Snapshot Wisconsin is a community science project with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Wisconsin DNR) where volunteers maintain a statewide network of trail cameras to monitor wildlife year-round. Wisconsin is a state in the Great Lakes region of the United States that hosts a variety of habitats from coniferous forest to prairies. These habitats are home to 65 species of native mammals, hundreds of other vertebrate species, and thousands of invertebrates and native plant species! Using trail cameras creates opportunities to better understand the state’s diverse wildlife populations and capture animal behavior that might be otherwise difficult to observe.
A single trail camera can take thousands of photographs each month and with over 2,000 trail cameras across the state, that is a lot of photos to process. This is where Zooniverse volunteers come into play! Zooniverse users help to make all these photos meaningful by classifying the type and number of animals in each photo. Snapshot Wisconsin first launched on Zooniverse in May of 2016 and since then Zooniverse users have helped process approximately 1.6 million photos through 49 seasons. The project is now celebrating its 50th season on Zooniverse!
For this special occasion, join us in celebration by hosting a Snap-a-thon! Snap-a-thons are friendly competitions where a group of people tag animal photos on Zooniverse to gather as many points as possible. You can find Snap-a-thon instructions under the ‘activities’ tab, here! Snapshot Wisconsin will also be celebrating on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ Instagram (@wi_dnr) by hosting a tournament to decide among a group of amazing Snapshot trail camera images which one deserves the title of SuperSnap! Vote daily January 22-26 in the @wi_dnr Instagram Story.
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