Hi all, as a new PhD student who will be working on MammalWeb, I thought I'd take a moment to introduce myself and talk about what my project will be on!

I've recently completed my masters degree at the University of Birmingham. I joined the MammalWeb team in October this year for my PhD. Over recent years, my passion for nature and conservation has led to my involvement in many conservation projects - both in this country and abroad. I’ve undertaken field work in Norway, Cambodia, Peru, Costa Rica and Madagascar, monitoring local wildlife and exploring what threatens it today - such as increased tourism in the forests of South Madagascar, conflict over turtle egg poaching on the beaches of Costa Rica, or increased flooding as a result of climate change in the Amazon.
 
More recently, my work and research has been closer to home, collaborating with UK conservation organisations and the general public. For example, over the past year for my masters degree, I have worked closely with the Canal and River Trust to set up and manage the first-ever otter survey of the Birmingham canal system. I managed a team of over 50 citizen scientists who, over the course of three months, collectively surveyed almost 200km of canal. We got some great results and I have now set up a local mammal group in Birmingham to continue the vital work of monitoring the otter population - and other mammals too!

I'm extremely excited to be joining the MammalWeb team and to build on what I have learnt in recent years about both wildlife monitoring and management, and citizen science. Mammals in this country are so vastly under-recorded and, without this information, it is very hard to put in place effective conservation management or policies to protect vulnerable species. This is why it is so important to monitor mammal populations, so we can predict how they might react to future change and then review and reflect on our actions before we cause irreversible damage. MammalWeb provides a platform via which we can monitor mammal populations effectively. The use of camera traps allows us to see these shy animals, that we otherwise rarely encounter - and, with people sending in their photos from all over the North-East and beyond, we can build up a picture of mammal distributions on a scale far larger than could be achieved with traditional surveys.
 
My PhD research will look at how we can use the data we have gained from MammalWeb to answer key ecological questions - such as how mammal distribution, abundance and behaviour changes over urban-rural gradients. I will look at barriers we might have to answering these questions, such as the uneven distribution of camera traps, and how we might overcome these. One of the first projects in my PhD will be launching a citizen science camera trapping survey to put out cameras all over County Durham, but in a grid-form instead of randomly. I'll be enlisting the help of many citizen scientists - so watch this space!

At MammalWeb, we're working on some really exciting new initiatives and developments.  To ensure that we keep you updated regarding those, we've implemented a blog-style news page.  You can check here for the latest news on what we're up to, which we'll start to add over coming weeks and months.  In the meantime, we're excited to note that there's a new camera trap on the market.  Specifically, Perdix Wildlife Supplies are selling the Browning Strike Force HD Pro, which has excellent reviews from Trailcampro, for just £125 + VAT.  This seems very cheap compared to competing makes and models.  If you get one, we'd be fascinated to know how you get on with it.  Let us know at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In April and May this year, we ran a photo competition to find the best photos of mammals and birds on MammalWeb, as well as a spotter competition to see who could classify the most images during this time. We saw a huge surge in the number of images classified - so thank you to everyone who took part! Results of the competitions can be found below.

These are winning images in the MammalWeb photo competition, Mammal Category. The winner was this great shot of a roe buck peering over a woodpile by Roland Ascroft and the runner up was the lovely image of a fox carrying its lunch through a bluebell wood by Christine Dent. Congratulations to them both!

And here are the winning images in the 'Birds Category'. The winner was this fantastic action photo of a jay taking flight by Roland Ascroft and the runner up was another great action shot of a pheasant displaying its plumage to great effect by Emma Archer. Congratulations to both of them!

And the winner of our Spotting competition was Julie Kenshole, a member of Darlington & Teesdale Naturalist's Field Club. Julie classified an incredible 4536 images between April 1st and May 15th! The runner-up was Sarah Cleeve who classified 2800 images - also a magnificent effort! 

Congratulations to all winners and thank you to everyone who took part. There are still plenty of images to be classified on MammalWeb - so keep up the good work!