Working to protect fireflies!
We are community scientists collecting information at home about urban fireflies & their habitat. Join us by signing up to monitor your yard on the “Get Involved” page.
Welcome, lightning bug!
Atlanta Firefly Project is a community initiative that assists researchers at the Odum School of Ecology at the University of Georgia in studying firefly conservation in Georgia. You can help from your own home, whether you live in an apartment, townhome, detached home, or wherever you call home, your observations are valuable! All it takes is a commitment to monitor outside your home ideally for two evenings in June and two evenings in July (if you cannot do that many it is OK - do whatever you can) and submit information using our entry form. All observations are valuable, whether or not you see fireflies!
Don’t have fireflies at home, no problem! If you do not see any fireflies, the information is just as valuable to us as if you do see fireflies. For more information and a video visit our “Get Involved” page and learn how to sign-up.
Maybe you have noticed a decline in the firefly populations over the course of your life, or maybe you remember catching them when you were young and would like for children in the future to have the same experience, or perhaps you have fireflies at home and want to keep them around, or maybe you have never seen fireflies before and are interested in learning more!
Whatever your interests, firefly species around the globe are facing threats such as habitat loss and habitat degradation such as artificial light at night, pesticides, water pollution, and climate change. Data from this project will help us better understand these firefly threats.
By getting involved in this project your observations will directly influence firefly conservation research and you will have direct access to the outcomes of this work. The goal is to provide individuals with the information needed to make informed decisions about the land they live on. This is a unique project with the hopes that many will contribute!
Let’s start counting!
Picture References:
1) Firefly Photos by Radim Schreiber; FireflyExperience.org sourced on wikicommons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
2) Photo by Rick Shu on wikicommons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
3) Photo by Sushantk2212 on wikicommons. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
