Citizen Science | December: Wildlife Observation

So, what is Citizen Science? Citizen scientists are ‘ordinary’ people who apply their own knowledge and expertise to work in tandem with professional scientists, bringing diverse perspectives and ground-truth data to some of the world's most difficult problems.

Hilde and Sunniva serve as citizen scientists by collecting data for existing research being conducted in the Arctic. Due to their combined 46 years of observations and experience in the Arctic and Antarctic, they are uniquely qualified and inspired to be of service in this way.

For 12 months in 2019-2020, Sunniva and Hilde carried over 7 citizen-science projects with a group of world renowned International Scientists. All of these will continue from November 2020 through May 2021. Each month they will feature a few of their projects and share some details on the equipment they use.

Systematic observations of marine mammals (including polar bears). In ​​the area near and around Bamsebu there have been pollutant studies on polar bears (performed by Jon Aars in collaboration with Heli Routti) showing that polar bears from the west side of Svalbard have higher levels of contaminants and are in poorer condition than bears from the eastern side. 

Species observations in an Arctic setting can be difficult and time consuming. With Sunniva and Hilde living in an isolated trappers’ hut observing wildlife was a natural fit for a citizen science project. During the winter, Hilde and Sunniva are recording their encounters with polar bears. This will help scientists understand polar bear behaviours, distribution, health, and how the bears react when they come into close proximity to humans.

On Friday April 24th 2019 Sunniva and Hilde observed a Female Polar bear and her cub in the area of Recherchefjorden. It was a most magical encounter as they sat in silence on their Lynx snowmobiles and watched the playful banter between the 4 month old cub and her mom- Nr: N26131 acoording to Jon Aars from Norsk Polar. There was no record of whether or not she had given birth to a cub that year so the Hearts in the Ice team were able to confirm that in fact she had and it was no more than a 15kg little bear.

According to Jon Aars between May and the summer of 2019 she seemed to have travelled long distances indicating that the cub was no longer with her. And then close to midnight on July 13th the team spotted the female N26131 just a few dozen metres across from Bamsebu. She has just emerged from the open fjord and she was, sadly without her cub. She walked past Bamsebu, took a long stretch and roll next to the insect tent and then walked up over the ridge to the west.

During the year 2019-20 Sunniva and Hilde observed over 53 Polar Bear encounters and they will continue with this during the months leading up to May 2021. They have a night vision infrared scope that will assist them with sightings during the Polar night ( 24 hours of darkness) that lasts until early Feb 2021.

In the spring of 2021 Sunniva and Hilde will once again set up a malaise tent and continue to contribute to this growing dataset.

There are over 250 species of insects recorded from Svalbard, including flies, wasps, beetles, moths, fleas and even aphids. Of these, two-winged insects (flies and gnats), make up the most abundant and diverse group, with about 130 species. In terrestrial habitats they constitute an important food source for birds, and in the absence of bees and butterflies, they play a major role as pollinators in the Arctic.

Despite these figures, our knowledge of Svalbard's terrestrial invertebrates is still very inadequate. Species new for the region and even for science, are continuously recorded. Even more incomplete, is our knowledge about their distribution, biology and activity throughout the year. As most entomologists visit Svalbard during the summer months, we know fairly little about insect activity in early spring and late autumn. Such knowledge is essential to achieve a better understanding and management of Svalbard’s animal life.

Hearts in the Ice offered a possibility to collect insects from a remote location for an extended period of time. Thus, in 2020 the “Bamsebu-team” kindly collected flying insects in the area around Bamsebu south of Kapp Toscana along the fjord Van Keulenfjorden. The sampling was done in cooperation with UNIS and the Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, and a Malaise trap was used to obtain the samples. The malaise trap represents a simple and very efficient method to collect flying insects as flies, gnats and wasps. The trap needs to be mounted at an appropriate location, and emptied every fifth day.

Get your students outside and making their own wildlife observations using these two exciting apps on their devices.

Contribute to Science in Your Own Backyard and Community!

Every observation can contribute to biodiversity science, from the rarest butterfly to the most common backyard weed. We share your findings with scientific data repositories like the  Global Biodiversity Information Facility  to help scientists find and use your data. All you have to do is observe.

Take your nature knowledge up a notch with Seek! A version of iNaturalist designed specifically with kids in mind! Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenges.