Ground
Based Techniques
It is by no means necessary to climb into the canopy to complete a canopy
study. For many kind of data, climbing would be a waste of time. Ground-based
methods are useful in studying species that are either extremely mobile
or too sensitive to disturbance to be monitored from within the canopy,
in gathering museum samples (such as plant specimens or bird skins) or
when the sampling protocol is so demanding that it is impractical to climb
so often.
Many naturalists have taken advantage of a ridgetop to view the canopy
at its own level. Primates can be tracked with the greatest ease from the
ground, binoculars or telephoto lens in hand. Day-Glo colors painted on
reptiles permit the location and identification of cryptic species in the
trees.
