In the summer of 2019 the fall armyworm moth, known as “the crop killer,” was said to be coming to Taiwan on southwesterly winds. Farmers saw the pest as a formidable enemy, and government agricultural agencies were put under intense public pressure as rumors spread online that it had been in Taiwan for a decade already.

Lin Hsu-hong, deputy director of the Endemic Species Research Institute (ESRI), is the founder of the citizen science group “Moth Observation in Taiwan.” Since its beginnings in 2010, the group has collected 510,000 data points about moths in Taiwan, which offer no evidence of any armyworm moths at all. Those ironclad scientific findings put the alarmist rumors to rest.

Lending a hand: Citizen power

“Citizen science” is a model of scientific research that mobilizes public participation to help scientists do their work. The term was first coined by the British sociologist Alan Irwin in 1995. Aside from its prevalence in ecological surveys, citizen science has become a fixture in astronomy as well as in climate and environmental sciences.

“The supplier of data is also a user of it—that’s a characteristic feature of citizen science,” says Lin Dali, an assistant research fellow at ESRI. Drivers can call radio station hotlines to report accidents and traffic conditions on highways. When citizens go on outings and see animals—whether beast, bug, fish or fowl—they can take a cellphone photo to post on Internet platforms. Citizen science organizations rely on that kind of convenient and serendipitous gathering of data. Where the phenomenon differs from personal record making is that all the data is public and aggregated, thus becoming “big data.” Available for analysis and interpretation, the information both benefits platform users and can have major impacts in unexpected ways.

Lin Hsu-hong, founder of Moth Observation in Taiwan.

Major citizen science campaigns promoted by ESRI, such as the bird-focused BBS Taiwan and NYBC Taiwan, publish their data in yearly bulletins available to the general public.

Four big citizen science projects

For the general public, birds are beautiful to behold and easier to observe than many other forms of wildlife. Consequently, birdwatching may well be the world’s most popular form of ecological observation. With that in mind, ESRI created four bird-related citizen science projects. “There was a strategy to the order in which they were promoted,” says research fellow Lin Ruey-shing, the chief of ESRI’s Division of Habitats and Ecosystems, who was in charge of planning them.

The first was a survey of breeding birds in Taiwan: BBS Taiwan. The plan was jointly organized by ESRI and the Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at National Taiwan University, which designated scientific methodologies and sampling areas throughout Taiwan. The Taiwan Wild Bird Federation has helped by making appeals for volunteers. From March to June, during the breeding season, volunteers make counts of wild birds breeding in the sampling areas using standard methodologies.

Building on the foundation laid by BBS Taiwan, the next effort was MAPS Taiwan, which aims to measure the fecundity and fledgling survival rates of birds in ­Taiwan.

With a goal of expanding participation from hardcore birders to the general public, NYBC Taiwan was then launched in 2013 with a few weeks of activities in December and January. These are aimed at providing data both on Taiwan’s resident birds and on migratory birds that overwinter here. In designated sampling zones throughout Taiwan, teams of volunteers take on different duties. More than 1,000 people answer the call every year.

In August of 2015 ESRI reached an agreement with Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology to formally bring online a Chinese-language version of eBird Taiwan. This important development is described by Lin Ruey-shing as the final block in a sturdy foundation of Taiwan citizen ornithology. It allows data about birds in Taiwan to be collected on one platform and linked up to the international community.

Lin Ruey-shing has helped organize several citizen ornithology studies.

Trained volunteers tag and release birds as part of MAPS Taiwan, a study of the fecundity and fledgling survival rates of birds in Taiwan. (photo by Su Meiru, courtesy of MAPS Taiwan)

Large numbers of volunteers collect data throughout Taiwan, in surveys that improve upon the slow accumulation of data by lone researchers in earlier times. (photo by Lü Jiajia, courtesy of BBS Taiwan)

Stealing Reuters’ thunder

If citizen ornithology under the direction of ESRI has unfolded from the top down (from a research institute to the citizenry), the Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network is the reverse, offering a model that starts at the grass roots. Known as the “roadkill club,” the network was founded by Lin Te-en, an assistant research fellow in the Zoology Division at ESRI.

Riding the wave of social media, in 2011 he established a group on Facebook aimed at volunteers wanting to share information about reptile sightings. One evening he posted a picture of a roadkill snake, and overnight he received nearly 100 replies with similar photos. The response stunned him. “It was only then that I realized how many people were concerned about the problem of roadkill. But no one knew what to do about it.” It was his colleagues who joked that he should rename the group “the roadkill club,” he recalls. “We were thinking that we could steal some of the spotlight from the Reuters news agency [lutoushe, which shares its first and third Chinese characters with ‘roadkill club,’ lushashe]. Little did we know that the name would stick.”

With public enthusiasm and participation from biologists of various disciplines, the club has grown, gradually broadening the data it gathers and expanding from digital photographs only to collecting frozen animal remains, and from reptiles and amphibians to include birds and mammals as well.

As of September 2022, the network has 230,000 separate data entries on roadkill. The data has proved highly useful, often in unexpected ways. For instance, back in 2012 volunteers documented unusually large numbers of Formosan ferret-badger corpses. The following year the network worked with veterinarians at ESRI and experts from the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine to track cases of rabies in ferret-badgers at animal rescue stations. The virus has been present in Taiwan for more than 100 years.

With regard to the problem of roadkill itself, after gathering data for several years the network analyzed the data and consulted with experts to come up with a list of 138 roadkill hotspots. It subsequently worked with relevant government agencies, such as the national parks, the Forestry Bureau, and the Directorate General of Highways, to install warning signs, protective fences, and underground passages and to make other improvements. The data has also been used by tech and auto companies in vehicle satnav systems, alerting drivers that they are approaching these hotspots.

Lin Te-en, head of the Taiwan Roadkill Observation Network.

Roadkill specimens are recorded and collected for research about infectious diseases and wild animal conservation. (courtesy of Huang Min-hui)

Bringing ideals into reality

In Lin’s analysis, the success or failure of citizen science is in large part connected to a nation’s level of social development: Economic development must reach a certain level; information and communications infrastructure must be comprehensive; the political system must be open and democratic; there must be sufficient public participation; and most importantly, there must be high levels of ecological and environmental consciousness among the people. When all these conditions are met, specific agencies such as ESRI will be able to guide the launch of citizen science projects that can attain unstoppable momentum. Mahatma Gandhi once said: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” From this perspective, the successful experience of Taiwan’s citizen science is worthy both of our pride and of sharing with the world.

The bagged remains of roadkill are collected for processing by ESRI. The samples have proved highly useful in unexpected ways.

Warning signs can aid the safe passage of wildlife as well as reduce risks for drivers. (courtesy of Lin Te-en)