FOOTPRINTS-CITSCI

We will develop and launch a new citizen science initiative engaging the public in surveys of animal tracks along ski and hiking trails in protected areas across Norway. Sampling locations are selected to address identified monitoring needs. A pilot season in close cooperation with local stakeholders, followed by full launch in 2025, will promote paired objectives of high-quality data collection and effective, sustained public engagement tailored to the particularities of each program location. The citizen science program will integrate, and serve as proof-of-concept for, two key innovations in taxonomic research developed as part of this project: (1) extensions of image recognition models to support taxonomic identification from animal track photos; and (2) an automated modelling workflow to pinpoint areas where new monitoring is most needed. All tools, workflows, data, and scripts from these innovations will be openly licensed, achieving our third key objective: building capacity for future taxonomic research.