Calgary Captured – https://www.zooniverse.org/
People-powered wildlife identification in images from Calgary’s remote cameras
There is wildlife everywhere – even within city limits. To assist with the identification of wild animals in Calgary, a joint project is getting help from citizen scientists in order to analyze photos from remote cameras.
Calgary Captured is a citizen science project where photos from remote cameras within the city are posted on a website and anyone can assist in identifying the wildlife. It is a joint project between five groups:
- City of Calgary Parks
- Miistakis Institute
- Alberta Environment and Parks
- Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society
- Weaselhead-Glenmore Park Preservation Society
The project uses Zooniverse – a citizen science platform that lets scientists, researchers and organizations post information or data that anyone can review and provide their input. For Calgary Captured, photos are uploaded and citizens can review the photos for the type of wildlife and how many animals are present in the photo.
Combined with location data, Calgary Captured gives researchers insight into how many species reside in the city’s limits and the locations where wildlife is common.
“By participating not only will you help us with the massive and very important task of identifying wildlife, you get a first hand look into who calls Calgary home and we hope you will enjoy looking at the diversity of wildlife in Calgary,” reads the website.
“We will use the results to better understand Calgary’s wild neighbors and to help inform our conservation and management goals within the City of Calgary.”
