BBC Wildlife Camera-trap Photo of the Year 2012

Animal Portraits and overall winner: Leopard path by Zhou Zhefeng, China.

This beautiful image of a Chinese leopard taken by Zhou Zhefeng for a project funded by the Shanxi Wocheng Institute of Ecology and Environment, is a worthy Overall and Animal Portraits Category Winner, securing the top prize of £3,000.

Although the data bar wasn't turned on, I am assured that the camera used was a Ltl Acorn 5210A

Go to the BBC Wildlife Magazine gallery to see all the other winners.

Scientists crack genetic code of dwarf birch from Highlands forest restoration site

Richard Buggs & Dwarf Birch
(Betula nana) inside exclosure

Scientists today announced the sequencing of the entire genetic code – the genome – of a dwarf birch from Trees for Life’s Dundreggan Estate near Loch Ness in Glen Moriston, where the conservation charity is working to conserve a natural population of the species.

Dwarf birch (Betula nana) is a nationally scarce species in Britain, occurring mainly in small populations on Scottish mountains. The genome’s sequencing – a laboratory process that identifies the complete DNA sequence of an organism – lays the foundations for genetic research into the birch genus, which includes up to 60 tree species. This will benefit studies on the conservation of dwarf birch.

“Increasing our understanding of tree genomes is essential for our long-term ability to conserve and grow tree species in the UK,” said Richard Buggs, lead scientist of the project, who is based at Queen Mary University of London.

Alan Watson Featherstone, executive director of Trees for Life, said: “This is a tremendous breakthrough. Together with our woodland

Ash Dieback Highlights Need to protect UK’s Trees and Woodlands

Common Ash (Fraxinus excelsior)
Female flowers and leaf bud in April.

With concerns over the arrival and spread of ash dieback in the UK growing, conservation charity Trees for Life said today that the disease highlights the urgent need to place higher priority on the conservation of the country’s native trees and woodlands, and warned that other tree diseases and pests must be taken equally seriously.

“The tragedy threatening the UK’s ash trees is a powerful warning that our native trees need help, and underlines the crucial importance of conservation work. Stronger action to protect our trees, including by preventing diseases and pests from entering the UK, is urgently needed,” said Alan Watson

Trail Camera Video Distortion - Ltl Acorn 6210 firmware update

Fig 1: 6210 4/3rds image as reference.

For the best in field economy (batteries and cards) it's preferable to shoot just images, especially if the camera is being deployed for a long period.

Having said that, short videos are useful for showing animal behaviour and sometimes can aid with animal identification when the camera is shooting IR at night.

I often set the camera to shoot one image and a short video of ten to twenty seconds immediately after; and recently I became aware that the physical proportions of objects in the 4/3rds videos were distorted. Circles became elliptical and squares