Forschen im Almtal | SPOTTERON

"Forschen im Wildpark" is a Citizen Science project of the University of Vienna in cooperation with the game park Cumberland Wildpark in Grünau im Almtal. Its aim is to actively involve the visitors of the game park in the research activities of the Core facility Konrad Lorenz Forschungsstelle for Behaviour and Cognition (Upper Austria). Everybody is welcome to join in!

The aim of the project is the monitoring of the time-space patterns of three avian species (greylag geese, ravens and northern bald ibises) which are considered as models. Because of their availability and accessibility in the study area (Cumberland Wildpark, Grünau im Almtal, Upper Austria), as well as the interest given to them by the public, they are perfectly suitable for the project. Birds are individually marked, which allows recognition of the single animals in the field also for citizen scientists. The greylag geese and the northern bald ibises are marked with colourful rings on their legs, whereas the ravens are recognizable by different wingtags.

We aim at investigating when and where exactly which animals are to be found: do they have preferences for certain places of the park or do they prefer the company of other conspecifics?