Wildlife conservation charity Froglife has launched a new “Dragon Finder” app
Dragon Finder is a free smartphone app which allows users to identify and report sightings of amphibians and reptiles across the United Kingdom. The app is both fun and educational, but also of scientific importance. The records submitted will be used by Froglife and other conservation organisations to help monitor the UK’s amphibian and reptile population and distribution, and to target conservation effort more effectively in the future.
Froglife is committed to encouraging public involvement in conservation, and designed the app with this in mind. The app is loaded with easy to use features to help the user identify the different amphibian and reptile species they might encounter, including, a step by step identification key, photos and calls of the animals.
The app has been created as part of Froglife’s London Dragon Finder Project – funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund for four and a half years. The project engages with thousands of people across the capital each year though surveying, educational activities, and by improving habitats for amphibians and reptiles across London’s green spaces.
Kathy Wormald, Froglife CEO commented that “Amphibians and reptiles have been largely neglected in wildlife conservation efforts, this has resulted in these two animal groups declining at a faster rate than birds and mammals. In order to address this matter we need everyone’s help. We are taking people on a wildlife journey, and whether they are a novice or are an experienced conservationist, the app is for everyone to get involved.”
“The unpredictable nature of spotting wildlife means that being able to use your mobile phone to quickly snap a photo, fill in a simple form and take advantage of inherent accurate location identification, makes this app an intuitive idea,” said Jason Cross, Marketing Director at Incentivated, who built the app.
The Dragon Finder app is available on iPhone and Android, with a mobile website available for other devices. www.froglife.org/dragonfinder/app/
Anyone using the app within the UK can submit sightings of native and invasive amphibians and reptiles. This sightings data first goes to Incentivated (the app development company) who compile and send through records on a monthly basis to Froglife. The Froglife project officers then ‘clean’ up the data, and take out anything that is obviously erroneous and divide it up by region. On an annual basis these records are sorted and sent out to the applicable local record centres. For example, in the case of London based records these would be sent to GiGL. These records can then be accessed by Froglife and other organisations in the future to help inform planning decisions, and conservation efforts.
