Living with Mammals survey

People's Trust for Endangered Species

Description

Records of mammal sightings and field signs at sites in the built environment (predominantly urban and suburban gardens but including areas of common ground, recreational spaces, cemeteries and other green spaces) during April, May and June in each year.

Participants record for a minimum of eight weeks in a thirteen week period (through April, May and June). The observation time each week is variable (from several minutes to several hours) and sightings occurred at any time within the week period.

Geographic Description

Records are collected from sites in the built environment (defined as within 200m of a building) anywhere in Great Britain. The distribution of records mirrors the distribution of returns (i.e. sites are not randomly selected), which in turn matches the distribution of built land. The majority of survey sites (and hence records) are located by a post code from which a six-figure grid reference is derived.

Purpose

The dataset is used to assess population trends for individual species.

Data quality

Records are submitted voluntarily by members of the public with a wide range of expertise. Sightings are not verified and species may be misidentified (with a specific risk: high in the case of mouse or vole species, and low in the case of badger or hedgehog, for example). For medium-sized species, confidence in identification is medium to high, apart from polecat sightings which could be ferret or polecat/ferret hybrid. Taxonomic coverage is biased towards more visible species (larger and/or diurnal ones). Small differences in survey effort at night or around dawn/dusk may strongly affect counts.

Methods

The data are from a public-participation survey: data are collected by volunteers at sites (chosen by participants) within 200m of a building or wholly within a town or city (e.g. large civic parks). Nature reserves and urban farms are excluded. Direct observations of mammals or of field signs are recorded and counts of the maximum number of individuals seen together at one time in a particular week given. Records are submitted online by the participants or sent in on paper forms and added by the survey coordinator.

Citation

People's Trust for Endangered Species Living with Mammals survey (2019)

Rights

CC-BY-NC

Information withheld

Further details and reports from the survey can be found at www.ptes.org/lwm

Digitised records