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Our names are Jovan Kokotovic, Tibor Rekecki and Nikola Veljkovic. We are students at the

The University of Novi Sad in Serbia. We are three enthusiasts who have a passion for nature and fieldwork. Jovan studies mammals while Tibor and Nikola study birds. During fieldwork, we started loving nature more and more and started learning a lot about the animals we love and grew a real passion for them. As time passed and we tried out more and more things in biology and conservation of the groups of animals we studied, we started dreaming of certain

techniques and equipment that would drastically increase our efficiency in studying certain

species. And along with that, we would have much more relevant data that has a far larger

impact on the conservation of these animals. Recently we had a chance to try out that

equipment that we borrowed from colleagues from abroad and had great success in using it and grew more enthusiastic about it. Realising how effective this equipment is and in which way it could advance our research efforts we started researching and trying to find some equipment for ourselves. But then we hit a wall. Because after researching the needed equipment we realised that we just don't have the money to acquire such equipment. We are students and

unfortunately, we don't have the means of acquiring this kind of money because of the state that

our country is in and the corruption in the state authorities because of which state-funded

project grants are being given to the supporters of the ruling party. This led us to choose to

fundraise as the means of acquiring money for the needed equipment. Therefore we would ask

anyone willing, to help us achieve our goals and acquire the needed equipment, and further our

research and therefore further our knowledge and achieve one of the greatest dreams that we

now dream of for years.

Jovan for his research on bats needs a Pettersson Elektronik M500-384 USB Ultrasound

Microphone. Pettersson Elektronik is a well-known brand in the world of bat research and is

highly regarded among experts in the field. When researching bats it’s often difficult to capture

them and you often don’t get the full picture of the diversity of bats in the area, that’s precisely

why ultrasound recorders are one of the most important tools for bat researchers. They work by

recording the ultrasonic sounds bats use for echolocation while hunting and navigating, later

these recordings are analysed in software and species can be determined by the frequency of

their calls. What the M500-384 model provides is very clear recordings with little interference

coupled with the convenience of immediate recording to an SD card in a mobile phone. This tool

would provide many opportunities for bat research in urban and rural areas where capturing

bats in nets is difficult or impossible.

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Nikola and Tibor have ambitions for a thermal camera for ornithological investigation and bird

ringing. This is a technique for studying birds at night. Because birds are warm-blooded animals

they can be seen by a thermal imaging camera. In that way, we will learn more about bird

distribution, abundance, behaviour, and habitat preferences during the night. Thermal camera

birding opens a whole new world of research because it would enable us to study birds that

would otherwise be very difficult or even impossible to catch. One of those birds is the Jack

Snipe (Lymnocryptes minimus), it is secretive, cryptic and very well hidden in vegetation and it is almost impossible to notice during the day. But during the night, it can be very easily found with link to full text