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“We were kind of blown away, particularly over the first three months,” he said.

“We were getting, at one point, 50,000 images a day being reviewed. If you look at the site now, we’re still getting a few thousand a day reviewed.”

Images snapped by the network of cameras hidden in Calgary’s urban wilderness are recovered with the help of project partners the Calgary-based Miistakis Institute, which then filters through the images to ensure the privacy of humans who sometimes wander into areas that are primarily the domain of wildlife.

The thousands of images cleared to be posted to zooniverse.org are then available for any member of the public to scour through, enabling them to identify the types and numbers of any animals spotted, as well as if there are any young.

Since its launch, some 3,149 “citizen scientists” have contributed to the project, with nearly two-thirds of those from Calgary. But it’s not just local wildlife lovers helping the cause, with eyeballs from around the world taking peeks, including some from Russia, Finland and even Mongolia. Outside of Calgary, the most page views on the site are registered from Canberra, Australia.

Given the community that’s evolved around the cameras, some of the subjects who feature prominently have earned their own nicknames, including Lord Hightower and Mr. Big. Among those gaining similar notoriety are Bucky, The Nuzzlers, Mr. Magnificent and Chill Deer.

Some images that could still be considered wild, if unexpected, have also been snapped by the tree cams.