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Find fauna in your backyard

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Do you have a bandicoot out back? What about a wallaby near Wollombi?

The Hunter Region Landcare Network is offering residents the chance to discover what

wildlife lives in their local bushland.

Landcare will join forces with the Office of Environment and Heritage to host three, hands-on workshops in East Maitland, Greta and the Upper Hunter.

The workshops are part of a citizen science project, which aims to detect, identify and record native and feral species through infrared cameras.

Species will be collated and published to create a picture of the biodiversity in the region and encourage better conservation.

Lower and Mid Hunter Landcare Coordinator, Stacy Mail, says the project is a great opportunity to discover what native species are using the sites and how to protect them.

“Of course, we are hoping to find the presence of threatened species, but sometimes knowing you have a pest on-site can explain the lack of native species,” she says.

Video footage captured on site will be sorted and tagged using a crowdsourcing platform known as DigiVol.

It is an initiative of the Australian Museum, in partnership with the Atlas of Living Australia.

Volunteers will be able to view relevant footage and label wildlife as it appears on screen.

“The ability to get digital volunteers really changes data processing time; what might have taken one person days can now be completed by multiple people, all over the country, in one day,” Ms Mail adds.

The first free workshop takes place at Earthcare Park, East Maitland, on Saturday 9 February from 8.30am to 11am.

Visit hunterlandcare.org.au/wildlife-discovery/ for more information or to RSVP.

You can also phone Stacy on 0429 444 305 or email [email protected]

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