This tiger has emerged from a cooling mud bath at Manas National Park in India. Researchers can identify individual tigers based on their unique array of stripes. Credit: WWF-India. Courtesy of “Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature,” by Roland Kays (May 2016, Johns Hopkins University Press

Once again, Science Friday has come through with a cool article about an interesting subject. It contains excerpts from a new book containing images from camera traps, which are good research tools for animals that try to avoid humans. We’ve featured the devices a lot as a result, and now we get to continue doing so. Julie Leibach reports:

A new book of unabashed selfies has been released, but it reveals neither hide nor hair of a Kardashian. There is, however, plenty of hide and hair. Candid Creatures: How Camera Traps Reveal the Mysteries of Nature, by zoologist Roland Kays, is an album of wildlife photos captured with camera traps—devices that researchers install in the field to record members of the animal kingdom as they lope, scamper, or climb about their business. Kays’ book is also a rich summary of the insights that scientists have gained from using these tools.

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