Snapshot Safari : a large-scale collaborative to monitor Africa’s remarkable biodiversity

Abstract

Nature is experiencing degradation and extinction rates never recorded before in the history of Earth.1,2 Consequently, continuous large-scale monitoring programmes are critical, not only to provide insights into population trends but also to aid in understanding factors associated with altering population dynamics at various temporal and spatial scales.3 Continuous monitoring is important not only for tracking rare or threatened species but also to detect the increase of potentially invasive species4, and the trends in the populations of common species, which in some regions are declining even more rapidly than are rare species2.