Mapping as a Tool for Conservationists

This wildlife mapping course focuses on practical mapping skills and is an activity-based learning experience in Qgis and ArcGIS. It introduces students to the different forms of mapping using GIS, GPS and remote sensing and using these as tools to solve the practical issues of species and habitat conservation. We look at the value of wildlife mapping within conservation, measurements, visualisations and scaling of data to map migrations, wildlife movements, invasive plants and human-wildlife interfaces. Students will look at software, data-sets, documentation and wildlife mapping principles and projections. Students will aim, alongside their learning, to practically map Leopard territories within a protected area in Southern Africa using either ArcGIS or Qgis.

Course Details:

Course Dates: Anytime Enrollment. The course begins once you sign up!

Duration: 4 Weeks

Platform: Teachable Inc.

Cost: €150 for the full, 4 week course. Discount offered to previous students.

Eligibility: For anyone wanting to learn to use GIS as a monitoring tool to promote successful conservation interventions.

Please note: Dates for Live Mapping Clinics TBA.

Wildlife Mapping as a Tool for Conservationists

Course Basic Structure:

Over 4 four weeks there are 5 one hour lectures, 3 scientific papers to read, a deeply immersive practical wildlife mapping activity where you will map the territories of 7 Leopard and 4 mapping clinics where you can work through any issues you have in the practical activity and ask any questions that you may have from the lectures.

Course Outline & Learning Hours:

Introduction to Wildlife Mapping for Conservationists

  • Getting Started
  • Live Introductory Class
  • FAQ’s

The Practical Project

  • Where in the World are we Mapping?
  • Downloadable Files, Components & Activity Instructions
  • How the Live ‘Mapping Clinics’ Work

Week One

  • Your Study Notes
  • A Mapping Introduction: The Practical Issues of Conservation
  • The Value of Mapping: Measuring & Visualising
  • Practical Component Clinic: Week One

Week Two

  • Your Study Notes
  • Mapping Migrations: Mammals, Birds & Butterflies
  • Mapping Human-wildlife Conflict & Co-habitation
  • Practical Component Clinic: Week Two

Week Three

  • Your Study Notes
  • Software, Datasets & Documentation: Principles & Projections
  • Resources for Wildlife Mapping in Conservation
  • Practical Component Clinic: Week Three

Week Four & Wrapping Up

  • Practical Component Clinic: Week Four A
  • Practical Component Clinic: Week Four B

Enroll in the Wildlife Mapping Course Above or Get in Touch

Some Feedback from our Mapping Course Students

Ida Hansen (Denmark)

“Excellent. The course covered what I was interested in learning. The teachers were very knowledgeable and approachable and happy to help with questions and frustrations. I thought it was great how questions were encouraged. I really enjoyed the practical aspect of making the map. And with that, the live session with Q&A. Great teachers with a deep understanding of the topics and great ability to understand questions and to answer them clearly.”

Eline Brouwer

“I took the course in GIS and I really enjoyed it! I’ll definitely be signing up to the advanced GIS course when it gets launched. I thought you guys did an amazing job and I really liked how the course was setup! I hope it will be done similarly when you launch the advanced course. I thought it was really nice to have a ‘practical’ part as well as a theoretical part, which basically showed the use of GIS in real life conservation. It was great! Thank you for this course!”

Jillian Burgess (United States)

I really enjoyed this course. It taught me exactly what I was hoping to learn! It was a great refresher of the content I had previously learned during an introductory GIS course, as well as a lot of new information regarding the use of GIS as a tool for conservation. As someone who is very interested in bird ecology, I think it’s fascinating to explore how GIS can be used to explain certain migration patterns, especially considering the effects of climate change. It was fun to play around with all the tools of QGIS and explore how different types of data can be presented. I’m really excited to use what I’ve learned from this course to begin creating my own maps! Thank you so much, I learned so much!

Sebastian Martinez Harris (Spain)

“The course serves as an ideal introduction to GIS technologies, which were unknown to me until some days prior to the course. I knew the technology was out there (I had seen mostly demographic studies or social-science related) but I had no idea where to start if I was to elaborate my own. I would for sure go deeper into the subject, specifically into better understanding the numerous functionalities of QGIS, and how, or for what purpose, they can best be applied.

Making the print layout was fun. It is a moment to get creative. I also liked this part because it concluded the creation of the map and it was satisfactory to have the walk-through of the process of seeing the alphanumerical data transformed with a free open data mapping software into an effective science-communication visual diagram.”

Ella Le Borgne

“Overall a very good experience, easy to navigate, good content and practical activity! Definitely feel like I’ve got a solid foundation for GIS. The course content was a good mix of videos, examples, case studies and theoretical explanations. I thought the human-wildlife conflict lecture was really interesting. Really immersed into the reality of the situation. Really liked the case-studies involved. Love that you show how GIS can help with human-wildlife conflict. Makes me want to engage and make a difference 🙂 I also loved the practical activity and especially the fact that it was real data that you had collected. Shows what Wildlife ACT does regularly, super interesting and useful!”

Yvonne Radstake (Netherlands)

The GIS mapping course was a delight to work on. Although I already had a little experience with GIS, mapping Leopard territories was not part of it. So I was able to learn a lot about using GIS mapping tools to make territories and even calculating its size. The teachers are very knowledgeable and were able to answer our questions in detail during the Q&A sessions. I am very much looking forward to the advanced course and I hope to gain more experience in using GIS programmes for research. Predator ecology is something I’d love to pursue in the future, so being able to get a bit of an in-depth view of what mapping such territories might entail, was very useful and fun for me. Keep up the great courses, I love them!