My wife and I are preparing to start a conservation/research project in Costa Rica next month. We primarily plan to use trail cameras as means of gaining information on ocelots, anteaters, and some of the other animals.
We are using a site called Indiegogo to help with our funding. This is a crowd-funding site which allows friends and strangers to make small contributions to get projects off the ground.
To date we have 73% of funding needed and just a few days left of the campaign. If you have a few dollars laying around and want be involved in a pretty neat project that originates from Charleston, check the site out.
Some of the folks over at Pelagic Navigator pooled resources for a camera sponsorship in the name of a friend who recently passed.
We also had a camera sponsored by Vamos, which is a rental car company in Costa Rica.
All contributions (even $1) receive automatic updates when I post them. Contributors may remain anonymous in name and donation amount, or both. However, we do like to thank our contributors on Facebook and Twitter and other various websites.
This is great way to young ones involved natural history.
Here is our campaign ‘Badge’:
and here is the link to see more about the project(including a cool trail cam video compilation, budget, updates, etc)
Yesterday morning, I contacted a company in Boston called ROI Solutions to see if they may be interested in our campaign.
I included this picture:
The Ocelot clearly has Roi on her side.
The CEO of ROI Solutions got a hold of the image and viewed the project They made a really nice contribution(which you can see under the “Funders” tab).
We’ve had a bit of a flurry this morning.
The BellaRex camera was awarded with a $200 contribution!
We’ve gone from 73% to 80% in a few hours this morning.
The good folks at Henry’s Crab Cakes have offered go in with another person/business to share the sponsorship of a Trail Camera in our project. If you are interested, drop a message to me, contact him through his FB page or the Henry’s Crab Cakes FB page.
I’m sure some of you know him.
Because we reached 100%, Indiegogo has extended our campaign. Instead of ending next week at midnight, it now ends on July 12.
We could certainly use more funding as there were a few mis-calculations with the budget. We can compensate for that with our 5% bonus from IndieGoGo. They take 9% for unsuccessful campaigns, but only take 4% on campaigns that reach their goal.
That being said, were are turning our efforts toward helping The Ara Project.
They have operated a rehab and breeding center for Great Green Macaws and Scarlet Macaws for 20 plus years. Well 2 years ago the US owners died. The property was passed to their daughter, who couldn’t care less about her parents legacy. She decided to sell the land out from under them. The community got behind The Ara Project for a while and held the eviction at bay for a while. The Costa Rican legal system finally prevailed and eviction is currently taking place.
The time they bought allowed for some fundraising and for them to acquire more land to relocate. They still need funds, obviously, for a veterinarian housing among other things as you can imagine.
We have one sponsorship for a camera left. There are so many really good stories from our contributors some anonymous, some are not. We like to thank everyone who joins us in this project and encourage them to leave a name. That being said, even $1 allows you access to the automatic updates of all the cameras and what we learn from the project.
We head out to deploy the cameras very soon. We hope that updates will begin shortly after that. We are not sure what we will discover, but we are sure it is going to be interesting. http://igg.me/at/ochoverde-game-cams/x/3153095
Thanks Penny and the Capt, as they are on board along with 50 others.
We have 6 days and one camera sponsorship left. For the cost of a few beers, $5 or $10 will let you follow along with direct emails and project updates as everything unfolds.
Contribute $8 or more and your son, daughter, niece, or nephew will get the email updates. They can learn some natural history and be involved in a really cool project to show their classmates and friends.
This is certainly good cause and it will be an adventure as well.
We expect each camera to yield hundreds of images/videos over the following year. Some will be ordinary, but some will be outstanding. You never know whats creeping around the jungle or what stories will be told.
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Trail-cams packed. SD Cards packed. Batteries packed. We are ready to go. Cameras will be up by the weekend.
The Trail Camera Names
Starlight-for a family’s adventurous dog, ‘Star’
Vamos Cam-Rental Car Company in Costa Rica, with the spirit of exploration and adventure
Mono Precioso- for the endangered squirrel monkeys of that area, and for Mona the Jungle Hound
Walkabout-a Birthday gift for a wife’s Aussie husband-both with ties to the famous zombie show.
Gaea-named for another spirited dog of a fine local lady.
The Russ B Memorial Cam- named/purchased by friends for a recently passed friend.</font id=“green”>
BellaRex Cam- a camera for a family’s children, so they can see and learn about wildlife
Coast Brewing Cam-from the folks at Coast who have made things better for beer lovers in SC
Pippin- another family dog who would have loved to run and chase critters in the jungle
Henry’s Crab Cakes- great story of a family revitalizing a LowCountry tradition
Ojos de Lalla- so a wildlife lover can see them from afar
Un-named Camera-- it is the only one left.
Please note that one of the cams was purchased as a memorial to Russ! I’m sure he will love it! Thanks for all who donated to this memorial and project!
For those interested, I have edited some of the 244 images and videos from the 12 cameras we used for 10 days or so.
There are some pretty cool pictures and a mysterious fog that activated a camera.
Maximize the video viewer to see more.
Here is the YouTube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SdfnD5z--8
pretty neat! the ocelots are really pretty! are any of those animals agressive if they see you or would they all be skittish and run away? i like the ant eaters too. thanks for sharing!
pretty neat! the ocelots are really pretty! are any of those animals agressive if they see you or would they all be skittish and run away? i like the ant eaters too. thanks for sharing!
I don’t think they are aggressive and some run away faster than others.
