In 2017 Calgary Parks adopted citizen science as a tool for The City of Calgary to inspire Calgarians to participate in citywide biodiversity stewardship action. Citizen science is the collection and analysis of data relating to the natural world by members of the general public, typically as part of a collaborative project with professional scientists.

Calgary Captured is a multi-year citizen science program that has seen the installation of motion-activated wildlife cameras in 13 city parks and one provincial park. These cameras and the data from them will provide Calgary Captured with a more complete picture of habitat usage and species movement (and barriers to movement, like major road infrastructure) in and out of The City, as well as between habitat cores. This information will help inform future park and city planning. 

Calgary Captured, hosted on the Zooniverse.org website was publicly launched February 2018, with 120,000 images from their first season (June – August 2017). They are currently almost 50% complete. The next season of images (September – November 2017) will be ready to go shortly.

Calgary Captured offers YOU a novel way to peek into our local parks and classify wildlife caught on camera. With your participation, tens of thousands of wildlife images can be reliably classified in only a few weeks.

Calgary Captured welcomes your participation by:

1. Going to Zooniverse.org: and search for Calgary Captured to begin identifying species
2. Join the Conversation: be sure to click the #talk button on the last screen before you submit your observation to let them know if you found something really great!
Log on today and start experiencing your parks from the comfort of your own home. This is a chance for you to take a peek into Calgary’s local parks when people aren’t around and see what the critters get up to!

For more information:
Calgary Captured Zooniverse
Calgary’s Wild Neighbors story map
City of Calgary Wildlife page