Get involved using the Carnivore Tracker App

CYMOT Ultimate Adventure – Crayfish diving at Lüderitz

June 21, 2016

Surfing the dunes next to Strand Hotel Swakopmund

June 24, 2016

Text by Cheetah Conservation Fund | Photographs ©Paul van Schalkwyk

Spot it, Report it.

The members of the Large Carnivore Management Association of Namibia (LCMAN) have created the Carnivore Tracker App. for both Apple and Android phones. Carnivore Tracker is a citizen science driven project which collects presence data for all carnivores across Namibia from the yellow mongoose to leopards and lions. Our hope is that hunters, farmers, tourists, teachers, businessmen and many more people will use Carnivore Tracker to report their wild carnivore sightings to record their GPS location and contribute to a national database to help focus conservation efforts in the future.

We are excited that Carnivore Tracker is the first App. of its kind for Namibia.

Carnivore Tracker is a free to download and free to use application designed to allow anyone with a smartphone to contribute to the conservation of Namibia’s carnivore species regardless of their background or level of knowledge by simply logging their sightings as they occur. Data or WiFi connectivity is not required as the sightings are stored and uploaded when they become available making it ideal for use in remote wilderness locations where they may not be available.

The data will be used to create a national presence map for Namibia which will allow researchers to identify differences between protected/unprotected areas, human-wildlife conflict hot spots, long-term changes in carnivore populations and in turn where to target much needed conservation action and management. The information will feed into key government departments such as the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, in order to inform carnivore conservation and management strategies across Namibia.

These data sets will be particularly important for those species that live outside of national parks in the private farmland. Carnivore Tracker enables people to connect with the scientific community across Namibia who want to contribute to the collection of essential distribution data to ensure we have accurate and robust data on the distribution and status of the wild carnivore population across Namibia. The data obtained from Carnivore Tracker will be open source as it will upload data into the Environmental Information Service carnivore atlas which contains a long history of carnivore records across Namibia and is Namibia’s leading online knowledge repository.

In return users are able to see their personal sightings on a map of Namibia as a permanent record. To guard against misuse of the App. overall user sightings can only been seen on a limited scale map which will allow people to see a general picture of where various carnivore species can be found without providing a specific location.

Namibia’s wildlife is amazing and it brings people from all over the world to Namibia to view it. We all have the same vision to help conserve and enjoy our unique wildlife now and for future generations.

Join the active conservation community and download the Carnivore Tracker App. today!