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As a result, Kawanishi used "camera traps" consisting of self-activating cameras set up along game trails or other spots where tigers were likely to visit. When animals approached the cameras, they tripped infrared sensors that triggered the shutters. Researchers returned periodically to pick up film, change batteries and ready the camera for more pictures.
Taman Negara's terrain made setting up and monitoring the cameras a mammoth, risky project.
The hilly park is dominated by huge, ancient trees with rivers and streams cutting through valleys. There, vegetation is so thick as to nearly blot out all light. Seeking to maximize the chance of photographing tigers, Kawanishi and a support team of several Malaysian assistants and rangers set up some 150 camera traps on three 75-square-mile study sites. At two of the sites, the team spent at least two days on a boat just to reach base camp - trips that often included portaging over shallow areas. The team then had to hike several hours to reach each camera.
Hazards were numerous. For one thing, the rainforest's mammoth trees stand on thin, eroding soil and frequently fall over, bringing down many smaller trees and vegetation with them. "This is the most dangerous thing in the jungle," Kawanishi said. "We never came close to one, but we could hear them almost daily. It sounds like a big thunderclap, with vibration through the air and ground."
Researchers also had to watch out for elephants and poisonous snakes, while insects, leeches and other pests were a constant annoyance. "If the ground is dry and covered with dry leaves, then you can hear the leaches inching toward you," she said. "We couldn't be bothered with leeches anyway. They are harmless compared to bees, scorpions, snakes, sand flies, fire ants and elephants."
The researchers sampled each of the three sites for 11 months. Each trip was unique, with the team alternatively spending hours wading through python-inhabited rivers and streams, avoiding mud slides and dodging other hazards. Kawanishi said she sometimes wondered if she could continue.
"When it is a matter of survival, everything - all the intricate details of daily life, emotion and relationships boil down to a very thick essence," she said. "'Why am I doing this?' 'It is worth doing this?' - these types of questions came to me over and over ..."
But their perseverance paid off. The team wound up with thousands of photos of reptiles, numerous birds and mammals, including porcupines, wild dogs, sun bears, elephants and mouse deer. Among other potentially important findings, Kawanishi said the team also captured the first evidence of the storm's stork, a rare bird, in the park and found that all leopards (about 150 were photographed) are melanistic, or largely black because of a recessive gene. During her time in the rain forest, Kawanishi never saw a tiger - but her 61 photos of the animals were just enough for the study to succeed.
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