Applicability of automatic video recording near fauna passages

Various methods are available for surveying the use of fauna passages. Rijkswaterstaat often used track studies with sand beds or a type of ink stamp plus sheets of paper. In addition, there was a need for a method to supply extra information for species identification and to provide an understanding of the behaviour of animals near and in fauna passages, that could also be used at places where the tracks method was not adequate. This led Dienst Weg- en Waterbouwkunde (Road and Hydraulic Engineering Division) of Rijkswaterstaat to request Bureau Waardenburg bv in 2000 to develop, in partnership with Atelier Sips, an automatic monitoring method using infrared video camera and to test these near some fauna passages. In 2001, the contractors tested this method more extensively in actual practice near six different types of fauna passage and reported their findings.