SLU news

The first images of our wild neighbours

Published: 14 October 2019
Kid holding a camera trap. Photo.

The first results from our new citizen science and urban ecology project “Meet your wild neighbours” are slowly coming in. In this research project, we collaborate with citizens of the municipality of Umeå to study which animals are using the urbanized landscapes of this northern Swedish city.

We will also look at how these animals use the urban landscape and people's attitudes towards the diverse wildlife using the city. This will help Umeå municipality to more actively consider wildlife while planning the future city.

In the project, participants get to borrow a camera trap from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences to put it up in their garden for one month. The first batch of cameras has been out for one month and now we collected the images so we can finally see what has happened during this time.

Harry Bergström Ståhl (6 years old) and his family have had a camera in the garden of their summerhouse in Sörmjöle. Harry had hoped to catch an owl on camera, but unfortunately, that did not happen. Nevertheless, many other animals visited the family garden when they were not home, as you can see in the images below.

- The camera captured some birds, so I was right after all, concludes a happy Harry.