Camera traps have revolutionised wildlife monitoring but raise welfare questions about baiting, flash disturbance, and the attractant effects that concentrate animals in ways that may affect their natural behaviour and vulnerability.
Camera trapping is a largely welfare-neutral monitoring tool when appropriately deployed, but welfare-conscious protocols matter at the margins. Baiting concentrates animals artificially, infrared triggers avoid flash disturbance, and careful site selection avoids creating concentration points that expose animals to elevated predation risk at monitored locations. The welfare benefits of camera trap data — enabling illegal trade detection, population assessment for conservation intervention, and human-wildlife conflict monitoring — substantially outweigh the modest welfare costs of responsible camera deployment. The citizen science dimension of camera trap analysis has created a massive public engagement opportunity that builds wildlife awareness and welfare concern among participants who would not otherwise engage with conservation monitoring.