The ANU-based Difficult Bird Research Group has done it again – exceeding their $60 000 target (via crowd-funded Pozible) to train detection dogs to sniff out the hard-to-find and consequentially under-studied Tasmanian Masked Owl (CMM September 12).  The $63 000 they raised exceeded the $57 000 donors delivered for research on the endangered Swift Parrot.

But taking to the wing with crowd funding is not as easy as it looks – CMM hears a university that decided to run its own campaign for eminently fundable research projects is struggling.