Citizen Scientists of the month

This first spot must go to our dedicated and fearless group of volunteers from the SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, where we are currently based. This group, initiated by John Sall some years back, consists of JMP and SAS volunteers, and their families and friends, has visited Carolina Tiger Rescue at weekends for the last few years, collecting footprints from the rescued tigers which reside there.

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Within this group we have a wide range of talents and interests - in software engineering and development, marketing, statistics, photography, web development, business intelligence, garage-engineering DIY ..and many more!

We set off early in the morning to shovel sand into buckets, drive it out to Carolina Tiger Rescue, spread and rake the sand along a path....and then coax a chosen tiger to walk along it. We then take images of the footprints for our tiger database. Thanks to the wonderful volunteer effort and great support from Carolina Tiger Rescue, we now have a very substantial tiger database, and are able to identify tigers by individual and sex. We've also been able to test some new experimental photography techniques at this facility.

Cheetah workshop in Namibia

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cheetah cubs on anthill

We're hosting a workshop to develop the use of FIT for cheetah monitoring, in Namibia in October/November 2010 and we need funding to support it.  We now have a large group of cheetah monitoring researchers who are working with us to collect footprints from known cheetah to develop an FIT algorithm for this species.

We have a great venue, Na'an ku se Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary, just outside Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.   Florian Weise, lead researcher at Na'an ku se, is our partner in the development of FIT for monitoring cheetah, and coordinator of the fieldwork involved.

We need an estimated $15,000 USD to support the workshop, to which 20 top African and Middle-Eastern carnivore researchers will be invited.  If you can find us funding, we will invite you as our personal guest to attend the conference which will include trips to see the cheetah and learn about FIT in the field.

Citizen Science

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Citizen Science is the contribution of people in all walks of life to science projects.  This might be in collecting or recording data where they live, or in places they visit.  It might be in helping process or analyse data.  It might be in making direct observations in the field and posting them online!  It might be through networking with friends, family and colleagues at home, work or online.7.black_rhino-300_204 Because we are now all so easily connected in cyberspace, the potential for citizen science is huge.

If this project interests you, and you have energy, some free time, skills which you think we might be able to use, and the enthusiasm to volunteer, please contact us!  Our work is greatly enhanced by the contribution of people with expertise in all walks of life.  Please read on......

Video: How to collect mountain lion footprints!

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Mountain lion pawprint collection

We are working with Jonah Evans, a wildlife diversity biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, to monitor mountain lion in the 17 million acre Trans Pecos region. As a first step, we need to define the algorithm for the mountain lion footprint. This entails collecting sets of prints (trails) from animals of known ID. Here's a short video showing Jonah collecting tracks from these animals using a clever in-and-out system. The tracks are then photographed, uploaded to WildTrack, and then processed.