Surveillance and Monitoring Programme
The overall aim of the Tracking
Mammals Partnership is to provide good quality information on the
changing status of all UK mammals. The diverse ecology of
mammals means that one type of survey will not provide
information on all species, and often surveys need to be
specifically designed for a particular group of species, or in some
cases individual species.
The TMP has taken the approach of
coordinating a diverse programme of surveillance and monitoring
schemes, some that collect data on a range of species and others
covering individual species that require more specialist survey
methods.
The Schemes
Survey schemes are listed and grouped according to
species and area coverage, into:
Within the groupings, schemes are in chronological order with
the longest running scheme listed first.
The TMP also supports research and development of new methods and
schemes that can be incorporated into the programme once they have
been tried and tested.
Guidelines and best practice
The TMP has recognised that an important part of co-ordinating
a UK wide surveillance and monitoring programme for mammals
involves standardising, where possible, the methods used and data
collection and management, and has developed a set
of
best practice guidelines for designing
surveillance schemes.
The TMP has also recognised the great importance of the
volunteer surveyors who give many hours of their time freely to
collect invaluable data. We have published a manual on engaging
with volunteers and managing volunteer networks that aims to
provide information on how to provide the best service to
volunteers, retain their interest and develop their skills.
Would you like to help?
The TMP has a large, experienced and knowledgeable volunteer
workforce collecting data each year, but we would like to encourage
greater public participation. Information on how you can
participate in survey schemes can be found in
Volunteer participation or by accessing
links for individual schemes.