Eastern Grey Squirrel – Photo By HH58
(BRUSSELS) – An online application to help citizens identify and share information about 37 Invasive Alien Species in Europe, such as the American grey squirrel, has been developed by the EU’s Joint Research Centre.
‘Invasive Alien Species Europe’, which contains detailed information about and photos of those animals and plants, makes it possible for citizens to use their phones’ navigation system and cameras to capture images of them.
By sending the exact location of a sighting and a photo via the app, users contribute to crowdsourcing the maps showing where invasive aliens species occur, and help to build the European Alien Species Information Network.
“The beauty of this app is that it turns its users into citizen-scientists, said the Commissioner responsible for the JRC, Tibor Navracsics, helping to monitor invasive alien species that threaten biodiversity in the EU.
“The information collected will enrich existing insights into invasive alien species. In this way we also foster citizens’ awareness of the problems caused by invasive alien species in Europe.”
The list includes for instance the American grey squirrel, which transfers a poxyvirus that is lethal to native red squirrels and leads to their local extinction, the raccoon, which can harbour and spread diseases affecting humans as well as farmed and wild animals, and the signal crayfish that carries the crayfish plague fungus and leads to the extinction of native crayfish.
A small proportion of alien species become invasive and seriously disturb ecosystems, causing damage worth millions of euros in the EU every year. The application is free and can be downloaded for android and iOS.
