Snapshot Europe 2024
The annual camera trapping project is back for another season–and camera trappers are invited to join
Snapshot Europe–the first-ever Europe-wide mammal survey using camera trapping–is launching its 2024 season. Just like in previous years, hundreds of scientists will coordinate to set up cameras across the whole of Europe in September and October. The effort will deliver data every year about mammals across the continent that can inform conservation and management. This year the project is introducing new developments, including an AI tool and analytical pipeline that can automatically estimate population densities.
Are deer still widespread in Europe? And wild boar too? Are threatened wildcats bouncing back? In fact, does anybody know?
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 (MPI-AB) teamed up with Euromammals on the first-ever Europe-wide mammal survey using camera trapping.
What is Snapshot Europe?
Snapshot Europe began in 2021 and has run every year since. It 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. The goal is to document the diversity of mammals in Europe to help conservation efforts accross the continent.
In the three years that Snapshot Europe has been running, over 200 scientists have participated in setting camera traps across Europe. Together they have collected data from more than 43 sites spread over 18 countries.
“Each year we capture around sixty thousand occurrences of animals,” says Fabiola Iannarilli, who is project leader at Snapshot Europe and a Marie Curie fellow at MPI-AB. These include wild animals, such as the roe deer, which is the species most commonly captured by cameras; and, domestic species like cats and horses. Importantly, the project includes data on humans captured by cameras at trapping sites. Says Iannarilli: “It’s crucial to include data on human presence in our study because it can tell us how much humans are impacting the natural behavior of animals.”
When the 3-week trapping season is over, participants share their camera trap photos on a collaborative database, Wildlife Insights, with the goal of creating a space for scientists and managers to study European wildlife across large spaces. In the three-year trapping effort, one-third of all studied sites were sampled every year, paving the way to estimating long-term population trends for these areas.
The 2024 season
For scientists wanting to contribute to this long-term study, Snapshot Europe is calling for participants to join the 2024 season, which will begin in September.
“We’re excited to announce new developments for Snapshot Europe 2024 that will improve data collection and increase the knowledge we gain from the effort,” says Iannarilli.
A key development is that participants can now estimate “true” animal densities at sampled sites, which means that scientists can calculate the number of individual animals in an area rather than only the probability of a species being there. The method incorporates an AI tool that automatically estimates the animal’s position in the frame and its distance from the camera.
Says Iannarilli: “The tool can do a lot automatically, but it requires some optimizing on the methods side to obtain reliable density estimates. The Snapshot team can provide calibration instructions and assistance with experimental design to help participants harness the benefits of this tool.
“As Snapshot Europe enters its fourth year, it’s remarkable to reflect on what we have achieved thanks to a community of researchers who have volunteered their time, expertise, and resources towards understanding and protecting mammals in Europe.”
