The Town of Okotoks is inviting residents to take part in this year's deer count through their smart phones.

Residents can join in on recording the urban deer population through a new web based app.

The idea came around after the last deer count in 2015 saw nearly 100 volunteers take part to cover all areas of town.

Christa Michailuck, Parks Manager for the Town of Okotoks, says the NatureLynx app has been an exciting discovery.

"Fortunately this year we have found NatureLynx and they're actually tied to the Alberta bio diversity monitoring index. All reports of wildlife and plants, once they're verified by an expert, go into this index for the province."

According to Michailuck, the 2015 deer count recorded 66 deer with them all being mules. They were all does with the exception of one buck located around the outskirts of town.

There are measures in place to make sure the same animal is not counted for more than once.

"This year we want to set up these one hour count windows to minimize the double counting. When people are out we do ask them to wear a piece of red clothing or something to let others know they are part of the deer count," Michailuck explains. "We also look at the data. The app records the location at which they made the report so when we get the data back we can see if there were two reports in the same area, five minutes apart for two doe and three fawn, so we can say ok this is most likely the same group of deer, we're not going to count this twice."

For safety purposes, those taking part in the deer count are asked to leave their dogs at home and keep at least 50 feet between themselves and the animals.

The deer count will take place Sept. 14 from 1- 2 p.m. and Sept. 16 from 10- 11 a.m.