My name is Liane, I'm 18 and a youth ambassador for the Mammal Society*. This June Felix (another youth ambassador) and myself walked the West Highland Way - 96 miles from Milngavie to Fort William across the Scottish highlands.
Our goal?
To record all mammal signs we encountered along the way and create the longest Mammal Mapper transect while raising some vital funds for the Mammal Society. Our transect data will contribute to important citizen science data and provide valuable information on the distribution of British mammals across Scotland. We also found the walk to be incredibly interesting as we travelled through a variety of Scottish habitats from forestries, where we found Pine marten droppings and squirrel signs to the Highlands where we spent most of our time discussing if sheep poo could possibly be something more interesting. One of my favourite mammal sightings was on our 4th day, when we walked 19 miles in particularly vile weather. We had been trudging through wind and rain for over 6 hours, following a winding path through soggy moorland. We were soaked to the bone and our spirits were low when about 25 metres from the path we spotted a red deer and suddenly all felt better. That sighting got me through the last 3 hours to Glencoe. The West Highland Way also took us along the whole Eastern side of Loch Lomond where we made the most small mammal sightings, in particular a common shrew that scurried along the path and we found two baby wood mice huddled together for warmth
Why do it?
Citizen science is vital for mammal conservation as it enables conservationists to track how distributions of our mammals are changing across the UK. To see what areas need more conservation efforts, how mammals adapt to changes in environments and what species may warrant greater protection. Without it, conservationists wouldn’t have the time or resources to gather enough data to see widespread changes/ consistencies in distributions. We used Mammal Mapper to record all our mammal sightings along the route. Every morning we started a survey on the app. We could record sightings easily and it also provided data to show the absence of mammal signs in areas we walked through, which is just as valuable as actual recordings. Felix and myself aren’t expert mammal trackers but the app enabled us to record anything we suspected was mammal related and upload images of droppings, remains and other signs which could then be checked by experienced mammal trackers who volunteer/ work with Mammal Society.
Our fundraiser will continue to be open to donations until the 21st of July and any support in our mission to protect British mammals is appreciated. If you can’t donate then next time you see a British mammal make sure to record it on Mammal Mapper (whether it's a grey squirrel or a pine marten, the Mammal Society would love to have the data).
* The Mammal Society is a charity that has been dedicating itself for over 70 years to the conservation of our British mammals through data gathering, public awareness events, workshops, field work… they never stop.
List of all the mammals we recorded
• Roe deer
• Red deer
• Wood mice
• Common shrew
• Mountain Hare
• Vole burrows
• Pine marten droppings
• Fox droppings
• Brown hare