Objective: To understand the effects of vegetation type, elevation and season on the minimum trapping effort(MTE)required for infrared camera, i.e. the duration of the monitoring. Methods: This camera trap study was located in the Lanping Yunling Provincial Nature Reserves at the elevation of 3 400 m and the vegetation types of shrubs, constant/lost mixed forest, the coniferous forests and coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest, and the vegetation type of constant/lost mixed forest and the elevation of 3 100,3 400, 3 700 m respectively. Results: During the 1-year monitoring period, the cumulative effective shooting was 3 785 d, and 508
independentphotograph(IP)wereobtained.Amongthevegetation typesand elevations,onlytheshrub an the highestelevation(3 700 m)
camera trap reached the MTE. The species diversity of the vegetation types(Sørenson Index: S Max = 47.62%, S Min = 25.00%)and altitude
(Sørenson Index: S Max = 50.00%, S Min = 17.65%)were lower. All camera sites: The number of species, IP account and accumulation rate
during the rainy season were higher than the dry season, and the similarity of species diversity in the rain/dry season was only 43.14%.
Conclusion: In the species diversity monitoring study, the monitoring duration can be reasonably reduced at the shrub and high-
altitude sites, but in general, the monitoring period should be no less than 1 year, and the rainy and dry seasons should be included.
More vegetation types should be covered and altitude resolution should be increased.