OutdoorNebraska

5 By Alie Mayes, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission Watchable Wildlife Biologist N ebraska Wildlife Watch is a web-based citizen science project where participants can review photos and tag the species they see in camera trap images. Nebraska Wildlife Watch has four main goals: • To allow participants to view and recognize Nebraska's wildlife • To promote engagement of citizen science in Nebraska • To gain reliable sightings of rare/at-risk species • To gain information that may help inform state habitat management decisions In 2019, motion-triggered cameras were installed at two Nebraska Natural Legacy Demonstration Sites located at Ponca and Niobrara state parks. Natural Legacy Demonstration Sites are locations that showcase habitat management techniques that can be used on private or public lands. There are currently three cameras at each site. Biologists and staff on-site check the cameras and upload images to the project approximately once per month. The parameters of this online project require each image-set (up to six frames taken within a 30-second period) to be reviewed and tagged by six different participants. This helps to increase the level of confidence in the identification. Based on the ratio of identifications, in a 24-day period (August 24– September 16, 2019), participants completed an average of 694 classifications per day. In spring of 2020, this platform will be home to a new project focused on finding verifiable observations of eastern spotted skunks in Nebraska. The eastern spotted skunk is considered an at-risk species in Nebraska and throughout the Midwest. The last known sighting in Nebraska was in 2017 in Cherry County. Nebraskans are encouraged to keep an eye out for eastern spotted skunks and report any sightings to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Spotted skunks are smaller than the more common striped skunk, and their black and white fur has a pattern of broken stripes. They are secretive and nocturnal, which can make it otherwise difficult to find them. The Commission seeks to recruit landowners in and around Cherry County to place camera traps ( game cameras) on their property following a few simple guidelines in the hopes of capturing images of these elusive creatures. The images collected from these cameras will be reviewed through the Nebraska Wildlife Watch project. For more information or to participate with this project, contact Alie Mayes at alie.mayes@nebraska.gov or by phone at 402-471-5631. Nebraska Wildlife Watch: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/watchablewildlife/ nebraska-wildlife-watch ✔ Images of multiple wildlife species are captured through the Nebraska Wildlife Watch. Nebraska Wildlife Watch A New Way to Explore Nebraska's Wildlife

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