HARRISBURG — The state is seeking the public’s help in taking photographs of wild mammals.

The Pennsylvania Game Commission and the Pennsylvania Biological Survey have created a website — www.pamammalatlas.com — that allows people to browse maps, statistics, photographs and descriptions of wild mammal species in the state.

It will feature photographs taken by outdoor enthusiasts.

The game commission in a news release said people posting their photographs there will greatly help biologists working on the Pennsylvania Mammal Atlas — a project designed to map the locations of the 64 wild mammal species found in the state.

“The result of this project will be an about 10-year snapshot of Pennsylvania wild mammal distributions” said Lindsey Heffernan, a wildlife biologist for the game commission. “While professional biologists will be traveling around the state conducting in-depth surveys, we simply can’t cover enough ground. Citizen scientists will be crucial in helping us to search the entire Commonwealth.”

In completing this mammal atlas project, citizens and researchers will gather much-needed information on rare and elusive mammal species. Species distribution maps will be updated, and researchers will have a greater foundation for future projects and a better understanding of where to focus conservation efforts.

Heffernan said, “Climate change, human activities, and population growth are among the list of things that could, and likely will, have some effect on wild animals.

“By creating a repeatable atlas, biologists will have the data they need to analyze those changes in mammal distributions past, present, and future,” Heffernan said.