Conservation & Citizen Science

Citizen science is growing in popularity as an approach to answer important scientific questions. With the masses of data that this approach brings, downfalls include possible mistakes and difficult validation. So why then, with these possible issues, is it such a popular tool? The answer is obvious really; it's an amazing way of collecting far more data than would be otherwise feasible, whilst engaging far more people in science and environmental issues than would otherwise be possible. How else could we monitor the impacts of climate change on butterflies, or the spread of epidemic wildlife disease at such fine spatial scales? The answer is, you almost certainly couldn't.

Whilst still on the job hunt I have taken the opportunity to take part in some citizen science projects. I have always been a keen contributor to these kinds of projects, especially through submitting my wildlife survey records and conducting regular moth trapping. The variety of projects people can get involved in is quite amazing really - so many projects rely on members of the public to collect or extract data. The Frog Mortality Project, now Garden Wildlife Health for example, from which we have recently been able to identify drivers of amphibian disease - was the product of analysing thousands of reports sent in from keen pond owners. The Toads on Roads project is again driven forward (pardon the pun..!) by members of the public willing to head out on dark drizzely nights in search of toads to aid their crossing of roads on their migration routes. The Big SeaWeed Search relies on coastal walkers to understand the impacts of climate change and the spread of non-native species, whilst Orchid Observers also looks to members of the public to send in photos & identify orchids to look at impactd of climate change.  The RSPB's Big Garden Bird Watch encourages garden owners across the UK to submit bird records that can contribute to our knowledge of species distributions. These are just a few of the huge number of projects out there - and it really can be as simple as just submitting a sighting of a butterfly in your garden - everything helps!

More recently I have been looking at the range of projects that can be conducted from the comfort of your own home - and there are some brilliant ones out there. If you're feeling a bit lazy, or less than appealing weather is discouraging you from leaving the house, I can highly recommend a couple of projects that I've come across:

The first is called Chimp & See and is an online browser full of camera trap footage from deep in the rainforests of Central and Western Africa. The aim of the project is to better understand human evolution, through studying behaviours such as tool use in chimpanzees, whilst also providing information that can contribute to the conservation of both chimpanzees and other african wildlife.

Citizen scientists, aka you and me, can login and start processing videos to help achieve these aims. Unfortunately false triggers can occur so the first stage is to identify whether there is an animal actually present in the footage. If there is, the next step is to identify it, record the number of individuals and the behaviour of these individuals. It's an exciting process that lets you see into the depths of the jungle - who knows what species or what behaviours you might see! So far I havn't seen any chimps - but plenty of small antelope, especially small grey duikers, plus other mammals such as bats, rats and mangabey monkeys!

The second project is called Condor Watch, a collection of images from remote cameras at condor release sites. Californian condors are critically endangered; only 22 individuals could be found in the wild in the early 1980s.  These individuals were captured and bred in captivity for a release programme to try and save the species. Despite the situation being better, Californian condors are still very threatened. They are scavengers and suffer greatly from lead poisoning when ingested from shot carcasses. The aim of the project is to understand how bird personality and social status of condors may affect their liklihood of lead poisoning and ultimately the health and status of these wild populations.

This project involves identifying individuals (IDing wing tags) at carcasses, as well as their distance from the carcass. A pretty awesome project to get involved in, it's not every day you get to help conserve a critically endangered species after all!