by Marcus

I’ve hit a bump in the road. The above photo might look pretty mundane but it’s actually pretty significant. It’s what greeted me when I arrived at the fieldsite last week. The reason the photo is significant is because the previous Tuesday there was a trail camera attached to the tree. I arrived at the site last Sunday and found the tree with no trail camera attached. I did a double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong tree but realised that, yes I had the right tree and, yes the camera had disappeared. And it probably wasn’t carried away by a possum unless the possum had a set of bolt cutters or an angle grinder. The camera was housed in a security box with a steel cable securing it to the tree. I checked the other camera locations and found that another three had been taken. So not wanting to risk the remaining ones, I removed them. So, while I’ve been deciding on a way forward that won’t involve a high risk of losing equipment, I’m realising just how dependent I am on the cameras as my eyes in the forest. While I’m there, not a lot happens. The possums, potoroos, and bandicoots are hiding out and only make an appearance if I get to close to where they’re nesting. These times I just see a ball of fur bolting for alternative cover. I never see the koalas who are at the site and the turkeys only make an occasional appearance while I’m there. As for the goannas, they usually just pass through on the way to somewhere else and if they hear or see me, they bolt up the nearest tree. I really only get a clear idea of what the animals are doing via the trail cameras. I see when the possums have babies on their backs, when the turkeys are foraging in groups, when the goannas are on the move, looking for mates, when the koalas are spending time on the ground. The trail cameras give me eyes in the forest without the effect that my presence has on the animals. So, the camera theft is meaningful in more ways than financial. I feel like I’ve been blindfolded. And this tells me how much multispecies ethnography can be dependent on technology.