Hello, If you or anyone in your network is passionate about wildlife conservation or wants to gain hands on experience in scientific research, consider joining one of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium's community science programs! These volunteer supported research programs help collect valuable information on imperiled and locally significant species including Western Purple Martins and Dungeness crabs, contributing to meaningful conservation efforts. The work would not be possible without the support of community members like you, and we hope you will sign up to participate. We have two community science programs that are currently recruiting volunteers: Spot the Swallows and Larval Dungeness Crab Surveys. Spot the Swallows is the zoo's 12 year long Purple Martin monitoring program. Volunteers attend a training at the zoo where we cover the life history of purple martins and the methods for our research. Volunteers practice identifying birds and conducting surveys, as well as meet each other and the zoo conservation team. After the training, volunteers schedule their own surveys and collect data on our local purple martins throughout the spring and summer. The training for this program is on April 5th, and volunteers are asked to perform at least 2 independent surveys each month while the birds are here (typically from mid-April to late August), though you are always welcome to survey more frequently. Each survey takes two hours. Surveys need to be conducted in the morning starting at sunrise, or in the evening starting two hours before sunset. Surveys can be conducted any day of the week, and surveyors are welcome to survey on their own or coordinate with other volunteers to survey in groups. We will also offer a few organized group survey times throughout the season. The data you collect is submitted to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, helping them to make better informed conservation decisions for this species. Larval Dungeness Crab Surveys are a collaboration between Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium and the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group. As part of a network that spans Washington and British Colombia, we use a light trap to collect plankton off of the Point Defiance Boathouse, cataloguing the types and abundance of organisms we see. Volunteers attend a training at the zoo where we cover Dungeness Crab life history and how identify common species of plankton. We then go down to the boathouse to practice checking the trap. The training is on March 29th, and the trap is checked each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 10:00 am. Checking the trap usually takes an hour and a half, though may go longer or end early based on what we collect. Volunteers can attend on any days that work for their schedules, though we ask that you try to attend at least 3 surveys each month. Surveying starts on April 16th and runs until two weeks after we stop seeing Dungeness crabs, usually mid-September. The data we collect is sent to the Pacific Northwest Crab Research Group, where it helps inform a variety of research and management programs. To sign up, or if you would like to know more, please visit pdza.org/ community-science/<https://www.pdza.org/discover/community-science/>. Volunteer recruitment ends on March 24th. Thank you for your interest in supporting these community science programs: this work wouldn't be possible without the support of community members like you. Please feel free to email me back if you have any questions, Sam Hain, (He/Him) Conservation Specialist Zoological & Environmental Education Department Office (253) 404-3800 ext: 3765 Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, 5400 N. Pearl St, Tacoma, WA 98407 [cid:image001.png@01DB82CE.95B39610] website<http://www.pdza.org/> | facebook<http://www.facebook.com/PtDefianceZoo> | x<http://www.twitter.com/ptdefiancezoo> | instagram<http://www.instagram.com/ptdefiancezoo> Parks Tacoma acknowledges that we operate on the traditional homelands of Coast Salish tribes, who have lived on and stewarded these lands since time immemorial and continue to do so today.