animals

Avian malaria

Project lead: Herbert Weissenböck
Institute of Pathology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Address: Veterinärplatz 1 1210 Vienna
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Health
Activity: counting, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.vetmeduni.ac.at/de/pathologie/forschung/fwf-projekte/vogelmalaria/

Reporting and collecting dead songbirdsYou find a dead songbird in your garden? Your cat brings home a dead bird? If you are in this situation, you can support a current research project of the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Avian malariaWithin the framework of the Citizen-Science project "Avian malaria", dead songbirds and woodpeckers from Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland are collected by the Institute of Pathology at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. The birds...

PolliDiversity 2.0

Project lead: Verena Mayer
HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein Stabstelle für Akquisition
Address: Altirdning 11 8952 Irdning-Donnersbachtal
Telephone: 0676/9232306
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Plants, Animals
Activity: photography, counting, identifying, taking care
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://raumberg-gumpenstein.at/schule/schule-aktuelles/citizen-science-zum-ersten-mal-an-der-hblfa-raumberg-gumpenstein-mit-dem-projekt-pollidiversity.html

Compared to PolliDiversity, PolliDiversity 2.0. is still about creating habitats for insects, but the tasks of the citizen scientists have changed somewhat due to usability. The project was offered for the first time at the Citizen Science Award in 2021. In 2022, the second round took place in a modified form. Due to career changes of the project participants, the project will not be offered in 2023, but further project runs are planned for the future.The aim of PolliDiversity 2.0. is to...

Cats do science

Project lead: Thorsten Schwerte
Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck
Address: Techniker Str. 25 6020 Innsbruck
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Plants, Animals
Activity: rating, observing, experimenting
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.uibk.ac.at/zoology/staff/schwerte/katzen-machen-wissenschaft.html

1. DescriptionTake part in a Citizen Science Project, in which your cat will play the main role! According to current knowledge, any kind of damage or addiction to catnip can be ruled out – the administration of catnip to the cat is completely harmless. The experiment requires about 20 minutes a day for three days in a row (preparation time is included). At the end of the experiment, a total of 15 minutes of recordings should result.2. GeneralDear Citizen Scientists!First of all, thanks...

Explorer Challenge

Project lead: Mariela Bartosch
Livin Farms
Address: 2.Haidequerstraße 1-3 Halle 42, 1110 Wien
Telephone: +43 690 10119476
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Food, Animals
Activity: taking care, observing, experimenting
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://thehiveexplorer.com/pages/vienna-school

The Austrian start-up Livin Farms develops innovative technologies for the sustainable breeding of insects. Food and other organic residues can be recycled with the help of insects and converted back into valuable proteins. In this way, cycles can be closed and food systems can be made more sustainable.Explorer ChallengeEducation is another central aspect at Livin Farms. As part of the Explorer Challenge school project Livin Farms brings sustainability, circular economy and insects to...

Forest areas for the forest dormouse

Project lead: Birgit Rotter
Österreichische Bundesforste
Address: Schloss Eckartsau, 2305 Eckartsau
Telephone: 0664 618 89 36
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: photography, identifying, taking care, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://baumschlaefer.at

OverviewYou can tell by its name: The forest dormouse (Dryomys nitedula) is a characteristic species for deciduous and mixed forests. It belongs to the dormouse family and its survival is inextricably linked with forest habitats. The forest dormouse is protected throughout Europe, but data on its distribution is largely still missing. So where in Austria can it be found?Have you ever seen a forest dormouse? With its black eye mask, it reminds us of a superhero in action, but in fact it...

Mammoth wasp

Project lead: Dominique Zimmermann
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien
Address: Burgring 7, A - 1010 Wien
Telephone: 01/52177 - 316
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: photography, identifying, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/forschung/2_zoologie_insekten/sammlungen/hymenoptera/mammoth_wasp

The mammoth wasp Megascolia maculate is the largest wasp species in Europe with a body length of up to 4.5 cm. In Austria, a few specimens of the mediterranean species were found in Vienna and Lower Austria at the end of the 19th century. Since then, there have been sporadic sightings in eastern Austria in recent years. Due to the current climatic warming it can be assumed that the species will spread further in Austria in the next years. In order to observe and document this, we need your...

Friends of the Garden

Project lead: Karin Ernst
Österreichische Gesellschaft für Herpetologie (ÖGH)
Address: c/o Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Burgring 7, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Telephone: 0043 1 52177 61
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.herpetozoa.at/index.php/aktivitaeten/gartenfreunde

From alpine crested newt to sand lizard - gardening enthusiasts report pleasePrivate gardens not only provide a place of peace and relaxation for humans but can also serve as important habitats and stepping stones for many animal and plant species. Especially the two endangered species groups of amphibians and reptiles can benefit from a garden designed with nature in mind. However, occurrences of common tree frogs, smooth newts, common lizards, and other species in residential...

Garden dormouse

Project lead: Stefan and Christine Resch
inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau GmbH
Address: Jahngasse 9, 6850 Dornbirn
Telephone: 0676833064755
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: photography, locating, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.inatura.at/forschung-und-wissen/beobachtungen-melden/gartenschlaefer

Wanted - Garden dormouse in VorarlbergThe garden dormouse, which is active at dusk and at night, has probably the most contrasting coat colouration among the small mammals in our latitudes. It prefers coniferous and mixed forests with rocky ground as its habitat. Little is known about its occurrence in Vorarlberg.In a citizen science research project, the inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau Dornbirn was therefore searching for the garden dormouse in Vorarlberg in cooperation with the apodemus...

Frog in a drop of water

Project lead: Corinna Wallinger
University of Innsbruck, Institute of Zoology
Address: Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck
Telephone: +43 512 507 51888
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Land use, Water
Activity: photography, taking care, observing, experimenting
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.uibk.ac.at/projects/frosch-im-wassertropfen/

State-of-the-art DNA technology and citizen science - "Frog in a drop of water" unleashes new prospects for amphibian researchDetective work for amphibian protection - for the first time, amphibian screening is being carried out throughout Austria by detecting their DNA traces in water - and everyone can take part. Amphibians - including frogs, toads, toads, salamanders and newts - are strictly protected in Austria. Nevertheless, populations are continuously and in some cases...

Restore4Life

Project lead: Gabriele Weigelhofer
BOKU University
Address: Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180 Vienna
Telephone: +436764414590
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Plants, Animals, Land use, Water
Activity: measuring, photography, counting, identifying, locating, rating, discussing, taking care, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://restore4life.eu/citizen-science/

What can we do to protect our wetlands and floodplains in Europe? What does the water management need to implement measure for the benefit of both the environment and the human society?The Horizon Europe project Restore4Life aims at offering an online system that supports the restoration of wetlands in Europe. One important aspect is the development of easily applicable and meaningful methods to assess the state and functionality of wetlands before and after the...

AmphiBiom

Project lead: Lukas Landler
Institute of Zoology, BOKU University
Address: Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33, 1180 Wien
Telephone: +43 1 47654-83334
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Land use, Water
Activity: photography, taking care, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.amphi.at
Visit Website
Visit Website

The AmphiBiom project is focused on the study of the European green toad in Austria. With the support of Citizen Scientists, we investigate the distribution of this endangered amphibian species, which, as a typical pioneer species, can quickly colonize newly emerging water bodies.Therefore, the European green toad is an ideal species for projects to investigate the distribution status through call monitoring and the installation of small water bodies with the support of the...

ServeToPe

Project lead: Katrin Karner and Martin Schönhart
Institute for Sustainable Economic Development, BOKU University
Address: Feistmantelstraße 4, 1180 Wien
Telephone: +43 1 47654-73125
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Food, Plants, Animals, Economy, Land use, Water
Activity: photography, locating, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://servetope.boku.ac.at/

Better governance of ecosystem services at local scales in the Wienerwald region A joint research project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) and the University of Vienna.What is ServeToPe studying and what are its goals?Society uses a variety of services that natural ecosystems provide, such as clean water, an attractive landscape for recreational purposes, food, or renewable energy sources. Many of these so-called ecosystem services...

Show me your mouse, cat!

Project lead: Anette Herburger
inatura - Erlebnis Naturschau GmbH
Address: Jahngasse 9, 6850 Dornbirn
Telephone: 0676833064755
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: locating, observing
Participation: Closed participation
Project link: https://www.inatura.at/forschung-und-wissen/beobachtungen-melden/zeig-mir-deine-maus-katze

Your cat - our researcherAttention cat owners in Vorarlberg! Under the motto "Show me your mouse, cat!", we are collecting dead mice and other small mammals that your cat brings to your home. From June to November 2024, you can hand in these "gifts" from your cat to us or other collection points in Vorarlberg. The aim of this campaign is to obtain as much data as possible on our native small mammals for the compilation of the Vorarlberg Red List of Small Mammals.A project as part...

Protecting Wildlife in Buildings in Vienna

Project lead: Ferdinand Schmeller
Stadt Wien - Umweltschutz
Address: 1200 Wien, Dresdner Straße 45
Telephone: +43 676 8118 73547
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: photography, counting, identifying, locating, observing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://www.wien.gv.at/umweltschutz/naturschutz/gebaeudebrueter.html

A project of the Viennese environmental protection departmentIn spring (from early April), there's no doubt: the first swallows and swifts have returned from Africa to breed in Vienna. Other species, like house sparrow and jackdaw, have spent the winter with us and have already occupied their breeding places.House Martin building a nest © Ferdinand SchmellerAll these species build their nests almost exclusively on houses, mostly under the cornice or hidden in niches and holes...

Flower Power 2.0

A bumblebee on a pink flower of the Asteraceae family

Project lead: Michael Traugott
Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck
Address: Technikerstraße 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Österreich
Telephone: +43 512 507 51864
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Plants, Animals, Land use, Living together
Activity: photography, identifying, writing, observing, experimenting
Participation: Closed participation
Project link: https://www.uibk.ac.at/de/zoology/forschung/applied-animal-ecology/projects/flowerpower2/

Evaluation of a Citizen Science eDNA-Approach to monitor Insect-Flower InteractionsFlower strips play an important role in agriculture in terms of insect conservation. New DNA-based methods make it possible to record the diversity of pollinators simply and efficiently, enabling different flower strips to be compared and assessed more effectively. What are the aims of the project? Evaluation of wildflower strips to develop optimised...

Roadkill

Project lead: Florian Heigl
Institute of Zoology, BOKU University
Address: Gregor-Mendel-Straße 33 1180 Wien
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Land use, Traffic
Activity: photography, counting, identifying, locating, discussing
Participation: Open participation
Project link: https://roadkill.at/en/
https://www.citizen-science.at/blog/teamblog/projekt-roadkill
Visit Website
Visit Website

In this citizen science project of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, we would like to create an overview of where animals are roadkilled and what reasons there might be for this.In the Roadkill project, we would like to cooperate with you in many ways, because citizen science means for us an active cooperation between research and society, in which everyone can contribute expertise and is highly valued. The collaboration is on a voluntary basis and can therefore...

"Stunde der Wintervögel" - An hour for winter birds

Project lead: Evelyn Hofer
BirdLife Austria
Address: BirdLife Österreich Diefenbachgasse 35/1/6, A-1150 Wien
Telephone: +43 (0) 660 922 58 68
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals
Activity: measuring, identifying, locating, observing, Offline participation
Participation: Open participation
Family-friendly: Family-friendly
Project link: https://www.birdlife.at/page/stunde-der-wintervoegel

The Austrian wide winter bird count of BirdLife AustriaEvery year, the bird conservation organisation BirdLife Austria hosts the "Hour of Winter Birds", the Austrian winter bird count. All nature lovers are invited to count birds for one hour on the days around January 6th. All participants actively contribute to bird research with their personal count results.Anyone can take part even without much prior knowledge in bird identification. The campaign focuses on the most common and...

Ready. Steady. Buzz!

An illustration featuring a stylised flower and a magnifying glass, showing a honeybee, a wild bee and a butterfly. Below this is the title “To the flower, get set, go!”, along with the subtitle “Observe & count pollinators” and the note “Join in with a few simple steps”.

Project lead: Robert Brodschneider
University of Graz
Address: Universitätsplatz 2, 8010 Graz
Telephone: +43 (0)316 380 - 5602
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Plants, Animals
Activity: photography, counting, identifying, observing
Participation: Open participation
Family-friendly: Family-friendly
Project link: https://bienenstand.at/auf-die-bluete-fertig-los/

In the project “Ready. Steady. Buzz!”, participants record which pollinators visit flowers and how often. This generates data on flower resource use and potential overlap between honey bees and wild pollinators. What are the aims of the project? The aim of the project is to better understand which pollinators visit flowering plants, how often these visits occur, and how they differ across habitats. Participants collect simple...

Mosquito Alert

Project lead: Karin Bakran-Lebl
AGES - Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety
Address: Währingerstraße 25a, 1090 Wien
Telephone: + 43 50 555-37234
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Health
Activity: photography, identifying, locating, observing
Participation: Open participation
Family-friendly: Family-friendly
Project link: https://www.mosquitoalert.com/en/
Visit Website
Visit Website

Mosquito Alert is a citizen science project that allows tiger mosquitoes and other mosquitoes to be easily reported using a free app. Tiger mosquitoes are always smaller than a 1-cent coin, have a single white line on the back of the head and thoraxand white stripes on the body and legs. The submitted photos are examined by national and international experts and the finds are then displayed anonymously on a publicly accessible map.Tiger mosquitoes are non-native mosquitoes...

Viel-Falter: Butterfly Monitoring

Project lead: Johannes Rüdisser
Department of Ecology, University of Innsbruck
Address: Sternwartestr. 15, 6020 Innsbruck
Telephone: 0512/507/51617
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Topic: Animals, Land use
Activity: photography, counting, identifying, locating, observing
Participation: Open participation
Family-friendly: Family-friendly
Project link: https://viel-falter.at/monitoring-en/

In Viel-Falter: Butterfly Monitoring volunteers, together with researchers from the Department of Ecology of the University of Innsbruck, observe, identify and count butterflies. The aim is to build up and establish an Austria-wide systematic butterfly monitoring.Butterflies are an excellent indicator group for the ecologically extremely important animal group of insects. They react quickly and sensitively to habitat and environmental changes. Butterflies are also excellent...