Mammal Mapper App
Mammal Mapper is a free app where you can record signs and sightings of mammals in the UK.
Mammals can be recorded along a route whilst you’re walking, running, cycling or even a passenger in a car, or as one-off sightings, for example a hedgehog in your garden.
Mammal Mapper is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and can be found by searching for ‘Mammal Mapper’.
How to get involved
A great easy (and free!) way to help give our mammals a brighter future is to help us to learn more about them. Through sharing information about any mammals, or signs of mammals, that you see, we can find out more about where mammals are, how they are doing, and how we can help them.
A fantastic way to start using our Mammal Mapper App is through walking a #WildMile.
How does it work?
You can either submit one-off sightings or full surveys.
To record a one-off sighting, select “Report a Sighting” on the home screen. For surveys, select “Start Survey”. Depending on the type of record selected, the app will walk you through how to submit relevant information.
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Upload images of the mammal, or mammal signs, that you have seen
Select which mammal you think your record is related to. If you’re not sure, the book icons next to each species offer species ID guides to help you to decide
Choose the type of observation, such as whether it was a mammal (alive/deceased), or whether it was another sign such as prints, droppings, nests or sounds
Pinpoint the location of your record on the map by dragging the map and tapping again to move the blue dropper icon
Before submitting, check and edit any details about your record, such as the date and time, and any important comments.
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Select your mode of transport, and if you’re helping with one of our surveys, enter the associated Survey ID, for example ‘Harvest Mouse Survey’
When you see any animals, or signs, select the ‘Add Sighting’ button
Upload images of the mammal, or mammal signs, that you have seen
Select which mammal you think your record is related to. If you’re not sure, the book icons next to each species offer species ID guides to help you to decide
Choose the type of observation, such as whether it was a mammal (alive/deceased), or whether it was another sign such as prints, droppings, nests or sounds
Pinpoint the location of your record on the map by dragging the map and tapping again to move the blue dropper icon
Before adding to the survey, check and edit any details about your record, such as the number of animals/signs and any comments you would like to add
Select ‘Add to Survey’ and continue your route. Once complete, select ‘Finish’ in the bottom right and submit your survey.
For surveys, routes must be recorded in real time, so as you are walking/cycling etc., whereas one-off sightings can also be recorded after the event by changing the location, date and time when entering the sighting.
Surveys can be planned, or informal. You can turn everyday activities, like your walk to work or school, into dedicated ecological surveys using the Mammal Mapper App and contribute to mammal conservation in the UK.
Why is it important?
Most wild mammals are very poorly monitored, making it difficult to know which regions or habitats are most important for them or to detect changes in their ranges and population sizes. Because of this, the records that you submit through the app are very important in helping us to understand the distribution, abundance and conservation status of British mammals. Your records will help us to build up a picture of where there are mammals and where there aren’t. So, even if you don’t see any mammals we’d still like to know!
Frequently Asked Questions
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Mammal Mapper is available in the Apple App Store and Google Play, and can be found by searching for ‘Mammal Mapper’.
The app uses your phone’s GPS so you don’t need to be connected to the internet while you’re using it on your walk. You can finish your survey (or record a one-off sighting) while you are out and it will be saved to your phone. When you get back to somewhere with internet connection, open the app again and click on ‘records’ to submit your pending and Google Play, and can be found by searching for ‘Mammal Mapper’.The app uses your phone’s GPS so you don’t need to be connected to the internet while you’re using it on your walk. You can finish your survey (or record a one-off sighting) while you are out and it will be saved to your phone. When you get back to somewhere with internet connection, open the app again and click on ‘records’ to submit your pending records.
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If you don’t have a device to use the app on, we also have an online recording form via the Biological Records Centre here.
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No! The Mammal Mapper app is very easy to use and includes detailed guides to help you identify the mammal and/or field signs, such as footprints and droppings, that you have seen. Afterwards, you can look back and remember what interesting wildlife you encountered, and see if you can remember all of their identifying features.
To make sure that you’ve identified the animal properly, you can upload photos in the app. This way our experts can verify your sighting.
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Please try and record every live animal that you see. Sometimes there may be lots of individual animals in one place, making recording difficult. You can record a sighting as a group of the same species on the app. For instance, say you come across a large herd of deer on a hillside, or rabbits scattered across a field, imagine the centre of the group as your sighting position recording as best you can the number of animals that you can see.
For footprints and other signs, this can be very tricky. If there are lots of signs please try and record a sign at least once every 500m where you see them, and leave us a comment to let us know For example, if you are walking across a field full of molehills, you should record the first molehill and then if there are lots more, make a new sighting in the app every 500m.
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All records of sightings and signs, be it one offs or associated with a route will join the nationwide database of citizen science records at the NBN and the BRC, where they will be verified by expert county recorders.
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Mammal Mapper’s main purpose is to record UK mammals and differs from other apps as it also records your effort at looking for mammals. This provides information about where people are recording and more importantly, where animals are absent. This can help us understand if animals are actually missing from an area, or if it’s just the case that no one is looking for them!
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You can email us at info@themammalsociety.org.
Mammal Mapper is regularly updated to work as efficiently as possible. However, if you come across any issues, please consult our solutions guide.
Mammal Mapper now includes any features included in our previous Mammal Tracker App. If you wish to continue to record your mammal sightings, please download Mammal Mapper.
Mammal Mapper has been developed by Natural Apptitude – a software company on a mission to help the planet.
They are the UK’s go-to organisation for the creation of apps and websites focusing on citizen science and data collection in the conservation and environmental sectors. In addition to building bespoke software for our clients, their data collection platform Coreo allows you to build and run your own data collection projects in minutes. It’s used by thousands of people to collect the data they need, all without knowing a line of code.