Chandra Clarke

Award-winning entrepreneur. Author. Professional Optimist.

With Map of Life you’ve got the whole word’s biodiversity in your hands

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Image Credit: Map of Life

Project: https://mol.org/

Good news for all the outdoorsy people out there! Created as a result of a partnership between University of Florida and Yale University, Map of Life (MOL) is a citizen science app that brings a significant portion of our global knowledge about biodiversity in to the palm of your hands. Unlike most wildlife apps that allow users to identify and record various species, Map of Life can easily be used in remote areas without an internet connection. The app is tailored to the location of the users allowing them to access a global database of biodiversity relevant to their specific location. Next time you’re traveling or out on a spontaneous adventure, you can easily use Map of Life to find out what species of plant or wildlife you are likely to find in your vicinity. Since the app works offline, you don’t have to worry about internet connection, especially in far-flung places where bad reception is commonplace.

Map of Life app has both images and text that help users identify and learn more about what they see. The app also lets you make a list of your personal observation and contribute them to scientific research and conservation efforts being carried out. People living in remote areas, particularly near the equator, are encouraged to submit their data and report their sightings. Citizen Scientists play a central role in this citizen science project. While some species have already been identified, scientists still have no idea where these species are likely to be found. This is exactly why the app has been designed to use your phone’s built-in GPS to determine the location of the sighting when you submit your findings. All the personal observations that you submit will help researchers fill critical gaps in the scattered data currently available on conservation and biodiversity.

With citizen scientists submitting their data from all over the world, scientists and conversationalist now have access to highly diverse biodiversity information coming in even from the remotest parts of the world. This information would help push the research on the potential threats and risks of extinction associated with certain species and hopefully allow scientists to take necessary actions that would preserve the diversity of our planet. The Map of Life app has a user-friendly interface and an inviting design that encourages participation and engages the users to learn more. Now available in six different languages, Map of Life is available for both iOS and Android.

Giving you paws for thought

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The same, but different. Also: hungry

Researchers have recently discovered some amazing things about dogs that will absolutely astound you … if you’re a cat owner.

In one study, scientists found that dogs may have personalities. That is, dogs apparently have enough unique characteristics and traits that you can actually tell them apart.

If you’ve ever been owned by more than one dog, you know this already. However, as a self-confessed dog companion you have shown yourself to be mentally suspect, and thus scientists don’t trust your judgement. This is because you regularly allow yourself to be smooched by something that may have just drunk out of the toilet.

So, how did scientists come up with hard proof of doggy differences? They recruited a thousand Labrador Retrievers and had them fill out the “What’s Your Party Style?” quiz in a recent issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. A control group of was asked to complete the “Which Star Trek Captain Do You Most Resemble?” quiz. (Incidentally, scientists had to choose this particular breed; otherwise it wouldn’t have been a lab test.)

The results showed that 40 percent of the test subjects wanted to play phaser fetch with James T. Kirk, while 30 percent wanted to discuss time travel with Captain Janeway over a cup of coffee. The remaining subjects went to the door and asked to be let out.

Okay, not really. What the study did do was have dog owners rate their dogs for various personality traits (aggressiveness, curiosity, friendliness) and then had strangers rate the dogs the same way. Most of the time, the owner’s assessment and the stranger’s assessment agreed, thus proving that dogs probably do have recognizably different personalities. Either that or they downloaded the personality test answers for their owners from the Internet.

A second, more interesting bit of research has demonstrated that dogs are very good at reading human social cues — better, in fact, than their cousin the wolf, or our cousin, the chimpanzee.

In this study, a graduate student approached a group of dogs, a group of chimpanzees and a pack of wolves, pointed at a wet spot on the carpet, and said “Bad! Very bad!”

No less than 100 percent of the dogs responded by ducking and whining apologetically. About half of the chimpanzees threw a banana at the investigator, while the other half pointed indignantly at the dog. No one is sure what happened with the wolves, as they’re still waiting for the graduate student to get out of hospital.

Right, okay, what really happened was that researchers hid a bit of food under one of two cups. The experimenter would then indicate which of the two cups the animal should investigate by either looking at the right cup or gesturing at it. Dogs were much better at recognizing the clues given by the human.

Again though, if you have ever been owned by a dog, you know this already. This is because you have to spell things like “car ride” or “cupcake” or “veterinarian” so that your dog won’t know what you’re talking about. Your dog will wake from a sound sleep and go to the door because he can tell you’re wrapping up that phone call. Or she will hide because she can tell that’s flea shampoo you’ve just taken out of the medicine cabinet, and not your own body wash and loofah.

Will there ever be definitive proof about cat personalities or a cat’s ability to read humans? We’ll need more subtle and sophisticated tests. When asked to fill out the personality quiz, 95 percent of cats tested bit the investigator’s ankle and wandered off. When asked to find the food under the cup, 97 percent of cats scratched the investigator’s ankle and wandered off.

So for now I guess, the dog is having its day, while the cat remains resolutely out of the bag.

Image credit: Me

This is for the Birds… and the Squirrels…

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Image credit: Pixabay

Somebody in my family (I won’t name names, but I’ll call him “Son”) has a real thing for encouraging and fostering wildlife.

What this means is that anyone visiting their house  feels like they’ve just walked onto the set of a National Geographic special. This is because they have no fewer than nine different feeders and about five houses, not to mention all the various bushes, flower patches, trees, gardens and other assorted habitats.

All of this would make the perfect setting for a writer, except for one problem: the wildlife is starting to get, well, pushy.

Take, for example, our little gang of squirrels. Not content with eating any one of the 3,000 pine cones that fall out of the trees on a daily basis, the little thugs have developed quite a racket.

First, there’s Rocky “Mission Impossible” The Squirrel who has learned how to strip all four cobs of corn off the ‘squirrel twirler’ in 25 minutes or less by hanging upside like a furry Tom Cruise. Then there’s Scarface Capone, last year’s embattled veteran, who figured out how to send the bird feeder in the tree crashing to the ground. His partner-in-crime is Nutsy MacPherson, who must be Scottish, because to dump out the seed, he heaves up one end of the feeder like he’s tossing a caber.

Yet another squirrel (we don’t know who, yet — because they may be rodents, but they never rat each other out), has stormed the front porch and chewed a hole in the plastic feed bin. This one mustn’t be a ‘made’ squirrel though: the little wise guy hasn’t made the hole quite big enough, and he keeps getting caught with his little squirrel butt hanging out the bin.

Their leader? Don Squirrelione, of course. I figure he must be a Soprano, because when he told me he was going to “make me an offer I couldn’t refuse” he had a really high, squeaky voice.

The squirrels don’t work alone. They’ve hired Chip “Baby Face” Munk, and his brother Thelonious to steal seeds. Pretty Boy Floyd, the oriole from Baltimore, is the lookout. The racoons, with their little black face masks, do the night burglaries. They hire the doves for mourning duty when they lose one of their own.

And the local muscle? Two hummingbirds, Bonnie and Clyde. You laugh, but ask anyone who’s ever put out hummingbird feeders — they are the single most aggressive species on the planet. I now firmly believe the birds-are-descended-from-dinosaurs theory: hummingbirds are just miniature pterodactyls.

Do I have witnesses for these crimes? Not really. The possum just plays dead. None of the birds are stool pigeons. Pepe? He’s usually drunk as a skunk, or else raising a big stink about something else. Louise is just a snake in the grass who can’t be trusted. As for the rabbits, they spend most of their time breeding like… well, you know.

Things got worse last Friday, when were visited by a deer called “Petunia” (names changed to protect the innocent). The poor deer had been orphaned; we can only assume her mother had been rubbed out by a rival squirrel gang; perhaps she knew too much. Cute as a bug’s ear this one — we were soon fawning all over her.

But we couldn’t keep her: as everyone knows, nothing runs like a deer, and there’s too much traffic nearby. So we smuggled her to a safehouse in the country, where some friends of ours prepared her for a new life. This morning, under cover of broad daylight, me and our deer friend took a truck ride to a witness protection plan centre, which uses a wildlife refuge as a front. The upside of the story? Petunia has a new friend, an even younger orphan I’ll call “Nobby” (she was all knees.) The downside? I now smell distinctly of Eau De Bambi — deer get nervous in trucks. Anyone who met me this afternoon sniffed, and said: “Oh deer me.”

So the next time anyone tells you they plan to retire to the country to write in peace and quiet, tell them from me:

Getting anything done around there is like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.

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How about you? Any garden antics to share? Leave a comment below.

Instant Wild: Where Nature and Technology Intersect!

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Project: Instant Wild

Ever heard of camera traps? These fully-automated motion-sensitive devices have always been an important tool for wildlife conservation organizations. But it wasn’t until November 2011, and the launch of the Instant Wild App by Zoological Society of London (ZSL), that these devices became the center of a massive, yet a highly unique citizen-science project. Unlike most traditional wildlife conservation initiatives, all you need to do to volunteer is download the Instant Wild app on your smartphone. The app uses GSM-enabled camera traps and satellite connectivity to transmit live photographs of animals to your phone in real time, allowing you to remotely observe, monitor and learn about wildlife populations.

By analyzing the photographs and identifying rare or endangered species, you can help conservation scientists at ZSL and their partners understand and protect wildlife population. The Instant Wild citizen science app also features a Field Guide and an identification list for each location alongside photographs of the animals, to help users recognize and distinguish the various species that they spot. The locations where these camera traps have been installed primarily include the several ZSL field project sites. Contributions made by citizen scientists from all over the world help scientists gain instant access to information regarding the population of endangered species and allows them to analyze this data faster.

The beauty of the Instant Wild app lies in the fact that it relies on a non-invasive technique. The camera traps do not intrude or disrupt the natural environment or habitat of the animals, but rather enable researchers and conservation scientists to gain direct understanding into the lives of somewhat elusive, and perhaps even shy, wild animals via hidden cameras – animals that would be too difficult to approach otherwise. Latest versions of the Instant Wild citizen science app offer a variety of features that allow users to engage in creative ways, such as the option to comment on images, the ability to choose and follow specific camera traps, getting additional information on the projects they are contributing to as well as viewing their current ranking in terms of wildlife identification count and speed as compared to other participants.

Instant Wild brings the joys and wonders of witnessing wildlife up close to smartphones across the world, allowing citizen scientists, wild-life enthusiasts and conservation scientists to share this unique experience with each other and embark on a global citizen science project as a team. The app is fairly simple to use and is available for download on both iOS and Android. Those of you who don’t own a smartphone can simply go to the Instant Wild website and start identifying species and right away.