Hiding Your Camera, or, Putting the ‘Stealth’ in Stealth Cam

In almost all situations, camera stealth is something to be considered. While I do not for a moment believe that the subjects we are discussing know what cameras are or what they do, it’s entirely possible that a camera placed in the open, and obviously visible, would be recognized as something out of the ordinary, and thus avoided.

One of the more debated questions in camera use is: Do they scare the Sasquatch away? This is an area fraught with controversy. Some people think that they may know what a camera is, and thus avoid them. Others think that cameras are totally out of their sphere of knowledge, and would be completely ignored. My own feelings tend to fall between these extremes.

First of all, I do not think that Sasquatch could possibly know what a camera is, or what it does. It is not even a question of intelligence; it is a question of culture. Even IF we assume a near-human level of intelligence, a creature such as this would still have to have had the cultural experience of, and exposure to, cameras and human civilization to know what they are. For example, take a citizen of ancient Rome: Intelligent, from a relatively highly educated civilization. That person would, for all of that intelligence and culture, have no idea what a camera was if it was placed in front of them, because they would have had no exposure to or knowledge of them from their own cultural experience. It’s the same with Sasquatch. Even if they do have near human-level intelligence, they will have no idea what a camera actually is. If a camera is hanging on a tree in full view, they may well see it as something out of the ordinary, but they do not know what it does, or why it’s there.

However…

This does not mean that it isn’t important to hide cameras anyway! The reason is simple: If something out of the ordinarily suddenly shows up on your kitchen table you will notice it. The same idea applies here. If suddenly, some obviously different thing shows up hanging from a tree, an intelligent ape may well shy away if it notices it. This is the reason that stealth may well be a good idea in camera use. I have had even relatively “dumb” animals, such as deer and wolves, notice a camera. Do they know what it is? No, but they did know that it was something different, and it caught their attention. This tells me that it is possible for our subject to do the same. Now, in a situation where they are coming in to a human location anyway, it may not matter if a camera is there or not, for example the camp location mentioned previously. But if cameras are being placed in the wild to try to capture a photo by sheer luck, it would make good sense to try to make the cameras as “invisible” as possible. After all, if a bear can notice a camera and avoid it as an unnatural object, more than likely so could a Sasquatch.