0202410220141

Moth Tracker Description: Moth Tracker is a citizen science initiative launched by Zoos Victoria aimed at monitoring the migration of Bogong Moths, which are a primary food source of the endangered Mountain Pygmy Possum. The Moth Tracker initiative allows members of the public to report sightings of Bogong Moths during their spring migration across Australia.

Members of the public can take photos of Bogong Moths and upload them to the Moth Tracker website, providing details such as location, date, and time. Experts from Zoos Victoria then verify these sightings.

Bogong Moth populations are declining, so the data gathered through Moth Tracker can help inform conservation strategies to protect both species.

Moth Tracker also aims to raise public awareness about the ecological importance of Bogong Moths and the threats they face, including climate change, habitat loss, and light pollution.
STARDIT ID: 0202410220141

Dates

State ongoing
Start 2019-09-03
Form updated 2024-10-29

Report authors

Heather McCulloch
0009-0009-0065-3654

Jack Nunn (link)
0000-0003-0316-3254
Checked report as part of project 'Improving Citizen Science to Benefit Society: A Discussion Paper' -https://stardit.wikimedia.org.au/wiki/0202407220511

Location

Eastern Australia

URL

https://www.zoo.org.au/moth-tracker/

Aims

Gain important knowledge on the migration, annual trends and numbers of Bogong Moths

Investigate key threats to the moths and determine where they may be drawn away from their migration

provide early indications of moth numbers to aid planning to assist support of Mountain Pygmy-possums in times of food shortage

raise awareness of the plight of the Bogong Moth and Mountain Pygmy-possum and empower the community to help

Keywords

Bogong Moth

Mountain Pygmy Possum

Zoos Victoria

Citizen Science

Category

management/monitoring

Inputs

organisation

Zoos Victoria (link)

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Task: Management of the Moth Tracker program

organisation

State Wide Integrated Flora and Fauna Teams (SWIFFT) (link)

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Task: Host the Moth Tracker website

organisation

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) (link)

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Task: Collaborated with Zoos Victoria to develop the Moth Tracker web application

organisation

University of Western Sydney (link)

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Task: Involved in a research program using Moth Tracker data

organisation

Lund University (link)

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Task: Partner in research program

organisation

Invertebrates Australia (link)

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Task: Partner in research program

organisation

Atlas of Living Australia (link)

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Task: Moth Tracker data is added to their database

group of individuals

Citizen scientifists

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Task: Downloading app, taking photos of Bogong Moths and submitting them via the app
Compensation: volunteer

Outputs and impacts

dataset (open)

Stage: Ongoing

Dataset for monitoring populations and migration patterns of Bogong Moths and interactive map

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Findability: Interactive map: https://mothtracker.swifft.net.au/
Accessibility: Data from Moth Tracker has been added to Australia’s Atlas of Living Australia
Impact: Dataset being collected. Impact unknown.