{"id":6761,"date":"2013-02-19T02:22:21","date_gmt":"2013-02-19T09:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=6761"},"modified":"2013-02-26T11:12:44","modified_gmt":"2013-02-26T18:12:44","slug":"yellowstone-crowdsources-visitor-photos-help-study-wolf-disease-dynamics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellowstonegate.com\/?p=6761","title":{"rendered":"Yellowstone crowdsources visitor photos to help study wolf disease, dynamics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Researchers<\/a>
A researcher with the Yellowstone Wolf Project is raising money for a website that will collect and archive visitor photos to help track mange, an infectious disease that causes skin lesions and fur loss. (NPS file photo by Ryan Kindermann – click to enlarge)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Ruffin Prevost<\/h3>\n

UPDATE:<\/strong> After Yellowstone Gate coverage of this Kickstarter project was reprinted in The Billings Gazette<\/a>, National Parks Traveler<\/a>, The Great Falls Prairie Star<\/a>\u00a0and in other publications, the campaign has been fully funded, exceeding its goal after only a few days.<\/em><\/p>\n

The next time you visit Yellowstone National Park and manage to snap a great wolf photo, you could also be helping researchers as they monitor everything from infectious diseases to breeding habits among the elusive animals.<\/p>\n

A Penn State University graduate student working on the Yellowstone Wolf Project has launched an Internet campaign to raise funds for a website that will let visitors upload wolf photos along with location information and other data. The goal is to track the spread and progress of sarcoptic mange among individual wolves and packs. But the effort could also prove helpful to other areas of wolf research.<\/p>\n

Yellowstone wolf studies<\/a> have long relied on field photos and images taken from research aircraft as important data sources, but scientists also sometimes use visitor photos to help answer questions about specific wolves.<\/p>\n