How do I go about identifying something when I don't know if it is human or animal or something else entirely? (unknown moving light in camera trap video)

Well, gosh! I never heard that before. That makes me wonder about this “growth” I found recently… maybe?
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59916381

I know about using foam to seal up cracks in greenhouses or foundations to keep mice and such out.

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They’re placed by humans, so they’re “observation of human”.

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I’m not concerned about the temperature range, but the lack of any insect like movement, and I didn’t put much thought to the title of the YT vid

all flying insects have more of a fluttery or jerky movement, and at times the light looks like it is reflecting off trees, but a spider moving on a web does seem possible

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I remember night lighting at De Hoop Nature Reserve with 800w bike light and trying to find the source of an eye that was reflecting in the grass. It was indeed a spider. I was surprised at the amount of reflection it was giving off.

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Yours looks like a fungus to me, but I’m obviously not to be trusted to make that call

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Good point. I’ve IDed it as Human. Thanks!

Yes, I understand, and it was a good question. I made my comment to clarify the issue. This is a good thread, dont delete it:)

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Ah, ok. I wasn’t sure; that’s why I said if the one on the left was the same “UFO”.
I thought it could be because it seemed to be about the same distance from the camera and because it seemed to disappear from the right while the squirrel was moving on the left (though I could have missed it).

Wolf spider?

I did not try to identify the spider - I was all of a sudden realizing I was kind of exposed :no_mouth:
Looks like they have lots of choices within the area.

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I just know wolf spiders have an eyeshine, though I don’t know if they are the only ones that do, or if your spider’s reflection came from something other than the eyes.

Gut impression is it was a type of Jumping Spiders (Salticidae)

Reminds me of helping mist-net bats, years ago. When you’re patrolling nets in a creek with e headlamp, and you learn to interpret the eyeshine on the banks down near the water surface, you realize there’s rather more Dolomedes in the world than you had previously appreciated.

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Or something small moving around directly on the sensor.

The spider idea makes the most sense though.

I mentioned the temperature mainly because ambient air temperature can be used to rule out a number of species. If it’s too cold there are many arthropods that won’t be out and about, and if it’s really warm there may be some out and about that would otherwise not be.

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This cannot be any of the ground dwelling or plant base spiders with large eyes. These can reflect light from the large eye directly in line with a strong light. Not the case here. Spider webs can be large and can have an anchor several meter long. The thick body and relatively short legs moving on a line away or between branches and almost perpendicular from the camera are clearly visible. This is bright in the infrared because of the spinning activity.

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In answer to your original question, with anything like this just post it as an observation. If it turns out to be something embarrassingly silly you could always delete it :-)

Like many others I would guess it is a spider. And not spider eye-shine but reflection from it’s abdomen when it is relatively close to the light source. I often picked up spiders on my movement triggered cameras, the most annoying ones were tiny spiders spinning webs across the lens!

Here is an example to show how bright the body reflection can be https://inaturalist.nz/observations/60052444, it would appear yours was somewhat further distant from the camera.

(Here is a different one, that I decided was a cat’s eye-shine as it moved behind some bushes https://inaturalist.nz/observations/6093770, the movement is clearly behind the background objects)

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i found a sponge washed up on a beach. thought it was a sea sponge. it was not. it was some artificial sponge that was litter. since its an artifact of human activity the best ID for it is human.

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