Your help needed to catch wildlife on camera

Cameras are on offer to capture photos of wildlife living on our doorsteps.
A fox is snapped by one of the cameras.A fox is snapped by one of the cameras.
A fox is snapped by one of the cameras.

Durham Wildlife Trust was awarded funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Mammal Web project and has already assembled more than 100,000 images from its army of enthusiasts.

The remote-capture trail cameras allow the public to upload photos to a web portal set up by Durham University.

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Trappers, as they are known, are joined by spotters, who help to identify what those images contain.

A roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on cameraA roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on camera
A roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on camera

The lottery funding has allowed the trust, which includes Rainton Meadows Nature Reserve, near Houghton, among its 35 sites, to purchase the cameras which are now lent to individuals, schools and community groups to allow them to participate.

All you need is a garden or a piece of land that is reasonably secure where you can put a camera out for a period of time.

Vivien Kent, the trust’s mammal web project officer, said: “The project has provided a fascinating insight into the world of wildlife in our area.

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“Examples of images have included everything from roe deer, fox, badger, hedgehog and stoat to rabbits and squirrels.”

A roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on cameraA roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on camera
A roe buck is among the wonderful creatures caught on camera

The images are uploaded to a web portal set up by Durham University to collate and analyse all the data. You can find the website at www.mammalweb.org.

Contact her for further infromation at [email protected]