Zoo and Seattle University asking for public’s help identifying animals

Researchers have more than 80,000 photos of wild animals captured by motion-activated cameras across Washington and need the public’s help identifying them.

The efforts are part of two research projects: the Seattle Urban Carnivore Project and the Washington Wolverine Project.

There are 65 cameras that captures between 200 and 4,000 photos monthly. After the animals photographed are identified, they’re coded and entered into a database.

“Up until now, the project coordinators and a few volunteers have been tasked with this process, which can be very time consuming given that there are thousands and thousands of images,” Robert Long, director of Woodland Park Zoo’s Living Northwest Program, said in a statement. “But now we have a platform that offers a new and exciting opportunity to get our community involved in the camera photo coding process and you don’t even need a science or computer science degree to help us with this important research in our backyard.”

To participate, follow this link and click on the Woodland Park Zoo button.

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