Elusive otter captured on camera by UCD researcher after five-year wait
30 January 2026
After five years of work, the otter has been captured on camera in the wild as part of a wildlife monitoring project led by a UCD researcher.
Dr Adam Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, established and is the project lead for Snapshot Europe’s Wicklow subproject. Snapshot Europe is a wildlife camera-trap exercise carried by researchers all across Europe.
The images of otters were captured by cameras located around the Vartry Reservoir and Vale of Clara in Co. Wicklow.
“We were really excited,” Dr Smith said of capturing the photos.
“We knew that [otters] were there, but we weren’t sure if we would get them. Luckily, we have some cameras that are close to watercourses and lakes, and that meant we had a chance.”
In 2022, Dr Smith and his team partnered with ReWild Wicklow – an organisation that aims to monitor, protect, enhance and increase native habitats in Wicklow – to increase the number of camera traps they could deploy.
They set up 20 cameras at 37 sites, which collected 93,670 photographs and captured nine wild mammal species and a variety of birds.
In 2023, they added an additional 12 camera traps and the project area expanded east to Devil's Glen and south to the Vale of Clara. 50 cameras were set up during 2025, with over 250,000 photos collected.
The images captured as part of the project are uploaded to a Europe-wide wildlife monitoring dataset to help guide important decisions around conservation.
For Dr Smith, another highlight of the project has been observing stags during mating season, “trashing stuff with their antlers and fighting each other – it’s always really good fun to watch those images back”.
Dr Smith also helped to establish nine subprojects in 2025 – including study sites in Cork, Kerry, Laois, Galway, and Mayo – capturing a comprehensive mix of Ireland’s terrestrial wildlife with the aim of better protecting and managing nature.
By: Rebecca Hastings, Digital Journalist, UCD University Relations
To contact the UCD News & Content Team, email: newsdesk@ucd.ie
