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WildINTEL Mid-Term Meeting – Zakopane, Poland
From the 5th to the 11th of May 2025, the WildINTEL consortium gathered in the Polish Tatra Mountains at the field station of the Institute of Nature Conservation (IOP PAN) in Zakopane, for the second official meeting of the project.
The meeting brought together a team of interdisciplinary researchers in ecology, wildlife monitoring, biodiversity science, mathematics, and artificial intelligence to reflect on progress, align strategies, and strengthen collaboration across partner institutions. The meeting featured detailed presentations from each study area, showcasing initial findings, technical advancements, and future directions. These included updates on data collection, camera trap deployment, AI-based species recognition pipelines, citizen science engagement, and region-specific monitoring strategies.
One of the topics discussed was the adaptation of study designs to diverse environmental challenges across regions. In the Tatra Mountains, for example, deep snow and rugged terrain make camera trap deployment a true adventure, not for the faint of heart. Meanwhile, monitoring reindeer populations in southern Norway poses different challenges, such as vast and remote mountainous landscapes, seasonal accessibility issues, and the need for spatially adaptive sampling strategies.
The team from the University of Huelva presented their workflow for preprocessing, image management, and use of the Trapper client for semiautomated collection of camera trap data. To ensure the highest data quality outcomes, images are classified through a combination of AI models, citizen science contributions via the Zooniverse platform, and expert validation.
Another central theme was the dissemination and sharing of project results. Discussions focused on maximizing the utility and accessibility of generated biodiversity data for science, policy, and conservation stakeholders.
The working sessions were both rigorous and productive, emphasizing key challenges and opportunities as the project scales up. These discussions were enriched by on-site field visits in the surrounding Tatra National Park, where the group had the remarkable opportunity to observe local wildlife, including brown bears and chamois, highlighting the region’s biodiversity richness.
As the project progresses, WildINTEL remains committed to delivering high-quality, scalable biodiversity data to global platforms such as GBIF, EuropaBON, and GEO BON, empowering broader efforts in wildlife conservation and ecological research.
Winter Challenges: Camera Traps Buried by Snow in the Tatra Mountains
Heavy snowfall in the Tatra Mountains has posed significant challenges for ongoing wildlife monitoring. Several camera traps were completely snowed in, making them difficult to locate.
Once recovered, some of the cameras showed signs of damage.
Ice had entered the interior of some cameras.
The current setup — designed for milder regions — is not appropriate for winter in the mountains. To address this, the study design will be adapted.
Cameras deployed in Tatra.
First pics from Tatra!
About two months ago, we started deploying a total of 51 camera traps in Tatra National Park following a stratified random design. The first inspection of the cameras has largely exceeded our expectations.
In this initial review, we captured images of the three species of large carnivores present in the area: the wolf Canis lupus, the brown bear Ursus arctos, and the Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx. This finding does not only reaffirm the importance of Tatra National Park as a refuge for large carnivores but also raises new questions about the movements and density of these species.
Apex predators of the Tatra mountains
The grey wolf and brown bear are two of Europe’s most important apex predators and play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functioning in the Park. Wolves help to regulate populations of ungulates, such as deer, and ungulate-related disease outbreaks, while bears contribute to seed dispersal and the maintenance of a keystone food in the ecosystem, like berries. The confirmation of their presence in the Tatra National Park is a strong indicator of the health and functioning of the ecosystem. Furthermore, the detection of the Eurasian lynx, a flagship species and indicator of habitat quality, highlights the importance of the park as a refuge for large carnivores.
Next steps
Our team will continue monitoring the cameras deployed in Tatra National Park to gain a deeper understanding on the mammal community in the area. These data will be crucial for assessing the distribution, population dynamics, habitat use, species interactions and activity patterns of the recorded species, as well as for identifying factors that pose a threat to the species.
Stay tuned for the second revision as we continue uncovering the fascinating wildlife of Tatra National Park!
Camera-trapping workshop
On November 11-14 we took part in the workshop “Advancing Wildlife Monitoring through Camera Trapping Across Europe” organized in Konstanz (Germany) by Dr. Fabiola Iannarilli from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. The workshop went through the current camera-trap initiatives for wildlife monitoring in Europe and discussed strategies to advance coordinated and standardized camera trapping efforts. It set solid basis to foster collaborations at European and global scale. This initiative is part of WildEuro, a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship project aimed at showcasing the importance of coordinated and collaborative efforts in enhancing our understanding of ecological patterns and processes at the European scale.
The researcher Santiago Gutiérrez-Zapata was interviewed by the radio station Cadena Ser in Huelva, Spain, following the recent publication titled “Dog invasions in protected areas: A case study using camera trapping, citizen science and artificial intelligence” in the journal Global Ecology and Conservation. During the interview, the researcher highlighted the problems that domestic dogs can pose to biodiversity in
protected areas, shared the main findings of the research, and offered recommendations for managing this species in these environments.
Read all the interview here
The Carpathian Brown Bear Project has published a brief note about our Kick-off meeting, which took place at the University of Huelva, Spain, from March 4th to 7th, 2024. The note outlines our main objectives and the general conclusions from the meeting.
Read the note here