BeetleCam Catches Animals in the Act

Camera on wheels gets really close to sharp-toothed animals

01 of 06

HOW YOU DOIN'

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A human being could never get this close to a Cape buffalo without risking serious injury, but a remote-controlled camera on wheels did, thanks to the inventiveness of two photographer brothers, Matthew and William Burrard-Lucas.

02 of 06

CAMO CAM

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The brothers spent five months building their little machine, with a few lessons learned from YouTube clips on robotics.

03 of 06

REAL SIMPLE

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“The more complex you make it, the more things could go wrong, so we tried to keep it pretty simple,” William tells PEOPLEPets.com. “That way, it would be nice and reliable in the field.”

04 of 06

HELLO, MR. ELEPHANT

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The most curious of all the animals the BeetleCam encountered was this elephant. Check out his broken tusk – wonder how that happened!

05 of 06

FOREIGN OBJECTS

FOREIGN OBJECTS
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The elephants were wary of the contraption at first, William says. But eventually they grew used to its presence.

06 of 06

EYE OF THE LION

EYE OF THE LION
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One surprise on their debut outing was seeing their $1,500 machine get chewed up by a lion. Luckily, some wood and string helped fix it up.

Click here to read more about the BeetleCam and the Burrard-Lucases on PEOPLEPets.com!

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