June 2023

From 23 to 25 of May, wildlife monitoring experts from different European institutions in Europe,  met in Brussels to discuss the results and evolution of the ENETWILD project, an initiative led by the Institute for Research on Hunting Resources (IREC) of the CSIC, in which the ICTS-RBD participates within the European Wildlife Observatory (EOW). ENEWILD started in 2018 and is funded by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The objective of the project is to harmonize methodologies for data collection from different populations of mammal species in Europe for their integration at the international level and thus coordinate common decisions based on the methods established by the EOW.

One of the most important methods for population monitoring of wildlife is camera trapping, which uses cameras that are automatically activated when individuals pass in front of the cameras, which makes it possible to detect the presence and estimate the densities of some vertebrate species using for instance, a rate of random encounters without individual identification. Camera trapping is a good tool for monitoring populations of wild species, as it is a non-invasive method and allows protocols to be standardized by establishing configuration parameters, number of cameras per surface or establish a pacement height. The images are analyzed through the AGOUTI program, which allows to improve the efficiency in image processing and results management using artificial intelligence in the recognition of species and delete of empty images, allowing the analysis of the information through different statistical packages such as R .

In recent years, the ICTS-RBD, in collaboration with the IREC-CSIC, is adapting new protocols for monitoring mammals in Doñana. The data obtained must be validated and shared in accessible repositories, in order to be able to establish, among other aims, management measures for ungulate populations.