The majority of surveillance and monitoring schemes
operating under the auspices of the Tracking Mammals
Partnership rely on the participation of volunteers
to collect the data. The quality and quantity of data and
information collected in the various survey schemes are directly
related to the number of volunteers who participate and the
experience of those volunteers in carrying out mammal
surveys. We would like to extend our thanks and gratitude to
all of you who have participated in surveys and provided us with
information.
Are you a volunteer with some experience who would like to do
more?
If you are an experienced, trained volunteer surveyor who
returns data on mammals from the same sites, in the same survey,
year after year, we would like to stress that you are extremely
valuable to us and your importance is not
underestimated. We want to encourage you, as much as possible to
continue to participate and return your very valuable data. It is
very important to continue with the survey that you are currently
involved in, but It might be that you want to develop new
skills and would like to try some additional, slightly
different survey work. The surveillance and
monitoring programme contains information on all the schemes
that are being carried out by organisations within the Tracking
Mammals Partnership (TMP), including contact details for those
interested in volunteering.
Are you a new volunteer ?
If you are a new volunteer who wants
to participate and learn more about mammals from doing survey work,
you are also extremely important and we want to encourage you as
much as possible to participate. For those with little or no
experience in survey work there are several introductory schemes
that are relatively easy to do and require minimal expertise.
The National Bat Monitoring
Programme (NBMP), run by the Bat Conservation Trust, has a
Sunrise
Survey for new recruits to the NBMP and all
instructions and forms can be found in pdf format.
Living with
Mammals run by Mammals Turst UK is
a survey of mammals in gardens, which requires minimal time
and expertise and involves watching for mammals from the comfort of
your own home. Survey forms and information on species
identification are sent to participants with clear instructions on
how to carry out the survey and complete and return the forms.
Garden BirdWatch, run by the
British Trust for Ornithology is a survey of birds in gardens,
but people also collect information on the mammals they see.
Are you interested in improving your mammal survey skills?
For those who would like a bit more
of a challenge, enjoy being outdoors and are looking for a very
positive way to contribute to our collective knowledge about
mammals, there are surveys in the wider countryside, which
generally involve travelling to selected locations near your home
and looking for sightings and signs of mammals in a specified way.
The organisations that run these surveys provide training courses
to help improve confidence in mammal identification and handling
skills.
The Bat Conservation Trust
The Bat Conservation Trust runs
The National Bat Monitoring
Programme (NBMP) and offers a wide range of
training courses in
locations across the UK, including
workshops on how to use
bat detectors to carry out survey work.
The Mammal Society
The Mammal Society has run a range
of surveys covering a wide variety of mammals and has a wealth of
experience in surveying and identifying mammals. The Society runs
training courses in
mammal
identification and also provides a regularly updated guide to
live-trapping
techniques for small mammals. The Mammal Society also runs
training courses on dormouse ecology and handling, which are
equally suited to those with a general interest in dormice and
those working towards their dormouse handling licence. There will
be a course runnig in 2006 on 30th September in Cheddar,
Somerset. For more information on this course and others run by The
Mammal Society, please visit
their
website.
People's Trust for Endangered
Species
People's Trust for Endanged Species
run the
National Dormouse Monitoring
Programme and provide annual training for those volunteers
wishing to participate and to gain the skills necessary to obtain a
licence to handle dormice. The next training day,
'How to Manage Woods for Dormice'
will be held at Mallydams Wood Wildlife Centre, East Sussex on
Wednesday 11
th October. The intensive course will run
from 10am to 5pm and involve time in the classromm and in the
field. It will be run by Dr Pat Morris, a very experienced
researcher and dormouse conservationist.
For further
details and a booking form call Susan at PTES on 020 7498 4533 or
email susan@ptes.org.
The Wildlife Conservation
Research Unit, University of Oxford (Wild CRU)
Wild CRU has been engaged in mammal
research and monitiring for many years. They are
currently running a reasearch project at
Wytham
Woods in Oxfordshire, assessing volunteer capabilities and how
they change over time with training.
Feedback to volunteers
Organisations running surveys provide regular feedback to
their volunteers, in the form of newsletters or web-based
information. With regular feedback, volunteers are kept informed of
how their valuable data have been used and how the results of
surveys may be interpreted for individual species. It is
also a way of keeping volunteers informed of new initiatives and
providing a picture of the overall surveillance effort.
The Bat Conservation
Trust provides news on all aspects of bat
conservation through their new
email newsletter,
including updates on the NBMP.
Mammals Trust UK
provides annual feedback to volunteers engaged in
two surveillance schemes,
Mammals on
Roads and Living with Mammals, in the form of newsletters and
these are also available to download from the
MTUK website.
People's Trust for Endangered Species provide
twice yearly updates to their volunteers engaged in the
National Dormouse Monitoring Programme through a newsletter,
the
Dormouse
Monitor.
The British Trust for
Ornithology provides feedback to volunteers engaged
in surveys
collecting mammal
data
either
online or through annually
published
magazines.
The Mammal Society
generally provides feedback on surveys through newsletters, an
example of which is
Shrew News, the
newsletter for the National Water Shrew
Survey
.
The Tracking Mammals
Partnership collectively provides an
annual summary of the results
of the surveillance programme to all volunteers
involved in TMP surveys.