Media release from ABC Radio National
Thursday, August 4, 2016
Australian wildlife scientists need all eyeballs on deck this August to help them study where Australia’s wild things are, as part of Wildlife Spotter — the ABC’s citizen science project for National Science Week (13–21 August 2016).
Since its launch on Monday 1 August:
- 133,601 images have been identified, and
- 153,463 animals have been
- spotted by 7,290 citizen scientists.
But there’s plenty more to go. There are over 1 million images to be classified. Whether participants dedicated 10 minutes or 10 hours — every animal identified will help Australia’s scientists.
Why spot the wildlife?
Australia is a vast country. Researchers have set up automatic cameras that are snapping wildlife day and night. Now they need help to analyse the millions of photographs they’ve captured in tropical rainforests, the dry rangelands, and around our cities.
From superb lyrebirds to common wombats, from bettongs to bandicoots, from brush turkeys to Tassie devils, and even feral cats and foxes — scientists want to know which species are roaming both in the wild and in urban areas. Participants will help answer questions including: how many endangered bettongs are left; how well native predators like quolls and devils are competing with cats for food; and how common are common wombats.
As well as helping scientists understand living Australia, participants can win one of two Go Pro Hero 4 cameras. School participants could win a visit from Dr Karl.
Wildlife Spotter runs from Monday 1 August to Monday 5 September
Wildlife Spotter is the online citizen science project for National Science Week 2016, undertaken by ABC Science in conjunction with the Australian Museum, Deakin University, Charles Darwin University, NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, Tasmanian Land Conservancy, and WWF Australia. It is supported by funding through the Australian Government Inspiring Australia strategy.
Fifteen ecologists, zoologists, scientists and science communicators from around the country are available for interviews about Wildlife Spotter.
Media kit, images, and other resources at www.scienceinpublic.com.au.
To organise interviews, contact:
Ellie Michaelides on ellie@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 809 789
Tanya Ha on tanya@scienceinpublic.com.au or 0404 083 863