Snapshot Wisconsin, is seeking volunteers in all 72 counties as the popular program has gone statewide.
Currently there is a 26-county network of wildlife-monitoring trail cameras.
The DNR uses Snapshot Wisconsin to capture animals digitally using a statewide network of volunteer-hosted trail cameras.
DNR Snapshot Wisconsin Program, Susan Frett, says individuals and educators have signed up to host cameras and send in batch after batch of wildlife photos for classification on the project's crowd-sourcing website, Zooniverse. She says the project has 1,012 volunteers monitoring 1,243 cameras, and together, they've taken more than 22 million photos of Wisconsin wildlife. She says they supply the cameras for placement on property of at least 10 acres.
Frett says the crowd-sourcing viewers help the DNR identify what is on the camera and it serves a couple of purposes...
"...and then we use that for wildlife management decision support here at the DNR. It's fun and it's useful for science...."
Frett says this is the largest volunteer-supported wildlife study that the state has ever seen, and it's become a national leader in the emerging field of camera-based wildlife monitoring.
Prospective volunteers can find out more by visiting dnr.wi.gov and searching keyword "Snapshot Wisconsin." Those interested in hosting a camera can apply online at www.SnapshotWIsignup.org.
