What is a citizen scientist?
A potential, amateur, or professional scientist, often learning from and collaborating with others, volunteering their time to conduct scientific work.
“Fantastic. Loved it and would gladly participate again. Thanks so much for the hard work and organisation. It was great for my students to get a glimpse of science in action.”
Devonport High School students participating in the Where? Where? Wedgie! 2018 survey.
What is NatureTrackers?
NatureTrackers is a program of citizen science projects, bringing together schools and the community to track the status of our threatened species and better understand their needs. It’s coordinated by the Bookend Trust, a not-for-profit founded in Tasmania in 2008, which inspires people of all ages and abilities to develop careers and interest in the environment, and to find positive solutions to environmental problems.
Our numbers so far…
- 1483 Subscribed NatureTrackers
- 847 Where? Where? Wedgie! app users
- 0 Where? Where? Wedgie! : survey squares booked for 2+ days
- Where? Where? Wedgie! : complete data uploaded for 2+ days
- 55 Eagles tagged for research since
- 276 Burrowing crayfish chimneys mapped since
Our projects
Where? Where? Wedgie!
Get your family and friends outdoors this May, to help monitor Tasmania’s birds of prey, white cockatoos and corellas — with a focus on our endangered wedge-tailed eagles. Are their numbers recovering, stable or still declining?
Claws on the line
Spend a spring day — or your whole spring and summer! — helping map and monitor Tasmania’s burrowing crayfish colonies. Five threatened burrowing crayfish species live in northern and western Tasmania, and we’re starting out with a special focus on the endangered Central North burrowing crayfish, which is found nowhere else in the world except a small patch of northern Tasmania.
CallTrackers
Help monitor our noisy but elusive species across Tasmania! Between September and April, book a sound recorder and a nice spot to leave it for eight days; then upload the resulting data and start to discover which species are calling in the area. The initial focus is on a threatened bird — the Australasian bittern — and Tasmania’s eight resident bat species.
“It’s not only about wedgies. But also about all those other cool raptors out there and even corellas and sulphur-crested cockatoos. And, most importantly, it is about getting out and having fun while gathering really useful scientific data.”
