Top 20 wildlife webcams

A webcam giving people the chance to discover unknown species without leaving the comfort of their homes will be set up today.

Instead of roughing it on costly, uncomfortable and often dangerous expeditions, it will be possible to spot new species with a click of a mouse.

Live webcam broadcasts of a remote forest reserve in Ecuador will be promoted by Sir David Attenborough to provide a 24-hour window on the wildlife. Rare and secretive species, such as ocelots, pumas and spectacled bears, are some of the creatures likely to star. More than 30 species of hummingbirds, attracted by a feeder, will be among the more frequent sights, but the organisers of the project also hope to achieve the first webcam identification of a new species.

The webcam has been installed by the World Land Trust (WLT) in the Buenaventura Reserve as part of its mission to protect forests and make the public more aware of the importance of biodiversity. Its main role will be to encourage people to learn about the forest creatures.

“We wanted to show people reality,” John Burton, of the trust, said. “This forest is home to a whole load of rare wildlife. It’s why the reserve was created. The webcam means people can really see what goes on in the forest as it happens, without having to travel thousands of miles to places where they face traipsing through inhospitable territory, getting hot, sweaty and bitten by all sorts of bugs, with no guarantee they’ll get to see any of the weird and wonderful inhabitants.”

Because it will operate all day and night the webcam can be used as a survey tool.Conservationists hope to be able to set up webcams in other wildlife reserves around the world. In India webcams are thought to provide an ideal method of monitoring “safe corridors” that have been created to provide a route for elephants to walk across agricultural land that lies between protected areas. In Paraguay there are hopes that they can be set up in a spot that overlooks a popular haunt of giant otters. In Brazil they would offer safe views of caymans.

The webcam in Ecuador will be aimed usually at a hummingbird feeder and a table where food is left out for animals such as the coati, but it can be moved short distances should different views be needed.

It has taken six months for the WLT and Foundation Jocotoco, which owns the reserve, to install the equipment. Sir David, the patron of the WLT, will announce the project at the Linnean Society of London. He said yesterday that the webcam and a virtual tour of the Buenaventura Reserve will help the charity to halt “at least some of the destruction that continues to erode the world’s last wildernesses”.

He added: “This new development of the webcam will enable supporters all round the world to see what is going on in these remarkable places. I hope very much that the WLT will realise its aim of creating a network of webcams in a range of different endangered habitats so that people can discover first-hand what these precious areas are like, and what is being done to protect them.”

Previews of images can be seen at www.wildlifefocus.org tomorrow. Live broadcasts will be available next week. Notebook, page 16

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