January 15, 2021
Citizen Science – Citizen research with dogs
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding 15 new citizen science projects, including one UfU project. Citizen science projects aim to encourage citizens to conduct research. Together with the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research and Wildlife Detection Dogs e. V., UfU will carry out a project to search for and identify invasive plant and animal species. The special feature: Dog owners are to learn how to find and identify these species with their dogs. Invasive and alien species can cause massive damage to fragile flora and fauna. As these species are alien, they often spread rapidly and displace native species. This can lead not only to problems for the protection and conservation of native flora and fauna, but also to problems for the economy and the health of the population in the new areas of occurrence. The occurrence of these species should be better monitored in future. The numerous dog owners in Germany should help with this. There are now around 9.6 million dogs (2018) in Germany. These animals are not only great companions but also excellent sniffers. Research has shown that dogs are not only better at finding these invasive species than humans, but that the error rate when identifying them is lower in dogs. This is because humans confuse the species too often. The Wildlife Detection Dogs association will be responsible for training the dogs and dog owners. The Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research will be responsible for mapping and geostatistical analysis, among other things. UfU is managing the project and will be responsible for implementing participatory formats for the citizen scientists.