme.

"The interest generated through the Springwatch phenomenon, we want to bring that down to a local level," she said.

"[We want] to engage with people throughout the North East in urban areas who wouldn't normally have access to wildlife and show them what amazing wildlife is actually around them."

And it could be much closer than you think - a lot of the footage already recorded on the WildPlaces cameras has actually been taken in people's back gardens.

Kara Jackson, project officer for WildPlaces in the Northumberland region, was particularly excited by an early recording of badgers in Newcastle.

"The footage of the badgers, that was just amazing because you're looking through all the [video] clips and there's nothing and there's nothing and suddenly you see a badger head coming under the fence," she said.

The wildlife captured on camera includes deer, badgers and foxes

"Not many people get a chance to see them because they're quite elusive animals so it's really nice to have really clear pictures and video clips."

Infrared

The team's main focus in the initial months of the two-year project has been on finding out which cameras work best in the field and fine-tuning them.

They are all motion activated so they only start recording when there is movement and they are also infrared so any nocturnal wildlife activity can be recorded clearly.

Ultimately the team hope to have about 30 devices they can use across the three North East Wildlife Trust regions of Northumberland, Durham and Tees Valley - and they'd like the public to help them choose where to place them.

So, if you think you have badgers, foxes or any other creatures hanging out in your garden - or an urban space near you - they'd like to hear from you.

"[We could put the cameras] anywhere," Cheryl said. "Anywhere that's classed as an urban area. So gardens, allotments, some parts of reserves, schools, even someone's place of work, offices."

The cameras are regularly moved to capture a variety of animals

Conservation

The plan is to regularly move the cameras around to capture as many different animals in as many locations as possible.

The best images and film will be added to the WildPlaces website and Facebook page each week to make them easily accessible for people to view.

Technology-lovers will have the opportunity to get involved with managing the camera systems if they want to and the WildPlaces team will also be working to encourage people to get involved with habitat management and conservation.

They hope the CCTV images will be a good way of inspiring people to get involved with the wildlife on their doorstep.