Thank you for helping us identifying thousands of animals! We are currently using the photographs to study the number and distribution of animals in New Zealand cities. We will be back soon with the results and with more photos!
Research
Why are we photographing wildlife in New Zealand cities?
Wildlife in Aotearoa (New Zealand) has evolved in an unique way due to its long isolation from other continental land masses. In the absence of terrestrial mammals, New Zealand's animals and plants have evolved characteristics unseen elsewhere in the world. Since the introduction of mammals, around 1000 years ago, Aotearoa’s unique biodiversity is threatened by mammalian predators such as rats and stoats (more info about these introduced species here).
To expand our knowledge about the impact that these introduced mammals have in urban environments, we are placing remote cameras in multiple cities of Aotearoa, New Zealand. We have collected over 100,000 photographs of animals and we need your help identifying them. Your identifications will allow us to estimate the distribution and abundance of introduced mammals in cities like Wellington, Hamilton and Dunedin. Using this information we can take action to manage urban landscapes to bring back New Zealand's unique fauna and flora to our parks, streets and gardens.
This research is part of "People, Cities and Nature", a research programme aiming to conserve and restore native biodiversity in urban areas of New Zealand. The photographs are collected every year so that we can study spatial and temporal changes in the number and type of introduced predators. Our findings provide guidelines for more efficient conservation management of urban environments. For more information about this programme please check here.
