December 12, 2017
Data collected by enthusiastic volunteers can
be extremely useful for researchers, particularly when studying Britain's
little understood mammals. At the 'Ecology Across Borders' conference in Ghent,
Belgium this week, researchers will share their experience of working with
members of the public to create a network of motion-sensing camera traps for
wildlife monitoring.
From red foxes, roe deer and badgers to
rabbits and grey squirrels, the team has amassed over 160,000
volunteer-captured wildlife images to date, providing valuable information on
the diversity and distribution of mammals, many of which are nocturnal.
Mammal Web is a citizen science platform led by
Durham Wildlife Trust and ecologists from Durham University, and supported by
the British Ecological Society, which was launched in northeast England in 2015
and has since had photo contributions from volunteers in Scotland, Sussex and
Oxfordshire.
Citizens even provided data leading to the
capture of a non-native invasive species in Sunderland and that helped inform
plans for a Local Nature Reserve in County Durham. Informing and influencing
local conservation policies is a key part of this large-scale study.
Project co-leader Pen-Yuan Hsing from Durham
University says: "Mammals can be very elusive. They often come out at
night and in small numbers, which makes it hard to monitor their populations.
There are only so many ecologists in the field and they cannot afford to sit in
one spot until an animal passes by. Citizen scientists can make a real
contribution and help us fill in some of the gaps."
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