Florida - Wednesday April 10, 2024: The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has launched a new program seeking volunteers to set up and maintain internet linked cameras to capture images of wildlife on trails in the Everglades.
The Everglades Wildlife Watch program is a participatory science project hosted on the Zooniverse platform. The aim of the program is to improve FWC's understanding of wildlife patterns within its wildlife management areas. The project combines in-the-field volunteering with online participation to give the FWC a region-wide idea of the species that call south Florida home.
Throughout the region’s 17 wildlife and environmental management areas, volunteers will set-up and maintain trail cameras. As those cameras collect photos, the images are uploaded to the Everglades Wildlife Watch Zooniverse project website. Anyone can create a free account on Zooniverse, then login and try and identify the photographed species.
If you get the name of the species wrong, don’t sweat it. With consensus analysis, your identifications will be combined with others to give the FWC the most accurate picture of wildlife activity in that area. With the help of volunteers FWC will be able to sort through more photos than they ever could alone, and thereby gain a better understanding of wildlife patterns.
Once photos are analyzed and the wildlife has been identified, the data is sent to FWC area biologists so they can better manage their areas of responsibility. The results will also be uploaded to FWC's interactive Data Dashboard, where you can see what kind of wildlife has been spotted on the cameras around the region and learn more about each species.
The FWC oversees more than 6 million acres of public land established as Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). These lands are managed to protect fish and wildlife resources and provide wildlife-based recreation.
Visit MyFWC.com/WMAs to learn more about Florida’s public lands or plan your next outdoor adventure with the WMA Recreation Finder.