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eight teams of six to eight volunteers will work one week each to observe and photograph the animals in Ningaloo Marine Park, off the coast of Western Australia, where these and other ocean dwellers have become a focus of a flourishing ecotourism. Specifically, the research is designed to establish the rate of return of the animals to the region and to specific parts of the reef, any site preferences of individuals, their growth rates, and their behaviour under the pressure of the growing tourism industry (although this is widely applauded as an example of 'best-practice' ecotourism). So far, conservation efforts have been hampered by the lack of the most essential information, including global population size and typical life history of individuals. By manning the observation project with volunteers throughout the shark season over several years, Norman and his team hope to substantially expand the knowledge base for this species. " The project aims to gather new information on the threatened whale shark — to ultimately assist with their worldwide conservation. Any policy decisions will carry greater weight and encourage broad support among the many stakeholders if based on strong data... We look forward to the support of community volunteers in this important conservation project " , says Norman. While the methodology was developed for the whale shark project, the researchers emphasise that it is widely applicable to other species as well, as long as they have spots. Roger Mitchell, chief scientist at Earthwatch Institute (Europe) points out that " lions, for example, have small dark spots where their whiskers attach to their noses, and this differentiating feature might help to track them in the near future. " Michael Gross is a science writer based at Oxford. He can be contacted via his web page at www.proseandpassion.com Climate change has been seen by some as an opportunity for mobile species to invade new habitats: butterflies are a case in point, where many species are known to have changed their ranges dramatically since the last glacial maximum and even in the present day, some species show substantial annual mobility. Many people may not realise that two of the most showy summer butterflies in Britain, the red admiral and the painted lady, are not natives, but flood across from the continent annually under favourable conditions. There is evidence that some species are responding to climate change by expanding their current ranges northwards, but …