This week (17 January) British Antarctic Survey and WWF are inviting the public to become ‘walrus detectives’ and get involved in the Walrus from Space project to help with vital research to enable a better understanding of these Arctic marine mammals.
Walrus are facing the consequences of the climate crisis and we need to know more about how they are affected. ‘Walrus Detectives’ help contribute to conservation science by searching for walrus in thousands of satellite images collected by space technology and intelligence company Maxar Technologies. The images found to contain walrus from the first year have been reloaded into the citizen science platform and the ‘detectives’ are now invited to count the walrus in those images to contribute to population data. The ‘counting phase’ comprises walrus haul-outs imaged in 2021, and will be open for three weeks from 17 January to 7 February 2023.
Aspiring conservationists can help protect the species by going to wwf.org.uk/walrusfromspace where they can register to participate, and then be guided through a training module before joining the walrus census.
Read more at British Antarctic Survey
Photo Credit: PublicDomainImages via Pixabay