Considering there are still areas of the Amazon rainforest which have never been explored and numerous species of animals yet to even be discovered, actually managing to photograph rare animals in their natural habitat of the jungle is no easy feat.
But one photographer managed to snap some amazing shots of pumas, tapirs, margays and more by getting creative!
Jeff Cremer, who has worked as a wildlife photographer in the Peruvian Amazon for more than four years, shared some of the incredible close-up shots he has managed to capture during his time in the rainforest. Until termites ate his camera, that is!
He captured the astonishing images using a camera trap – a remotely activated camera which is equipped with a motion sensor or an infrared sensor as a trigger.
So when some incredibly rare animals wandered by, the camera snapped these cool photos of them.
In a previous Reddit AMA, Jeff explained how he got into wildlife photography.
He wrote:
I started doing astrophotography about 12 or 13 years ago. Astrophotography is when you use telescopes to take photos of galaxies and nebula etc. Its really technically challenging and I learned a lot about photography doing that. After a while I decided to turn my camera to terrestrial subjects.
After college I started traveling around central america and taking pictures. I eventually moved to Costa Rica and then Peru and Colombia. During a trip to the Amazon I had the chance to work in the amazon so I took it and the rest is history. I don’t know much about biology or entomology but I like nature and bugs etc. and get to work with a lot of great entomologists like @Phil_Torres and @AaronPomerantz. I learn a ton from them.
He also added that “the Amazon isn’t as dangerous as people think” and he’s actually managed to get a number of cool close-up shots of animals via hand-held camera as well!
Check out some more of Jeff’s amazing snaps via the camera trap below:
For more awesome images from Jeff, you can follow him on Twitter at @JCremerPhoto and check out his YouTube channel Rainforest Expeditions.