Hitchhikers (in the context of the project) are organisms that travel with goods, cargo, or transport. In today's world, more and more goods and people are moving between regions, countries, and continents. A side effect of this is the spread of living organisms that become (usually accidentally) invisible passengers on ships, planes, cars, and so on. According to some reports, up to a quarter of transports (depending on the type of transport and direction) can contain such hitchhikers. But most of them go unnoticed. And we don't know enough about which organisms and how often they become such travelers and how far they can travel.

Some hitchhikers are dangerous pests. But many are common wild species that happen to be on a long journey. So, data about them is useful not only for biosecurity, but also for understanding how biodiversity can change under the impact of human-created pathways.

Citizen science has great opportunities for the accumulation of such knowledge. Experts may observe only a few hitchhiking cases, and they are often more interested in studying natural habitats. However, the naturalist community can see and note much more.

The objective of this project is to accumulate observational data of hitchhikers. This is an open project, and any suggestions of observations would be helpful and sincerely welcomed. less ↑