Footprints For The Future
The Mammal Society and Wildwood Trust are seeking experienced small mammal trappers to take part in a project that could revolutionise the use of footprint tunnels to monitor small mammals in Britain.
Photo: Hope Nothhelfer
The Mammal Society is partnering with Wildwood Trust to launch an exciting new project 'Footprints For the Future' which aims to create a non-invasive survey method for all small mammals using footprint tunnels.
And we need YOUR help!
We need volunteers who are competent small mammal trappers/ handlers to help us collect footprints alongside small mammal trapping surveys. Wildwood Trust will be running 'train the trainer' workshops to teach the footprint collection methodology and prepare volunteers to engage others in this project at a local level. In person workshops will be held at Wildwood Kent on the 31st October 2026 and 21st November 2026. We will also be offering an online workshop for anyone who is not able to make the workshop/ who have any questions on the 28th of November 2026.
Footprints from verified, observed species that are collected by volunteers who participate in this programme will be used to train an AI tool so that it can start to provide an instant accurate ID of species (and potentially other details such as sex and age) from a scan of footprints collected in a footprint tunnel.
A bit about the project
Footprints for the future is a collaborative project between Wildwood Trust, The Mammal Society, Peoples Trust for Endangered Species, Kent Mammal Group and WildTrack.
WildTrack are a US based company who have developed technology that uses deep learning models to help us identify species by their footprints. They have worked across the globe with animals big and small, from white rhino to the hairy footed gerbil. (check out some of their published work here!).
We are applying this state-of-the-art technology to UK small mammals within WildTrack’s free app that will ID footprints from a track plate with the click of a button. This will open up a new method of non-invasive small mammal surveying to anyone who is able to place footprint tunnels in their chosen ‘wild spaces’. This will enable us to enlist schools and the general public in mass data collection to hugely improve the quantity and quality of data on small mammal populations across the UK.
How can you help?
We need volunteers who are competent small mammal trappers/ handlers to help us build the footprint dataset by heading out to collect footprints alongside small mammal trapping surveys. Using a simple tried and tested methodology and kit that will be supplied by Wildwood Trust, participants will collect good quality footprints from animals they have trapped, so that they can submit these footprints along with details of the species, age and sex of the animal they are from.
Wildwood Trust will be running 'train the trainer' workshops to teach the footprint collection methodology with hope that those who attend can then pass this information on to other volunteers who may not be able to make the workshop. This way we hope to get an army of experienced mammal trappers out there collecting footprints that we will use to train our technology and get this tool out there for everyone to use.
By getting lots of people involved we hope to not only get data from all of our small mammal species, but lots and lots of repeated data that will help us move from just species ID towards individual animal ID.
Train the trainer workshops
In person workshops will be held at Wildwood Kent on the 31st October 2026 and 21st November 2026. We will also be offering an online workshop for anyone who is not able to make the workshop/ who have any questions on the 28th of November 2026.
The online workshop will also be a great opportunity for anyone who has started footprint collection to bring forward any problems/ queries they are running into.
We then hope that you, as experienced small mammal trappers will help us collect footprints alongside your usual trapping or train up other individuals to help with footprint collection.
We can cover travel costs for attendance of the workshops up to £50.
All footprint collection equipment will be provided.
Footprint collection after trapping. Still from video by Jazz Woollard
Am I the right person to help?
We are looking for people who are confident in small mammal handling and trapping. The footprint collection involves ID, sexing, weighing and fur clipping animals therefore volunteers must be confident in all of the above.
To ensure good animal welfare we like handlers to be conscious of small mammal behaviour and recognise the signs of stress and be confident in deciding when to stop handling and release the animal back into the wild. Details on what behaviours to look out for will be detailed in the workshops.
If this sounds like you, we would love you to get inVOLEved!
Please express your interest, including a short summary of your experience in small mammal trapping and why you’d like to be a part of this project, by emailing Project Officer Jazz Woollard: jazz.woollard@wildwoodtrust.org.
If this doesn’t quite sound like you do not worry! There will be more opportunities to help us with this project as it develops so watch this space!
More information about the project
Check out WildTracks work, learn about the technology and download their app today! WildTrack
Read about our pilot for this project where we developed this methodology! Wildwood Trust
