Small Mammal Surveying – Train the Trainer Workshop (In Person)

New exciting specialist volunteer opportunity; Small mammal surveying 

We are 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. 

We need YOUR help! 

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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. 

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 ID. 

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 app that will ID footprints from a track plate with a click of a button. This will open small mammal surveying up to and anyone who is able to place footprint tunnels in their chosen ‘wild spaces’. 

Train the trainer workshop

Free in person workshops will be held at Wildwood Kent on the 31^st October 2026 and 21^st 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 28^th 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 offer cover of travel costs for the workshops up to £50. 

All footprint collection equipment will be provided. 

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. 

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