The ‘Dragon Finder’ app is Froglife’s free and easy to use app which allows everyone, of all ages and experience, to easily identify and record their sightings of amphibians and reptiles across the UK. The Dragon Finder app is available on iPhone and Android, with a mobile website available for other devices. For more information please see Froglife’s website.
Anyone using the app within the UK can submit sightings of native and invasive amphibians and reptiles. It takes approximately three minutes for the sightings data to reach Froglife. Each month Froglife’s team ‘clean’ up the data, and take out anything that is obviously erroneous and divide it up by region. On an annual basis these records are sorted and sent out to local environmental records centres in each region. For example, in the case of London based records these would be sent to Greenspace Information for Greater London (GiGL). These records are then publicly accessible through these centres and can then be used in the future to help inform planning decisions, and conservation efforts.
The app has been created as part of Froglife’s London Dragon Finder Project, which is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The project engages with thousands of people across the capital each year though surveying, educational activities, and by improving habitats for amphibians and reptiles across London’s green spaces. The Dragon Finder project has provided training for volunteers at Mudchute and Spitalfields City Farm, and installed new ponds at Mudchute.
Header photo: Smooth Newt at Mudchute (John Archer)
