Dr. Fabiola Iannarilli (she/her)

As a wildlife biologist and quantitative ecologist, I focus on understanding the intricate relationships between animal behavior and distribution and anthropogenic activities. My research focuses on analyzing how animals respond to both direct and indirect human-driven changes, such as habitat loss and the impact of domestic species, at various spatio-temporal scales. By examining patterns across populations and landscapes, I aim to uncover how species adapt to these pressures, how responses might vary across populations and landscape characteristics, and to highlight the broader ecological implications.

Currently, I am a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior's Department of Migration, where I lead and contribute to research initiatives that facilitate collaborative data collection and support open data sharing. I believe that cross-institutional cooperation is vital to advancing our understanding of species' responses, and I actively promote collaboration across the scientific community.

A significant portion of my work involves the use of camera traps, a powerful tool for wildlife monitoring. I am particularly passionate about improving the methodologies used to analyze camera trap data and making these tools and datasets accessible to researchers globally. My goal is to advance our ability to make robust ecological inferences, contributing to the development of more effective conservation strategies.

Current projects

WildEuro. WildEuro is a project funded under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship program to quantify the landscape of fear through collaborative camera trap networks. 

Standardized, large-scale monitoring programs are critical to track progress toward the biodiversity and sustainable goals identified by several international initiatives, including the European Green Deal. Yet, these programs are hard to establish, often because of limited resources. International collaborations centered on data and knowledge sharing can fill this gap. WildEuro aims at gathering and collating camera trap data collected across Europe in the past decade to quantify the impact on wildlife of the presence of humans and their domestic species in natural environments, at a fine temporal scale, and for the first time, across Europe. 

The mere presence of human and free-ranging dogs, cats, and livestock in natural environments might be detrimental to wildlife populations, with relatively unknown consequences on species’ persistence. This project focuses on 1. quantifying the effects of human presence on mammals’ occupancy and activity; 2. assessing the distribution and co-occurrence of free-ranging domestic animals and wildlife populations; 3. quantifying the effects of free-ranging domestic cats on urban and suburban mammal and bird communities. 

Along with leveraging publicly shared datasets, WildEuro plans to build on and cement emerging European camera trap collaborations, and, thus, help establish the long-term, large-scale monitoring program that is paramount to tracking the status of terrestrial communities across Europe and informing European conservation policies. 

Snapshot Europe. Snapshot Europe is a continent-wide, collaborative wildlife monitoring project that uses camera traps to study mammal species across Europe. Launched in 2021, it is an effort to systematically survey mammals at a European scale using standardized methods, allowing for comprehensive data collection and comparison across different regions.

The project involves multiple research institutions, universities, and wildlife agencies that contribute camera trap data from various habitats. The primary goals of Snapshot Europe include understanding mammal species' distribution, abundance, and behavior, as well as identifying trends in wildlife populations. This large-scale, collaborative effort enables researchers to assess biodiversity and investigate how human activities, climate change, and habitat alteration affect wildlife across diverse landscapes.

Data collected from Snapshot Europe is shared with the broader scientific community, allowing for cross-institutional collaboration and contributing to continent-wide conservation efforts. The project also promotes public engagement, with some universities and institutions involving students or citizen scientists in camera trap deployment and data analysis.

Overall, Snapshot Europe represents a significant step towards unifying wildlife monitoring efforts across the country and generating a more complete picture of the state of European mammal populations.

Big_Picture. Big_Picture is a research initiative funded by the Biodiversa+ program, a pan-European funding network that supports biodiversity research and policy. The Big_Picture project aims to develop data management and analytical tools to integrate and advance professional and citizen science camera-trapping initiatives across Europe.

Engaging partners from 17 institutions, the project’s main goal is to investigate and overcome the barriers to the sharing, use and reuse of camera trap data across the continent. Every year, thousands of camera traps are deployed by professional researchers, citizen scientists and other private individuals. Only a small portion of the massive amount of information collected by these devices is then used to assess changes in mammal distribution in response to human activities and changes in land use. However, planning conservation actions and meeting biodiversity targets require access to up-to-date, accurate and robust data on mammal distribution and trends.

To facilitate the mobilisation of these data, Big_Picture focuses on 1. assessing the legal and institutional barriers to data sharing, concerning both private citizen and public organizations; 2. improving interoperability and interconnections among existing databases and AI-based tools for image processing; 3. defining best practices and statistical methods for inference on population metrics.