Zug, 02.04.2020

Wildlife observations can be reported online

Many kinds of wildlife live in settlement areas. Observations can now be reported on a website.

The cat quickly scurries across the road in front of the approaching car and disappears into the bushes on the other side. Only the bushy tail was recognisable. A bushy tail on a cat? Perhaps the supposed cat was in fact a fox. The idea is not so absurd. Countless wild animals  have found a home in the settlement area. In order to learn more about this, the Swiss-wide Wild Neighbours project was launched in 2016. From March of this year, there has also been a local branch in the canton of Zug.

"Many of our wild neighbours live in hiding, are nocturnal or avoid us humans. The Wild Neighbours project aims to make these secret settlement dwellers visible and tangible," explains Anouk Taucher, a research associate. For this purpose, observations of wild animals are collected working together with the local population. "Over time, these random observations give a good picture of the distribution and occurrence of the various species," continues the wildlife biologist.

Foxes are often seen in settlement areas.

This type of data collection is called Citizen Science. "The special thing about this is that not only trained scientists, but also lay persons can participate in research projects. This gives normal citizens the opportunity to actively participate in science," the website states. In return, this makes a broad and extensive data collection possible. The scientific team has three main objectives. The first is to raise public awareness of the wild animals on their doorstep. Secondly, knowledge gaps are to be filled: "There are no systematic stock recordings for many animal species," says Taucher. Trends and changes in numbers can thereby be detected at an early stage. Finally, the third objective is to be able to use the collected and analysed data to ensure the basis for the protection and promotion of wild animals in the settlement area.

The project has already had some successes. More than 30,000 observations were reported on the platforms www.wildenachbarn.ch and www.stadtwildtiere.ch – the sister project for urban settlements. The platform was used as a reporting platform for the new mammal atlas, which is due to be released in spring 2021, explains Anouk Taucher.

You can participate In the canton of Zug in different ways. Anyone can take part, and can record wildlife observations on the reporting platform. "Observations with images are particularly valuable," says the biologist. A glance at the gallery shows that the project has already found favour in Zug, where an observation is recorded almost every day. For example, it can be seen that deer are often underway in the Raten area of Oberägeri, hedgehogs have been observed in Cham and even field hares have been seen in Morgarten. The project is supported by the Canton of Zug, nine municipalities and local nature conservation organisations.

The website can be found on https://zug.wildenachbarn.ch.