Crittercam inventor in Singapore - monkeys collared

Critters' best friend
The scientist who invented the Crittercam gives Singaporeans a peek at the world from his own perspective
Sumita Sreedharan Today Online 18 Mar 12;

On his visit here, two of adult male macaques that roam the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Upper Seletar Reservoir Park were trapped and collared with the Crittercam.

Does it hurt the animals? Does the weight of the camera affect them? Peppered with questions such as these by Singapore primary school students, biologist, inventor and filmmaker Dr Greg Marshall was surprised by how "adult" the queries were, and that they were coming from kids he'd assumed would be "reserved".

Earlier this month, the American who revolutionised natural history filmmaking dropped in at Methodist Girls' School and Ahmad Ibrahim Primary School. He intrigued the students with footage from his Crittercam - a device attached to wildlife that captures images, sound and data from their point of view, allowing unprecedented scope to study these animals in their natural setting.

"The students were so engaged, and in an authentic way, which shows that they care about the animals and recognise the importance of research into how they live," said Dr Marshall, 53.

He added: "I am trying to get kids to care. If we can get people to care, we have won the game of conservation."

SWIMMING WITH A SHARK

For the last few years, Dr Marshall and his team at National Geographic's Remote Imaging programme have been pushing the conservation mission by engaging with researchers worldwide, as well as conveying intimate stories of wildlife to television audiences.

The idea for the Crittercam came out of the blue - the deep blue ocean, to be exact.

In 1986, then 28, Dr Marshall was filming sharks as part of his graduate project at Stony Brook University, and noticed a remora fish clinging to the belly of a shark. It was an Eureka moment: From its vantage point, the remora could see everything the shark saw, so what about inventing a camera that could do the same?

"What an amazing experience we could have riding along with that shark into its world," he marvelled.

But the concept was very new and unproven. "Many people in the research community couldn't imagine that animals would behave normally with a Crittercam."

He approached National Geographic which encouraged him to continue his research and to return when he had more substantial results. He did and in 1991, he was invited to submit a research grant proposal.

Today, he is funded by the National Geographic Society, philanthropic foundations and federal grants. He also holds two Emmy Awards for cinematography and sound.

Born in Minneapolis, he lived in countries such as Korea and Japan for the first 15 years of his life, where his father, a lawyer and businessman, ran companies. At university he did his undergraduate degree in international relations. But then he decided change his life's course.

"We are an appetitive species and as such, we will utilise natural resources to satisfy those appetites - yet those resources are inevitably limited, so we must be responsible in our use of them. Somehow this became very personal one day as I reflected on my life," he said.

ON MONKEY BUSINESS

While Dr Marshall's visit to Singapore was part of the National Geographic Explorer programme (which has engaged 80 primary and secondary schools here), there was another purpose to it - the result of a 15-minute meeting last year in Washington.

A discussion with fellow researcher Dr Agustin Fuentes at a National Geographic Society symposium had sparked the idea for the Crittercam to be used on wild macaques here.

Dr Fuentes, from the University of Notre Dame, has been studying primates in Singapore, and his success at deploying satellite transmitters on macaques had "opened up the opportunities to imagine the possibility of doing it with the Crittercam system as well", in Dr Marshall's words.

So on his visit here, two of the adult male macaques that roam the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Upper Seletar Reservoir Park were trapped with food and collared with the Crittercam. Each US$5,000-device (S$6,287) weighs about 170g and is about the size of a pack of cards; each can record 10 hours of footage. The collars were rigged to fall off on their own and after two days, both cameras were retrieved. The footage will be evaluated.

In recent months, wild macaques have received bad press for apparent attacks on visitors to the Hort Park; there have also been similar sporadic reports over the years, and some members of the public have suggested culling the monkeys.

Dispelling the notion that there was any overpopulation problem - and hence, killing them was not the solution - Dr Fuentes said studies conducted with the National Parks Board and Nanyang Technological University have shown that "the actual rate and intensity of conflict between people and monkeys are the lowest in Singapore".

The problem arises only when people feed the monkeys. So the simple answer is to follow the law and not feed them, he added.

Asked what he thought, Dr Marshall - who was off next to mingle with killer whales in Alaska and beluga whales in the Arctic - said: "I wish I had this problem in my back yard - it's really wonderful to have these animals living in close proximity, and what a pleasure to experience them in the wild."