Greetings Fellow Educators, Citizen Scientists and Bird and Lepidoptera
Enthusiasts!
Spring is around the corner, and with it comes leaf-out, caterpillars
and other arthropods, and birds to eat them. I’m writing to share
information about an exciting new NSF-funded citizen science project
that involves all of these things called Caterpillars Count!
(https://caterpillarscount.unc.edu) We are actively looking for new
partners to start up Caterpillars Count! survey sites for this upcoming
spring and summer.
Caterpillars Count! is a citizen science project that measures the
seasonal variation and abundance of arthropods like caterpillars,
beetles, and spiders found on the leaves of trees and shrubs in an
effort to answer important questions about patterns of food availability
for birds. Researchers are using the data collected in Caterpillars
Count! to help determine if plants, insects and birds are all responding
to ongoing changes in climate to the same degree. If either insects or
birds are not keeping up with phenological shifts of the other organisms
that they depend on, then further climate change may have negative
consequences for their populations.
We have funding available to support new sites’ involvement in the
project up to $1,000, and our team may even be able to host a training
workshop at your site.
Ideally, Caterpillars Count! survey sites should have at least 30 survey
trees and have dedicated volunteers or staff that can commit to
conducting weekly foliage surveys over the spring and summer. The
expected time commitment would be ~3 person-hours per week, but the task
is easily divided up among multiple participants, and is an ideal
activity for engaging volunteers or visitors at your site. For more
details on the project and what hosting a survey site for Caterpillars
Count! entails, please check out our project website.
If hosting a Caterpillars Count! survey site at your facility sounds
like something of interest, please check out the website for more
details and then fill out the form below and we’ll get back with you.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-7QavO9aGKa-NnpdBz9-
ZOh3KWUuw5TS_x-yNQk9nrd3kag/viewform
In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact Sarah Yelton, Project
Coordinator, with any questions. You can reach the Caterpillars Count!
team by emailing [email protected], or you can reach Sarah by
phone at 919-966-0895.
Please also consider forwarding this email along to any friends,
colleagues or local groups you think may be interested in Caterpillars
Count!
Yours in Citizen Science,
Sarah Yelton
Environmental Education Coordinator, Institute for the Environment
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
And the rest of the Caterpillars Count! Team
Allen Hurlbert
Associate Professor, Department of Biology
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Sara Snell Taylor
Graduate Assistant, Department of Biology
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
