Recently, students and employees have been able to track the animals living on our campus via wildlife cameras. The first images are a surprise: five young foxes are living on the university grounds.

Five fox cubs! Thomas Peeters could not believe his eyes when he viewed the first images of his newly installed wildlife camera. ‘I didn’t even know there was a fox living on campus.’

It was a complete coincidence that he placed the camera at the right spot; he had actually picked that location by chance. But to his surprise, while seated behind his computer, he saw fox cubs drinking milk from their mother.

Graduation project

Peeters is mapping animal life on the university campus as part of his graduation project at the HAN University of Applied Sciences. He is in his final year of Entrepreneurship & Retail Management and was recently looking for an internship. That is how he came into contact with city ecologist Joep van Belkom and Margot Jansen at Radboud University. Both want to raise Nijmegen residents’ awareness of urban nature.

‘We installed four cameras on 23 May, says Peeters. Since this week, there are signs displaying QR codes in the bushes near the Berchmanianum monastery, so that students and staff can use their phones to view images of the fox family, hedgehogs, and other animals living among the greenery. The project is part of a pilot, but if ratings prove to be good, the cameras will stay.

Margot Jansen, biodiversity programme lead on behalf of the Campus and Facilities department: ‘That would mean that we have achieved our goal and campus users feel more engaged with nature; that it becomes a hot topic.’

Jansen and Peeters are not disclosing the exact location of the equipment, because they do not want the animals to be disturbed. The best images are shared on the website of Natuurgluren (which is also the name of the project). If Peeters receives a good grade for his graduation project, he will also come to the university campus in September. He is going to study business administration.

Translated by Jan Scholten