The University Mammal Challenge (UMAC)
October 2020 – June 2021
Revamped for 2021 to run in a covid-19 world
The 2021 University Mammal Challenge will be running for the fifth consecutive year from 1st October 2020 to 30th June 2021, but this year we’ve had to shake things up a little….
In summary: Simply use the Mammal Mapper App as much as possible over the 2020-2021 academic year to be in with a chance of winning some fantastic prizes!
For more information and to check out the current leaderboard, just keep reading…
UMAC Leaderboard
October + November + December Results
(Only top 5 challengers shown.)
Number of records of mammal signs and sightings:
Place |
Name |
Institution |
Records |
| 1 | Isabella Sagnella | University of Essex | 312 |
| 2 | Helen Hawkins | Hadlow College | 87 |
| 3 | Meg Cooch | University of Sussex | 80 |
| 4 | Jonathan Lillywhite | Hadlow College | 50 |
| 5 | Bella Horwood | University of Greenwich | 40 |
Number of transects conducted:
Place |
Name |
Institution |
Transects |
| 1 | Isabella Sagnella | University of Essex | 64 |
| 2 | Jonathan Lillywhite | Hadlow College | 14 |
| 2 | Bella Horwood | University of Greenwich | 14 |
| 3 | Helen Hawkins | Hadlow College | 12 |
| 3 | Rosa Barrett | University of Bath | 12 |
What is the University Mammal Challenge?
The University Mammal Challenge (UMAC) is the Mammal Society’s annual student competition. Usually, teams of up to five students compete with each other to record the mammals on their university campuses using a variety of survey techniques. However, we’ve had to shake things up a little for UMAC 2021 to ensure it can run in a covid-19 world. To keep with social distancing, and factor in that many students might not even be on campus, we are running UMAC as a general student competition. Individual students, from any higher education institutions not just universities, can sign up to record mammals from wherever they are in the UK.
As students might not have access to specialist equipment such as bat detectors, small mammal traps, or camera traps this year, we are running UMAC 2021 solely through the Mammal Society’s Mammal Mapper App. The app can be downloaded on Android or iOS devices, and allows the user to report either one-off sightings or to report mammal signs and sightings along a recorded transect. The app was designed to survey mammals while out walking and tracks the route taken. This allows the Mammal Society to see where people are looking for mammals, even if they don’t see any! This is really useful information that enables absences to be recorded as well as relative densities to be calculated.
Prizes
At the end of every month, each student’s Mammal Mapper data will be collated and a leaderboard will be updated showing summaries of the most submitted records and transects.
Under normal circumstances, UMAC runs from January to June, but for UMAC 2021 we have decided to cover the academic year and run from the start of October 2020 to the end of June 2021. This gives students 9 months to record as much as possible and there will be three prize giveaways at the start of January, April and July. This means that students can sign up at any point if they miss the October start, and those who can’t participate for the full 9 months can still be in with a chance of winning a prize. Although please note that the July prizes will be overall winners taking into account the full 9 months of surveying. So the longer you participate for, the more likely you are to win!
“What is that prize?” we hear you ask. Well, we’re delighted to be offering the overall winner of UMAC 2021 a ticket to the 2022 Mammal Society Spring Conference!
We also have some other great prizes up for grabs including books, Mammal Society merchandise, and these fantastic Olympus 8×40 binoculars! 
How to win
At the end of each 3 month period we will sum up the total number of transects conducted and the total number of records submitted to the app for each student. Each of these categories will be scored separately with the top challengers receiving points. These points will then be summed to give a total score, which will determine the order of the winners. The exact scoring system is to be confirmed, but here is an example:
| Placement | Most transects | Points | Most records | Points |
| 1 | Student A | 10 | Student A | 10 |
| 2 | Student B | 8 | Student C | 8 |
| 3 | Student C | 6 | Student D | 6 |
| 4 | Student D | 4 | Student B | 4 |
| 5 | Student E | 2 | Student E | 2 |
| Placement | Student | Points |
| 1st | A | 20 |
| 2nd | C | 14 |
| 3rd | B | 12 |
January prizes up for grabs
1st prize – Bringing Back the Beaver: The Story of One Man’s Quest to Rewild Britain’s Waterways! A big thank you to Derek Gow for the donation of his book to this year’s competition.
2nd prize – The Zoologist’s Guide to the Galaxy: What Animals on Earth Reveal about Aliens – and Ourselves! Huge thanks to Dr Arik Kershenbaum and Penguin for donating this book to this year’s competition!
3rd prize – Ecological and Environmental Physiology of Mammals! Contributed by the Mammal Society.
If you are reading this now and think you might be able to offer a prize for a hardworking student, please do get in touch using the email address provided at the bottom, thank you.
Registration
Sounds like something you want to participate in? Simply download the Mammal Mapper App and create an account if you don’t already have one, then sign up!
Good luck and happy mammal spotting!
For updates follow Mammal Society Students on Twitter: @MammSocStudents
To find out more, email the Student Representative, Beth Smith on unichallenge@themammalsociety.org
