Today in the field we had the pleasure of the company of representatives of the two bear-related Wildlife CSI teams. Depicted here with Billy Watts are Nora Hulton (The Ubiquitous Ursines) and Laurie Doss (Pain in the Ursus), at the middle and right, respectively. We have really enjoyed these opportunities to meet personally with some of you who have been contributing so generously of your time and talent to the project.
As we approach the final 48 hours of Wildlife CSI – Summer 2013, several teams are clustering in the 5000-6000 Contribution Value range, so it looks like we may have some heated competition at the close of the contest. Recall that CSI–Summer 2013 ends at 11:59:59 PM Eastern Time this Sunday night (18 August). The latest standings as of around noon today for all teams are provided here. Thanks to you all for aiding our research!
Several of you have asked if you can still contribute image categorizations after Sunday. You most certainly can, and your analysis of images will continue to help our research effort! Although the summer’s contest with its team play will be over, the database will continue to track your individual statistics and report them as you complete each session. You will, however, no longer see the team leader board after Sunday, but the final standings will be posted, as usual. The individual leader board will continue to display.
This proposal provides a preliminary description of plans for using Wildlife CSI as a teaching tool in an introductory Biology course at the college level. Please share your thoughts about how you might incorporate this citizen science program into your own teaching. Smedley CTL Fellows 13-14 Wildlife CSI in BIOL 182
We continue to have some strong performances (including breaking of the 10,000 image milestone for an individual!) as we enter the final week of Wildlife CSI. Here are the overall team standings from 
this morning. Thanks to you all for your interest and help with the research. Let’s see how these standings shift in our final week (CSI closes at 11:59:59 PM on Sunday, 18 August).
Here are the latest Wildlife CSI team standings. Thanks for this major help.
Amy Coan of the Wildlife CSI team “Connecticut Counting Crows” thought that some of you more local folks might be interested in Connecticut Soil Day (and Soil Survey Work Planning Conference), an event pitched to Envirothon advisors, among others. For details, check out the attachment. After all, compost does make a good soil supplement!
Connecticut Soil Day announcement
Today marks the one-month mark for your participation in Wildlife CSI – Summer 2013, which runs through Sunday, 18 August. Thanks for all your help as we examine the effects of composting on scavenger ecology! Although not a study of composting per se, nonetheless, an investigation shows that seasonal changes in food waste production by certain Ethiopians are associated with shifts in diet by hyenas, renowned scavengers. For more details: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405075232.htm .
This week we were joined in the field by “The Invasive Species” team member Jen Carvalho, a Trinity graduate from a few years back. Here Jen (on right) is joined by Billy Watts ’13 and Nicole Evancha ’15, this summer’s student researchers on the scavenger ecology and related projects.
One more field session available for a visit remains: Friday, August, 16 at 9:30 a.m. Hope some additional, local CSI participants can take part. We’ve certainly enjoyed meeting some of you through these visits this summer.
Again, thank you for your big contribution to this research!
This challenging image was submitted by Joe Jankowski of “The Invasive Species” with the following message:
Any ideas? I marked the small animal in the middle of the compost pile as “unidentified” Any ideas of identification?
It is a tricky image with the animal just barely visible behind the pile and obscured by shadow. Take a look at the image: http://reindeer.cc.trincoll.edu/CompostResearch/Actual/R9/MIX_R9S_101019_09-35-59_V_08_10.JPG
Then view it in the context of its consecutive images as provided by this video: Consec (n=10) MIX_R9S_101019_09-35-59_V_08_10 . Finally, if you’re still wondering, you can see it as part of a slightly longer consecutive image series than that which the database provides: Consec (n=20) MIX_R9S_101019_09-35-59_V_08_10
What do you think? Share your ideas.
Understanding scavenger ecology can be important to preserving the natural world. The California condor, a magnificent, but very endangered scavenger, is at risk due to poisoning from eating carcasses killed by lead shot. Check out the report on this.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22174702
