Small Mammals, Big Impact: Our UMAC Journey at Swansea University

Blog written by Molly Venton - Team lead for SUCES

I first learnt about the University Mammal Challenge at the end of January, after receiving an email from a local youth ambassador for The Mammal Society. As the current President of the Swansea University Conservation and Ecology Society (SUCES), I brought the idea to the committee's attention and we decided it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up and #TeamSUCES was formed!

We signed up for the challenge the day before it began so we had a lot of planning to do, as our team is completely made up of postgraduate students - who also run one of the longest running societies in Swansea University, we knew time management was going to be key.

February - Getting Started

Our journey began with a launch during our university’s Go Green Week, where we promoted the UMAC, encouraged students to download the Mammal Mapper app and advertised our upcoming events. Our aim was to increase survey efforts, raise awareness of local mammal species and give Swansea students the chance to get involved with conservation initiatives through citizen science.

Our Go Green Week stall (left to right: Ross, Molly)

After this, we began our transect surveys through Singleton Campus and the surrounding areas, starting with only five surveys in February but slowly becoming more attuned to spotting mammal signs like tracks and biodiversity hotspots on our campus. This helped boost our confidence for the rest of the challenge and allowed us to step away from our desks and spend some time outdoors!

 We also participated in the weekly challenges launching our ‘TINDFUR’ campaign for Valentines Day and our Campus Champion campaign highlighting our most spotted mammal of the Month, which was- unsurprisingly- the grey squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis). Finally we launched our UK mammal photography and art competition.

March - Bat Walks & Bushy Tails

March saw a big increase in activity, we started the month by hosting a talk from the Love The Oceans charity on marine conservation and a wildlife walk around campus. For this we used the Mammal Society Tracks and Signs Guide from the UMAC starter pack to teach attendees how to ID mammals (or signs of them) and get to grips with the mammal mapper app.

We finished the month by hosting a bat talk with our university’s biodiversity officer, where we discussed the common species on campus and how to use the detectors!

Our University’s Biodiversity Officer Ben Sampson, giving our attendees a talk on the common bat species around Singleton Campus.

We then took attendees on a bat walk around Singleton Campus where we identified several common pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pipistrellus), soprano pipistrelle (Pipistrellus pygmaeus) and even a horseshoe bat (Rhinolophidae spp.) species - super rare around our area (well done liv)!

Using the bat detectors! (left to right: Liv, Ollie).

To celebrate mammal art, Ross created 3D prints of our society’s mascot - the European otter - and took them for a photoshoot on Crymlyn Burrows SSSI, located near Swansea University’s Bay Campus and we even won a prize for this!

The 3D printed otters, on the dunes of Crymlyn Burrows SSSI.

We also took to social media this month to participate in the #smashingstereotypes campaign for British Science Week and continued our campus champion campaign with the soprano pipistrelle taking the most spotted title for March!

We did all of this while completing 41 transect surveys, placing multiple mostela boxes and camera traps, uploading our findings to mammal web and recording any extra sightings!

April – Wrapping Up and Looking Ahead

We started April in second place on the leaderboard for March!! But we didn’t stop there and held our last UMAC event, a mammal themed pub quiz and fundraiser for the Mammal Society.

The winning pub quiz team (left to right: Sam, Georgia, Andy & Ollie).

Being team lead for the UMAC this year has been such a valuable experience. It’s given me the opportunity to organise fun and educational mammal-focused events, while developing my leadership skills - as well as improving my own mammal identification expertise. Creating our social media materials and curating our campaigns for the challenge has allowed me to step into the world of science communication and share our local wildlife in an engaging, accessible way.

Check us out @swansea_conservation on Instagram & @swansconservation on TikTok.