Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe

Projektinformationen

WildEuro

ID Finanzhilfevereinbarung: 101107666

DOI

10.3030/101107666

Projekt abgeschlossen

EK-Unterschriftsdatum 11 April 2023

Startdatum 4 September 2023

Enddatum 3 September 2025

Finanziert unter

• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

Gesamtkosten

Keine Daten

EU-Beitrag

€ 189 687,36

Koordiniert durch

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - WildEuro (Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe)

Berichtszeitraum: 2023-09-04 bis 2025-09-03

Zusammenfassung vom Kontext und den Gesamtzielen des Projekts

The WildEuro project — Quantifying the landscape of fear: Collaborative camera trap networks to assess wildlife responses to activities of humans and free-ranging domestic species across Europe — addresses one of Europe’s most pressing environmental challenges: understanding how human activities and domestic animals influence wildlife behaviour, distribution, and coexistence.
In an era of rapid environmental change and biodiversity loss, European wildlife is increasingly affected by expanding urbanization, human recreation, and interactions with domestic species such as dogs, cats, and livestock. At the same time, proximity to wildlife might led to human-wildlife negative interactions and increase the risk of disease transmission between wildlife and livestock, with potential huge economic impacts on livestock production and trade. Yet, data on how wild animals adapt or decline under such pressures exists but it is difficult to mobilize, especially when the aim is to explore responses at large spatial and temporal scales. WildEuro responds to this need by promoting coordination and collaboration among existing European camera trap initiatives currently collecting information on terrestrial wildlife for research and monitoring purposes.
The project pursues three main objectives:
1. Quantify the effects of human presence on mammals’ occupancy and activity.
2. Assess the distribution and co-occurrence of free-ranging domestic animals and wildlife populations.
3. Quantify the effects of free-ranging domestic cats on urban and suburban mammal and bird communities.
Through these objectives, WildEuro aims to strengthen and reinforce the connections within the European camera trap community, thus promoting collaboration and coordination in the upcoming years. Increased exchange will promote data mobilization and re-use and support European biodiversity strategies, including the EU Green Deal and the Nature Restoration Law. The expected impact lies in showcasing how collaborative efforts and harmonized biodiversity monitoring tools and datasets can inform conservation policy and wildlife management across Europe.

Arbeit, die ab Beginn des Projekts bis zum Ende des durch den Bericht erfassten Berichtszeitraums geleistet wurde, und die wichtigsten bis dahin erzielten Ergebnisse

Over its two-year implementation, WildEuro greatly contributed to creating a collaborative European network of researchers working on wildlife monitoring through camera trapping. More than 50 collaborators from 35 research institutions contributed to a shared database, creating one of the most comprehensive repositories of camera trap data in Europe.
A key achievement was the organization of a 3-day workshop, Advancing Wildlife Monitoring through Camera Trapping Across Europe (Konstanz, Germany, November 2024), which convened experts from major initiatives such as EuroCAM, SCANDCAM, Snapshot Europe, ENETWILD, and EuropaBON. This workshop catalysed the exchange of methods, data standards, and infrastructure needs. A joint manuscript summarizing the outcomes is in preparation, and a new proposal to seek funding in support of the European camera trap community — led by the fellow — emerged directly from discussions that took place during the workshop.
Fieldwork under Objective 3 involved a citizen science collaboration, where volunteers equipped their domestic cats with innovative GPS trackers and simultaneously deployed camera traps in their gardens. This dual approach produced high-resolution movement data and wildlife images now stored in public repositories (Movebank, Wildlife Insights, and Animal Tracker) and will contribute to understanding how domestic cats affect wildlife communities in urban and suburban environments.
The project’s fellow also coordinated the Snapshot Europe initiative, engaging more than 100 researchers across more than 20 countries, producing open-access annual datasets. She co-led activities in the Biodiversa+ Big Picture project, further reinforcing the integration of WildEuro into EU-funded biodiversity monitoring efforts.
Work on Objectives 1–3 is in advanced analytical stages, with scientific papers in preparation for submission to leading peer-reviewed journals.

Fortschritte, die über den aktuellen Stand der Technik hinausgehen und voraussichtliche potenzielle Auswirkungen (einschließlich der bis dato erzielten sozioökonomischen Auswirkungen und weiter gefassten gesellschaftlichen Auswirkungen des Projekts)

WildEuro has helped establishing the foundation for a pan-European camera trap network, a key step to promote the inclusion of camera trap data within existing European biodiversity monitoring infrastructures. The project helped moving beyond individual studies by connecting a fragmented landscape of initiatives into a coordinated network, enabling continent-wide analyses of species distribution, behaviour, and human-wildlife interactions.
The project promoted the use of centralized platforms such as Wildlife Insights and Movebank, following data-sharing policies under FAIR principles and aligning with open science principles.
The citizen science component demonstrated how easy-to-use technology (i.e. GPS devices similar to fitness wearable and camera traps) can be used for ecological research, broadening participation in biodiversity monitoring and awareness of human impacts on wildlife.
To ensure further uptake, continued efforts are needed to strengthen collaboration among existing European monitoring initiatives and encourage the inclusion of camera trap data within standardized biodiversity reporting.
The upcoming publications will consolidate these achievements, showcasing the power the collaborative approaches and data sharing.

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