Tag Archives: wildlife surveys
Nuisance noise becomes important whale study
Noise from earthquake sensors is being used to study the fin whale. The fin whale is one of the least studied and understood of the whales species and the ability to use earthquake sensors to track the whales could open up a small window to their mysterious world. The fin whale makes calls in the [...]
Natural England boosts citizen science wildlife studies
Natural England has joined with the Field Studies Council (FSC) to try and address a rising shortage of volunteer wildlife surveyors. With support from Defra’s Fund for Biodiversity in the Voluntary Sector, FSC and Natural England have created ‘Biodiversity Fellows’, a new programme to train and retain wildlife recorders as volunteer experts. The new scheme has [...]
A jaguar becomes one in a million
Scientists from the Tropical Ecology Assessment and Monitoring (TEAM) Network have released a camera trap photo of a jaguar as they pass the milestone of 1 million images of wildlife captured as part of their research. The animal to make the landmark image was a jaguar in the Manu National Park, Peru. TEAM is a [...]
A new message in a bottle
Sending a message in a bottle is a bit of a folklore for getting rescued from deserted islands but now marine scientists could use a simple bottle of sea water to determine what’s living locally. By using the latest DNA techniques a half litre of sea water can reveal the species of fish and whales [...]
New real time bird diversity monitoring now possible
Bird surveys can be labour extensive and often need willing volunteers who are not just prepared to sit it out for a few hours but are also skilled enough to recognise the birds or their bird songs. This means trying to keep and up to date record of local bird diversity and health can be [...]
A night of wildlife viewing – 99 tigers in one night
It must put any Planet Earth Live viewer into a state of frustration as the annual waterhole wildlife count in Maharashtra, India got under-way. While the BBC flagship wildlife programme has become legendary before even the series has finished for the opening night of 2 white blobs presumed to be buffalo – as its live wildlife contribution [...]
Are leeches a new tool for conservationists?
It may sound like something out of a science fiction movie but it looks like the common leech could become a major new tool for wildlife researchers and conservationists. A new study by Copenhagen Zoo and the University of Copenhagen used blood that leeches sucked up to determine the biodiversity of a Vietnam forest. The results of the [...]
The oil beetle survey results are now available
Those of you who signed up for last Spring’s oil beetle hunt run by Buglife can now head over to their website to find out the results. 750 citizen scientists across the UK took part in the survey and submitted nearly 1500 new records for the national database. The quality of the records submitted to [...]
Big Garden Birdwatch this weekend… but where are the birds?
It’s a big date for British birdwatchers this weekend – 28th/29th January – as it the time of the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Normally the gardens would be awash with birds at the feeders and water bowls but where are they this year? January should be the ideal time to do a garden bird [...]
New survey technique indicates snow leopard numbers overestimated
For the first time a team has used the latest genetic techniques to try and estimate the numbers of snow leopards in Nepal’s Northern Frontier. By using genetic material found in the snow leopards scats they have discovered that previous studies have severely overestimated the numbers. Estimating snow leopard numbers difficult for variety of reasons. Trying to [...]
On the hunt for the scarlet malachite
There seems to be lots of bug hunts going on, which is great if you love insects. This latest beetle survey from Buglife is asking you to keep your eyes open for one of Britains rarest beetles, the scarlet malachite. This colourful beetle is only on the wing for a few weeks so now is the [...]