We know they're out there: coyotes, deer, moose, even bobcats, sharing our parks and natural areas (and sometimes our backyards), but results from a citizen science project released in January have created a buzz with photo evidence of Calgary's rich and varied biodiversity.
The Calgary Captured program is a wildlife monitoring partnership with the Miistakis Institute, a not-for-profit, charitable, applied research institute affiliated with Mount Royal University, the City of Calgary, Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park Society, and Weaselhead/Glenmore Park Preservation Society. Its goal is to improve Calgarians' understanding of how medium to large terrestrial mammals are using natural areas and moving around the urban landscape.
Calgary Captured used 97 motion-activated camera traps placed in 19 key natural environment parks and movement corridors, which were monitored between May 2017 and May 2020. With a resulting 125,765 images to go through, the project looked to volunteers for help with image classification using Zooniverse an online citizen science platform. Calgary Captured was funded through The Calgary Foundation, Alberta Ecotrust and TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.
"Citizen science not only supports the generation of important scientific data, but also helps to build scientific literacy and improves civic engagement in and uptake of science-based solutions," says Tracy Lee, project manager for Calgary Captured. "In order to garner support for protection and maintenance of these important natural areas to support biodiversity, we need Calgarians to engage in this important issue."
Most often caught on camera were deer and coyotes, but moose, red foxes, bobcats, cougars, black bears, raccoons and porcupines also make an appearance.
