Citizen Science

Curiosity, creativity, and a willingness to fail: these are the traits of every scientist. We are all born scientists, asking questions about the world around us from the moment we can say “why?” Citizen science captures this scientific spark and nurtures it within partnerships that involve members of the public in the scientific process. MPI-AB’s citizen science programs are open collaborations in which animal lovers in the community turn their passion for observing wildlife into data collection for a variety of platforms. Through these collaborations, volunteer citizen scientists are fueling discoveries and contributing to a better understanding of the fellow animals with whom we share our planet.

Animal Tracker App

Observe the routes of tagged wild animals around the globe in near real time with the Animal Tracker. Tiny GPS transmitters on the animals' backs provide position and acceleration data. This data is analyzed by hundreds of scientists. Be a part of this scientific community and upload your observations to our database via the free Animal Tracker app. What are the animals doing at their location? Are they eating? Are they building a nest? Are they resting? This information is very important for the analysis of the movement data. We look forward to discussing your ideas for data analysis with you. Become part of the research community as an animal tracker.

Cat Tracker

What do our cats do on their forays alone out in the field when we can't watch them? The answers are provided by the data of our newly developed Cattracker collar logger. Not only can we determine the exact whereabouts of the cats via the GPS position data, but by analyzing the acceleration data we can make statements about movement patterns and thus, for example, about the hunting behavior of our domestic cats. The data is visualized in the institute's own Animal Tracker App, which is available free of charge, and can be conveniently viewed by the pet owner

Interested in participating in Cat Tracker?

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Snapshot Europe

Unlike humans, other mammals don’t respect national borders. Which is why there has been no standard way to monitor mammal populations across the European continent. To address this challenge, the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior teamed up with Euromammals on the first-ever Europe-wide mammal survey using camera trapping. Snapshot Europe involves hundreds of scientists in a coordinated effort to set camera traps across the whole of Europe and across all habitat types: suburban, rural, wild, urban. Each year, scientists set cameras out in 10-50 sites during September-October for at least 3 weeks per site and 400 camera trap-days across all sites. In the coming years, the project plans to harness the power of citizen science by including public participation. The goal is to to document the diversity of mammals in Europe to help conservation efforts accross the continent.