Citizen Scientist Engagement in Mammal Monitoring through Mammalweb

Increasingly, the threats to biodiversity operate over large spatial scales [1]. To understand these threats and to manage their impacts, it is essential that we monitor biodiversity over correspondingly large scales [2]. For some taxa, such as birds and butterflies, this already occurs thanks to the efforts of large numbers of volunteers who record abundance of their taxa of interest using standardised protocols. Mammals are of similar interest to the public but, relative to these other taxa, have been monitored poorly [3]. This is problematic because of the ecological [4], economic [5] and cultural [6] significance of many mammal species. The relatively poor monitoring of mammals is largely attributable to their low detectability: many species are nocturnal, elusive, or rare [7].
Passive infra-red camera traps can be deployed for long periods to photograph passing wildlife, and offer significant potential to enhance the monitoring of mammals [8]. However the use of camera traps for widespread monitoring brings with it significant hurdles. Principally, these include the logistical difficulties of deploying and servicing cameras over large spatial scales, and the burden of classifying the contents of - potentially - thousands of images per camera-year [9]. This suggests that the recruitment and retention of volunteer "citizen scientists" may be of fundamental importance to a successful programme of mammal monitoring with camera traps. Indeed, the pressing need for volunteer amateur naturalists (citizen scientists) to participate in data collection for biodiversity monitoring programmes in Europe has long been recognised [10].
MammalWeb was designed by Durham University in collaboration with Durham Wildlife Trust (DWT) to involve citizen scientists in mammal monitoring with camera traps (www.mammalweb.org; Figure 1). Volunteers deploy camera traps and upload the resultant images and associated meta-data, and/or classify the growing bank of images to yield 'consensus classifications' of the image content. To date, nearly 70 volunteers have been trained to deploy camera traps associations of wild mammals in the area, and have been fed into local and national databases (e.g. Environmental Records Information Centre North East; National Biodiversity Network).
MammalWeb has had considerable success at a local level but important challenges remain as the platform and approach is rolled out more widely. One particular issues centres on volunteer engagement, especially in the context of achieving sufficient image classifications. Here, in particular, there is a need to examine motivations of citizen scientists, building on previous work to understand the features that facilitate recruitment, retention and motivations of volunteer participants in biodiversity monitoring [10] to ensure their long-term engagement. A second challenge relates to making the most of the data in order to drive end-user engagement. Here, there is a need to ensure that the data are available for use by a broad spectrum of people (students, teachers, scientists, NGOs, government agencies, land managers, and policy makers) since feedback from these communities helps identify development priorities [11].
This project will tackle both of those challenges, focusing on understanding and increasing volunteer engagement and the value of the data generated by the MammalWeb project. The most fundamental contribution will thus be to ensure volunteer involvement at all 3 levels of engagement [12]: citizens as sensors; citizens as basic data interpreters; and involvement in problem definition and analysis. Through enhancing citizen scientist engagement with ecological data the project has the opportunity to make a profound difference to mammal monitoring in the UK.