Best of Friends
Symbiotic relationships are common in the Serengeti. They fall into two main types, mutualism, whereby both partners benefit from one another and commensalism, whereby one partner benefits from the actions of the other but the other partner is largely unaffected or unharmed. I wrote recently of oxpeckers and large herbivores, large herbivores provide food in the form of ticks for the oxpeckers and oxpeckers provide a cleaning service for the large herbivores, a good example of mutualism. Birds such as cattle egrets that follow buffalo around to catch the invertebrates the buffalo disturb as they graze is an example of commensalism. Of course it is not just animals that have symbiotic relationships; my blog last week on termites and mushrooms was another example of mutualism.
So what about zebras and wildebeests? We see them all the time on Snapshot Serengeti in mixed herds, grazing peaceably with one another. Is this just coincidence or is this a form of symbiosis?
It is actually hard to say and of course that is why labelling things, especially behaviour is often tricky.
Zebra and wildebeest are both grazers meaning they mostly eat grasses but that doesn’t mean they share the same diet. They preferentially eat different parts of the plants that they consume. Zebras are quite content chewing longer tougher grasses where as wildebeest prefer shorter, more tender shoots. This partition of resources means they can quite happily graze side by side with out exerting pressure on each other.
Another good reason to team up is the extra safety that numbers provide. Not only do more ears and eyes provide better early warning systems but the odds of the individual being targeted by a predator are reduced when there are greater numbers to choose from. Apparently zebra have better eyesight but wildebeest have better hearing so the two complement each other.
There could be another reason. Our very own Meredith Palmer just published a paper about interspecies reaction to each other’s alarm calls, you can read it here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347217304207
She found that zebra, wildebeest and impala recognise each other’s alarm calls but that they did not always respond in the same manner. When zebra sounded the alarm all three herbivores reacted strongly but when impala gave the alarm zebra where likely to ignore it, or assess the relative danger themselves. It seems that this varied response is down to predator size. Impala are prey to a wide range of smaller predators that would not be able to handle a mammal the size of a zebra, so when impala give the call it doesn’t always signal danger for the zebra. However when a zebra, the largest of the three herbivores sounds the alarm, whatever it has seen will probably be able to take down the wildebeest or the impala too so it’s prudent that all three scarper.
It is an interesting reaction and maybe wildebeest hang out with zebra because they are more trustworthy alarmists. I am not sure that the companionship of zebra and wildebeest can be classed as symbiotic I think it is more of an interaction due to a shared habitat but it seems that on some level they can benefit each other.
The Giraffe and the Oxpecker
Those of you who follow our Facebook page will have seen recently that Meredith Palmer, one of Snapshot Serengeti’s scientists and PhD candidate with Minnesota University just published a paper in African Journal of Ecology with the catchy title;
Giraffe Bed and Breakfast: Camera traps reveal Tanzanian yellow-billed oxpeckers roosting on their large mammalian hosts.
The paper highlights one of the more unusual behaviour traits documented by our cameras and discovered by our classifiers of yellow-billed oxpeckers (Buphagus africanus) roosting on giraffe at night time.
Those of you that have been with us a while may have had the pleasure of finding one of these night time images of giraffe with oxpeckers tucked up safe and snug between their back legs. In fact I wrote a blog about this back in 2014.
https://blog.snapshotserengeti.org/2014/01/17/the-curious-case-of-the-giraffe-and-the-oxpecker/
Two species of oxpecker are found in the Serengeti, the red-billed and the yellow-billed oxpeckers. Whilst the red-billed will feed from a wide range of hosts from impala and wart hog to hippos the yellow-billed oxpecker is more discerning and prefers large hosts such as buffalo, eland and giraffe. The problem with this choice is that these animals are far roaming and if the birds were to find trees to roost in at night, and these can be sparse in the Serengeti, the yellow-billed oxpecker could struggle to locate its host the following morning. It seems they have overcome the problem by staying over on the hosts. What’s more is these clever birds have opted for the premium rate rooms where they are not disturbed during the night for, as is well documented, giraffe almost never lay or sit down at night time preferring to stay upright.
So although during the day yellow-billed oxpeckers are found on several large mammal hosts most of the night time images are of giraffe roosts. It seems they also have a preference for the groin area of the giraffe. It is not hard to imagine that this would be the warmest safest spot on the giraffe, the cavity created where the two hind legs meet is spacious enough to accommodate a small flock of birds and of course is also very attractive to ticks so if they fancied a mid-night snack…..
It is these unexpected discoveries that make the project so exciting and worth all our effort in taking part so next time you are racing through the classifications take a little time to have a closer look at the images, you never know what is waiting to be discovered.
If you want to read more about Meredith’s paper you can read the following:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/animals-serengeti-tanzania-birds/
A Guide To Using Hashtags
Most people these days know what a hashtag is and it can be a powerful tool in terms of searching for like content on social media. Here at Snapshot Safari hashtags are useful to find unusual sightings and to search for images of specific animals. Having said that, used wrongly or overly zealously hashtags can become a nightmare. This guide is to help you know when to hashtag and when not to hashtag.
When not to hashtag
If you are not 100% sure of the identification of an animal then don’t hashtag. This is important as moderators spend a lot of time trying to get you to correct your wrong tags and it is counter-productive to the usefulness of hashtags for searching if the searches come back with wrong images. You can still flag the image for discussion where moderators will hashtag it if deemed necessary.
It is not necessary to hashtag every image you flag for discussion. Try and be selective and choose unusual images or those with some scientific relevance. Think what might be useful to the scientists or other citizen scientists.
Don’t give one image more than one hashtag. Labeling #wildebeast #wildebeastfrolicking #wildebeastresting all for one image is not helpful. Stick to using one basic description.
When to hashtag
Use a hashtag when you discover something rare or unusual; for instance a night image of giraffe with oxpeckers roosting on it, or a large pride of lions with young cubs.
Hashtag images you think are particularly impressive in terms of photographic quality. Hashtagging every image of wildebeest migrating is not necessary but if you find one image that has the wildebeest lit with a stunning backlight then go ahead and let us know.
The main message here is to think before you hashtag, why am I tagging this image?, does it really warrant it? Use them sparingly. If in doubt, leave it out.
SnapshotSafari vs Snapshot Serengeti: What’s Changing?
The original Snapshot Serengeti platform will be deactivated on February 1st, 2018. There are still images left to classify, so please help us by finishing as many as you can before February 1.
With the launch of SnapshotSafari just eight days away, we would like to share a detailed explanation of the new interface and note a few significant changes. The participation of Snapshot Serengeti citizen scientists and moderators over the past seven years has provided researchers, conservationists, and computer scientists with invaluable information regarding wildlife populations, online classification systems, and citizen science platforms. We hope that you will continue to work with us on the new platform, so that we can continue to expand and improve our methodology.
Here is what you can expect to see on February 6, 2018:
Multiple sites: Moving Beyond the Serengeti
Figure 1. SnapshotSafari Parks & Reserves
As mentioned in a previous blog post introducing SnapshotSafari, Snapshot Serengeti will not be going away. Instead, it will become one of several camera trap sites that volunteers can select. The SnapshotSafari landing page will link to individual pages for each protected area and provide news and updates about the network overall and/or individual sites. The charming wood-panel background will be changed from time to time, showcasing interesting classified images or letting users know which sites need the most help.
When a user clicks on a site such as Snapshot Serengeti from the landing page, they will be taken to a page that resembles Figure 2.
Figure 2. SnapshotSafari interface.
For the initial launch, there will be six sites to choose from. These new camera trap grids are sending us images from Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa. For the first few months, we will release additional sites every three weeks, so make sure to check in often to see if a new location has been added. To navigate between the sites, simply log on to SnapshotSafari and select the reserve you’d like to visit. To return to the home page and go into a different site, click the SnapshotSafari tab at the top of the page.
Classification – What’s different?
Good news for those of you who have been with Snapshot Serengeti for years and are used to the classification system: as you can see in Figure 1, the interface will remain mostly the same.
Here’s how it works: A picture or series of up to three pictures will appear on the screen next to the species’ name list. When you click on a species name, a brief description and a few pictures will appear. If a volunteer isn’t sure of the name of the animal, there are a few tools they can use to help narrow down their choices. Citizen scientists can look at examples of tail shape, animal build, the color and pattern of skin/hide, and horn shape to identify the wildlife in each photograph. The “Looks-Like,” tab has changed slightly, providing silhouettes of animals (Figure 3) instead of descriptions.
Figure 3. “Looks-Like” Tab
Once a species is selected, users will still have the option to choose the number of individuals and record any behaviors. While the look has changed, the choices remain the same (Figure 4).
Figure 4. Number of Individuals and Behavioral Information
Have you ever wanted to zoom in on a picture to get a closer look at far away animals? Now you can! SnapshotSafari allows users to zoom in and out, click-and-drag the image, and rotate the image. Some of the new sites have new species, so you can expect to see a few new options on the list of potential species, such as nyala and klipspringer.
There will be several field guides available, providing users with clear images and detailed information about different groups of animals (e.g. deer, birds, predators, etc.). These are always available for reference to help volunteers hone their classification skills and provide information on the most challenging species to identify or distinguish between. Some of these field guides utilized information and images collected on the Snapshot Serengeti discussion pages. A special thanks to those of you who helped collect related images and develop tutorials; know that your efforts have been recognized and contributed to the development of these field guides.
Volunteers still have the options to, “Collect,” and “Favorite” images. After identifying the wildlife in the photograph, one can choose between, “Done,” or “Done and Discuss.” Clicking on, “Done and Discuss,” will take them to the, “Talk” section of each site. More details on the discussion section is provided below.
There are still pictures that need to be classified at www.snapshotserengeti.org. We are hoping to finish these classifications before the launch of SnapshotSafari. If we don’t finish with the remaining images, they will be uploaded in batches to the new SnapshotSafari website in Snapshot Serengeti’s unique page.
Collections & Discussions
UPDATE: The Snapshot Serengeti website will no longer function after February 1st. When SnapshotSafari launches, the main www.snapshotserengeti.org site will be redirected to SnapshotSafari. The talk.snapshotserengeti.org site won’t be changing at all in the short term. In the long term its contents will be archived permanently, including your collections and favorites.
Each site will have their own discussion forums under the associated Talk section. We are happy to announce that users will no longer be taken to a separate site or tab to participate in or read through the discussions; it is all available on the Zooniverse site! If you want to ask a question, start a discussion, or share a cool picture, you can do that by clicking the Talk tab. When you are ready to resume classifying, you just click on the Classify heading to return to the site’s photos.
Our moderators and a group of volunteers have gone through the discussion forums of Snapshot Serengeti, and they selected several discussion topics to transfer to SnapshotSafari. The majority of the Serengeti forums will not be transferred, but will remain on the old Serengeti site.
Where/When can I find out more?
This Wednesday we will start a countdown for the official launch of SnapshotSafari, featuring detailed descriptions of the six new sites being featured in the initial launch. You can also post your questions in the Serengeti discussion forums until February 1st and follow us on social media for updates.
Social Media
Twitter: @UMNLionCenter, @SnapshotSafari, & @snapSerengeti
Facebook: Snapshot Serengeti, UMN Lion Center, SnapshotSafari
Instagram: umnlioncenter, snapshot_safari
Snapshot Serengeti – Upcoming Changes
*This weeks blog was written by Jamee Snyder, project coordinator and administrative assistant with the Lion Lab, University of Minnesota. She tells us all about a wider a project that Snapshot Serengeti has evolved into and what we can look forward to in the near future.*
Seven years ago, the University of Minnesota Lion Center set out 225 cameras in Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. These cameras have recorded over 50 species including some of the most threatened species on Earth. With help from over 140,000 citizen scientists from around the world, millions of photographs were reviewed and classified over the past seven years, which provided park managers, conservationists, and researchers with the necessary information to analyze African wildlife population dynamics. This collective effort is a major contribution to ecological research, allowing for the evaluation of long term trends in wildlife populations as well as best practices in conservation management of charismatic african mammals.
A Snapshot Serengeti Camera-trap image
Snapshot Serengeti was one of the first camera trap surveys to document wildlife populations in a national park and is now one of the longest running camera trap surveys in the world. We have learned a lot over the years, from how to keep our cameras safe from hyena jowls to retrieving data from memory cards that have gone through a wildfire. We are continuously looking for ways to improve this project.
Thanks to years of experience, your participation, and help from several organizations in the U.S. and Africa, we are excited to announce that Snapshot Serengeti is expanding into an international conservation initiative called, “SnapshotSafari.”
Don’t worry! Snapshot Serengeti isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it will remain essentially the same as we transition into our new platform. The discussion forums and personal image collections will still be available to current and future users. Now, participants will be able to see numerous other parks in addition to the Serengeti. SnapshotSafari will showcase camera trap images from multiple camera trap grids inside dozens of parks and reserves located in six African countries. Intrepid citizen scientists will be able to choose from various exotic habitats, including but not limited to: the Sand Forests of KwaZulu-Natal, the Lowveld of Limpopo, the Fynbos of South Africa’s Cape, and the Karoo desert, in addition to such remarkable ecosystems as Mozambique’s Niassa Reserve, Tanzania’s Ruaha National Park, Swaziland’s Mbuluzi Game Reserve, and Botswana’s Makgadikgadi Pans National Park.
By incorporating multiple sites, we can ask more complex questions regarding African wildlife populations and the factors that contribute to ecosystem stability. For example, researchers can compare population dynamics of reserves that are fenced versus those that are unfenced, or theycan evaluate the environments that successfully host multiple predator species without depleting prey populations. Researchers at the Lion Center will use this dynamic platform to investigate the cascading effects of large mammal reintroductions and ways to limit direct human interventions while still maintaining stable ecosystems within fenced reserves. SnapshotSafari provides an opportunity for participating reserves to collaborate and subsequently develop the most effective conservation strategies for protecting biodiversity.
We are working hard to get SnapshotSafari ready to launch in January. We just completed beta-testing, and the feedback has been very positive. To all of the citizen scientists who participated and to those who continue to be involved with Snapshot Serengeti, we are extremely grateful!
Now, we need your help to finish classifying the final series of images on our original platform, Season 10, at http://www.snapshotserengeti.org before we initiate SnapshotSafari, which will host Season 11. We are very close to finishing classification of these images, so don’t hesitate to invite your friends and family to take a trip to the Serengeti through the lens of one of our camera traps and classify wildlife. Let’s push this meter to the end!
Stay tuned for an official count down, so you can be one of the first to participate in SnapshotSafari and contribute to our collective knowledge and ability to successfully conserve African wildlife.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
Well it is that time of year again when the winners of the prestigious wildlife photographer of the year awards are announced.
Having a browse through this year’s winners I notice with a touch of sadness but a good dose of hope just how many of the photos touch on the demise of wildlife and have a conservation message. Brent Stirton’s moving image of a poached black rhino although tragic is a strong weapon in itself in the fight to change the hearts and minds of those people that covet rhino horn.
One of my favourite images is in the bird behaviour category. The much maligned marabou stork is the subject and the shot was taken in the one spot on this planet that Snapshot Serengeti fans know so well, yes the Serengeti.
But the story doesn’t end there. The photographer who was awarded finalist in the bird behaviour category is well known to us. Daniel Rosengren worked for the Serengeti Lion project for 5 years in the field with the most enviable job going. He spent every day following the study lions getting to know them intimately and generally building up the rich source of study data that this 30 year+ project has gained.
Of course when Dr Ali Swanson came up with her wonderful idea of seeding the area with 200 odd camera traps and the Snapshot Serengeti project was born it was Daniel who looked after our precious cameras for several years. So we have a lot to thank him for.
Daniel moved on from the project in 2015 to pursue a career as a professional wildlife photographer and we congratulate him on his achievement this year in the wildlife photographer of the year award. Well done!
If you want to learn more about the story behind his image or just want to see some stunning wildlife images visit his website here http://danielrosengren.se/wpy-awardee/
And to see all the other winners from this year’s wpy 2017 visit
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/wpy.html
Progress and stuff
Some of you will have noticed that our progress bar on season 10 has not been showing any progress. Well it turns out that we have made loads of progress, it’s just the bar that was not getting anywhere.
The good folks at Zooniverse have fixed it for us and you will now see we are about half way through season 10 which is fantastic. There are just under 700 000 images to classify this season so thanks to you, are dedicated team of citizen scientists we have around 350 000 left to go. That’s 350 000 chances of finding that one image you have been waiting for. I have noticed recently lots of you posting on talk that you have classified your first ‘waterbuck’ or ‘serval’. If you haven’t discovered your dream find yet there is still time and yes there is a season 11 in the wings.
Whilst on the subject of talk I wanted to gently remind everyone of a few etiquette points.
#Hashtags, love ‘em or hate ‘em they are part of social media and they are not going away. On Snapshot Serengeti we use them for a specific reason and that is to help others to search for and find certain images.
If you have found a great image that you think others will want to see and you are certain of the species then go ahead and hashtag it, but, if you find an image that you are not sure of then please don’t hashtag it with your guess. You can still put the pictures up in talk for discussion and perhaps someone else will be along who is positive about the id and can then hashtag it. Basically, please use hashtags thoughtfully.
Which brings me to another point; if you can’t identify an image and you post it up for discussion always give us your best guess. No one will laugh; it’s what makes it fun seeing what other people make of the images when you are really stumped. Many a time I have confidently shared a tricky image almost certain for instance it’s a long sort after rhino only to have someone else’s eyes point out that if I look a bit closer that actually it is a rock! Even our expert modifiers get things wrong occasionally and are reluctant to confidently make a call on certain images. Some of them are just so darn impossible to id. So just give it your best shot, it’s what everyone else does.
The main aim is to enjoy yourself, challenge yourself and use other peoples experience when yours fails you. The Snapshot family of classifiers and moderators is a dedicated and knowledgeable bunch and as I have said before, this project would not exist without you all. Keep up the great work one and all.
The Aardvark and the Termite.
This summer in South West France has not been its usual hot balmy self. In fact as I look out the window now the overriding colour is a deep lush green. Normally by July it is turning a straw yellow colour but this year we have had plenty of rain. In contrast, to the south of us, fires have been raging through Portugal, Spain and South Eastern France. Who knows if this is a taste of what’s to come or a one year glitch in the system but one thing is for sure climate change is going to affect life on this planet in both subtle and not so subtle ways.
I wrote about termites last week and their importance in the ecosystem. This week I read a disturbing news article about aardvark, who of course survives on eating termites and ants.
A group of scientists in South Africa were studying aardvarks in the Kalahari. They had inserted biologgers into several aardvarks in order to follow their activity and body temperature. It turned out that the year of their study was an exceptional year of draught and all but one of the study animals along with others in the area died. They unexpectedly recorded a phenomenon not seen before that should be an eye opener to the ways in which future climate could affect not only individual species but whole ecosystems.
The aardvark themselves can withstand high temperatures but the termites on which they rely for food and water cannot. With the information provided by the biologgers the scientific team where able to see that the aardvark were not finding enough termites or ants to keep their energy levels up. Night times can be pretty cold in the Kalahari and the team found that the starving aardvark even swapped their usual night time foraging behaviour to day time in order to conserve body energy. They were even seen sunbathing in a bid to save energy. It seems that none of this adaptive behaviour was enough. There simply was not enough food for their needs and they slowly starved to death. At an average weight of 60 to 80 kg an aardvark is a large animal and needs to eat around 50 000 termites or ants a night.
One or two bad years will always happen but if climate change shifts as it is predicted many areas of Africa will become drier and hotter creating an aridity that most of the native termites and ants cannot tolerate. True, given time, more tolerant species may take over but in the meantime the much loved aardvark may become a creature of the past. But that is not the end of the story. The aardvark is more than just a curiously put together animal, it is the architect of large burrow systems that many other mammals, birds and reptiles are reliant on to escape extremes of hot and cold weather, to bring up their young and escape from predators. Most cannot excavate the hard earth themselves so with the possible demise of aardvark life would get a whole lot tougher for many many more animals.
If you want to read more about the study have a look at this link https://africageographic.com/blog/aardvarks-beating-climate-change/
World Environment Day
Tree with Landrover
The 5th of June is world environment day. This event was created by the United Nations back in 1974 to promote awareness of our environment and to spur people globally to help protect it. Its celebration has never been more important than in today’s challenging times. All over the world people will be taking part in a host of events that celebrate our environment. Some have formed clean up events of local beaches or city parks. Others will be doing a bioblitz in their gardens or local reserves many will include children who will be inspired by searching out and identifying bugs. There will be events organised on the public scale such as awareness marches or environmental film screenings. Some folks will simply celebrate by stepping out in the open air to take a walk or picnic. Whatever the event you can be sure that a lot of people will be considering the environment this week and that can never be a bad thing.
Each year there is a theme, this year it is ‘connecting people to nature’ I thought this was particularly apt for us citizen scientists at Snapshot Serengeti. Through the millions of images we classify there is a strong connection to the rhythms of animals in the Serengeti. We get to appreciate the wide biodiversity of this immense ecosystem and for those of us unable to visit such a place it is a way to connect to a wild unspoilt place. It is a way to visit, virtually, leaving no carbon foot print as we would by flying there. I feel it is a privilege afforded us thanks to technology that I would not have even dreamed of 15 years ago.
Snapshot Serengeti is the perfect antidote to the doom and gloom decried each day by the newspapers. In a world where wildlife is dwindling and the finger is firmly pointed at us as the major cause of climate change Snapshot Serengeti feels like something positive and good. Something to give us hope that we might not have wrecked everything just yet. From our armchairs we not only experience the wonders of nature but at the same time we are actually benefiting science with our classifications. What can be better than that?
So if you have nothing else planned this #World Environment day why not jump on to Snapshot Serengeti and get classifying, better still see if you can recruit new classifiers, the more the merrier.
If you want to read more about world environment day visit this site.
Citizen Science Conference
Meredith giving a project slam Photo: Avi Baruch
Meredith has been busy this past week attending the Citizen Science conference in St Paul, Minnesota. She reports back that it was a fantastically stimulating conference that confirms the high esteem that citizen science has grown within the science community.
The yearly conference sees a diverse group of people from researchers, educators and universities to the likes of NGO’s and museums get together to discuss the use and promotion of citizen science. Although we at Snapshot Serengeti have been aware of its great impact for some time citizen science is now emerging and is recognised as a powerful tool in the advancement of research by many.
Those attending the four day event collaborated by sharing their varied experience and ideas on a variety of topics. The collection and sharing of data and how to impact policy was discussed. There was focus on how to use citizen science as an engaging teaching tool, how to bring citizen science to a wider audience and how to involve citizens more in research. Those attending brought their joint experience and expertise together to discuss how citizen science impact on science could be measured and evaluated. If you want to find out more about the conference then visit this link.
http://citizenscience.org/association/conferences/citsci2017/
We sometimes forget when working away at classifying our stunning images on Snapshot Serengeti that there is a lot of tech going on that enables us citizen scientists to be of use to the scientists. Meredith gave what’s known as a ‘project slam’ essentially a 5 minute presentation about our work on Snapshot Serengeti and how it has paved the way for helping other cameratrap citizen science projects. A quick look around Zooniverse will show just how many there are now.
The massive amount of data produced over several seasons through Snapshot Serengeti have allowed the development of a robust, tried and tested methodology that smaller projects would have taken years longer to develop. Just contemplate the work that went into developing interfaces, protocols, pipelines and algorithms for taking millions of classifications of untrained volunteers and turning them into a dataset which has been verified to be >97% accurate.
It is awesome to see that something we all find so truly engaging can translate into such serious stuff in the field of science. I think we, the citizen scientists, and the Snapshot team can be rightly proud of our work on this brand new branch of science
Snapshot Serengeti 