When it comes to revolutionizing research on wildlife ecology and conservation, Alexandra Swanson, postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, didn’t expect these results!
THE PROJECT OF A LIFETIME
Swanson, who received her Ph.D. in ecology, evolution and behavior from the University of Minnesota, decided to conduct a project for the Serengeti National Park. Her goal was to use camera traps to take photos across 1,000 square kilometers of the national park. Camera traps are automatically triggered cameras that take photos when triggered by either heat or motion.
Most studies only use around 20 or 30 cameras. Swanson, however, decided to use 225 camera traps to take pictures across the 1,000 square kilometer landscape in the Serengeti National Park, revolutionizing the process.
“We wanted to study how predators and their pray co-existed across a dynamic landscape,” said Swanson. “We needed to answer different questions than camera traps had answered previously.”
THAT’S A LOT OF PHOTOS
Swanson and her project partner, Margaret Kosmala realized they had an enormous amount of photos to go through, and they realized they couldn’t possibly keep up with all the photos that were flooding in. So, they sought out the help from the online community. Swanson and Kosmala partnered with Zooniverse, a citizen science platform to help launch their project, Snapshot Serengeti, revolutionizing the way they conduct research.
More than 1.2 million images were collected. Thankfully, more than 28,000 volunteers responded and helped Swanson and Kosmala to identify species, count individuals and characterize their behaviors.
WHAT THEY FOUND
Their research efforts paid off. Along with the 1.2 million images that were collected they were able to identify 322,653 animals in those images. Furthermore, 40 different species were identified. These species even included rare animals that are usually never even heard of, much less seen. They include the honey badger, zorilla and aardwolf
According to the Unviersity of Minnesota, they have, “already seen the educational benefits of the project.” The project enabled instructors, such as Annika Moe from the University of Minnesota, to create curriculums and laboratory exercises with the data.”It introduces students to exploratory research, where you first collect data and make observations,” Moe said.
Furthermore, the project showed just how amazing modern day technology is and how beneficial it is to modern research. Without Zooniverse, Swanson and Kosmala would not have been able to identify all 1.2 million photos, revolutionizing public knowledge of the importance of ecology studies
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