The expansion of urban infrastructure forces wildlife to function in highly altered and fragmented environments under the pressure of constant human activity. While many animals struggle to survive in cities, some have adapted to this environment. This includes medium and large mammals such as wild boars, red deer, roe deer, foxes, and badgers. However, their presence in urbanized areas often leads to conflicts due to potential damage to greenery, traffic accidents, or safety concerns. To date, city actions have often been ad-hoc and based on lethal solutions–which also meets with opposition from some residents. Currently, there is a lack of conflict management policies rooted in scientific evidence, animal welfare, and stakeholder engagement.

This project fills this research gap, and the developed solutions will serve as a scalable model for other urban green spaces. The idea of the Multi-Species Campus was born from the OPUS project “ Unlocking Urban Potential: Fostering Multispecies Justice in Informal Green Spaces“ (https://natura.wb.uj.edu.pl/opus25).

The objective of the project is to develop–based on the Living Lab methodology–a participatory model for human-wildlife co-existence at the Jagiellonian University Campus and to prepare scalable recommendations for urban green space management.

Research tools will be based on a network of over a dozen camera traps installed across the Jagiellonian University Campus and adjacent areas. This will allow for an inventory of mammal fauna, a description of their diurnal and spatial activity, and a comparison with human activity to assess conflict risks. The classification of images collected by camera traps will be supported by machine learning, with the results subsequently verified by students.

Activities will be implemented within the Living Lab methodology, treating the Campus as a "living laboratory" for conducting research with practical and useful applications. Solutions will be co-created with stakeholders–including experts, the academic community, and local residents–through workshops, nature walks, and elements of gamification.

The final output of the project will be a report with recommendations for the Jagiellonian University authorities and an open-access image database in a repository, intended for further research and environmental education.