A Story from @paleosue!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog. Today's volunteer story is from @paleosue:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as paleosue.  My real name is Sue Ruth.

I'd like to say... My name is Sue and I am an archaeologist and community college teacher living in New Mexico. I got hooked on Chimp & See shortly after it started up about 2 years ago. Since then I have told anyone who will listen and even those who won't about the project.

Each semester I take my anthropology students on a virtual field trip to Africa and I show them how to record the animals, especially the primates, hoping to spark that same feeling of wonder and amazement I feel when I find something interesting. So moderators, if there is ever a flood of weird identifications that lasts about an hour, that's probably us.

My favorite moment was getting to name a one-tusked warthog, ACP0006lto. I will be forever grateful to Snorticus, who suggested that I get to name him since I happened to tag him first. The warthog is now "Leroy" after my late father-in-law, who I think would be glad that there is warthog somewhere in West Africa named in his honor.

It's funny, but I now find myself perfectly at home in the forests of Africa.

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Thanks, Sue, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project! See you tomorrow for another story!

A Story from @lauraklynn!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog. Today's volunteer story is from @lauraklynn:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as LauraKLynn.  My real name is Laura.

I'd like to say... I had dabbled in Zooniverse before, but I was very excited when Chimp & See appeared. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by great apes. I appreciate their intelligence and similarity to humans, while recognizing and respecting their uniqueness as separate species. In high school, I told my guidance counselor I wanted to be a primate cognitive ethologist and study great apes. While that career never quite came to fruition, I still idolize the trimates (Goodall, Fossey and Galdikas) and daydream about being a field researcher. Chimp & See lets me live out a little bit of that fantasy and contribute to scientific research.

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Thanks, Laura, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project! See you tomorrow for another story!

A Story from @vestigial!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog. Today's volunteer story is from @vestigial:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as vestigial.  My real name is Chris.

I'd like to say... I volunteer at the National Zoo with the primate program and I'm familiar with the problems facing wildlife there due to habitat loss. Because of that, I'm used to thinking of Asian elephants as wandering around through dense forested areas. I was not, however, used to seeing African elephants in forests. I guess because in the documentaries and things I've seen African elephants are always in herds near waterholes or on big dusty plains. Chimp and See was the first place I'd every seen videos of huge African elephants moving through dense forests while trying to negotiate steep slopes. While not as graceful on those slopes as they seem on the plains, it was impressive how well they blended in. They would just suddenly appear from the trees. It's hard to imagine such a large animal being hidden from view so easily and made me understand better when the locals talk about being careful when moving through the forest because you could suddenly come across a very large animal.

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Thanks, Chris, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project! See you tomorrow for another story!

A Story from @Batfan!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog. Today's volunteer story is from @Batfan:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as Batfan.  My real name is Jane.

I'd like to say... A huge Happy Birthday C&S. Long may this brilliant project continue.

After a couple of summers spent teaching at a remote school in Tanzania, with a roost of bats living down the ‘long drop’ (which made for some very interesting trips to the loo!!!), I fell totally in love with both Africa and bats.

At the end of last year I had to go into hospital, which led to an enforced period of inactivity and, to keep me sane during this time, I investigated the Zooniverse site to find something to occupy me. After having dabbled with various projects, from planets to penguins, I came across C&S and, within minutes, was totally hooked. My love of wildlife coupled with my love of Africa, make this the perfect project for me. Although I’m now back, living my normal life again, it’s become a priority to carve out at least a few minutes each day to spend trawling the C&S videos to see what new gems are there to be discovered.

When I came to the site, I always knew I’d love such as the chimps, monkeys, elephants, hippos and leopards but I hadn’t realized how many other species I’d develop such affection for. Those red river hogs always make me smile as they rootle around and those leaping galagos make me laugh out loud. Even the pretty little (and I’ve only recently found out just how little) duikers frequently melt my heart.

And it’s not just the animals that make C&S such a great site to be involved with. All you mods , scientists and ‘old hand’ citizen scientists have been so welcoming and helpful to newer people such as me and because of this, I’ve never felt embarrassed to ask questions or make mistakes, and so feel to have learned loads. Thank you to you all.

So once again, Happy Birthday C&S,. May there be many more years to come.

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Thanks, Jane, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project! See you tomorrow for another story!

A Story from @Snorticus!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog. Today's volunteer story is from @Snorticus:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as Snorticus.  My real name is Dawna.

I'd like to say... You never know what you will see in the animal clips. Some days it's a shared adventure with other volunteers, moderators & the scientists too. The Saturday we started the lengthy light hearted discussion & research as to the fact or fiction of a three-nippled guinea baboon (who was later named Maxine) was rather fun. Several of us were online classifying around the world that day (Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Germany, America) and everyone joined in the discussion. Some held that it was a just a clinging leaf & some presented good support for the 3 nipple theory.

Here is a link to that amusing & educational thread: http://tinyurl.com/n2bd38j

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Thanks, Dawna, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project! See you tomorrow for another story!

(If you would like to submit your own, there's still time! Just submit this form by Wednesday, 4/26.)

A Story from @Boleyn!

To help celebrate Chimp and See's 2nd anniversary, we asked our volunteers to share their personal stories, memories, and anniversary wishes for the blog.  Today's volunteer story is from @Boleyn:

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On Chimp and See, you know me as Boleyn.  My real name is Heidi Pfund.

I'd like to say... It all started with a podcast

After a phantastic safari through Botswana I was missing the wildlife dearly. Henry, my partner, had pity on me and told me of a podcast where they introduced "Snapshot Serengeti", another Zooniverse project. I literally jumped on it and was hardly to seperate from my screen in my spare time. But alas! After about 5 weeks of frantic classification, they run out of pictures. I was on cold turkey! No more animals, no more fun.

Salvation came with a mail from Zooniverse, asking the volunteers to check out Chimpandsee. And there were even videos not only pictures! So many lovely animals to study in their living environment, including the occasional chimp. I was in heaven!

That's almost two years since. Over the time I got more and more involved with these adorable, interesting apes and I wouldn't want to miss them anymore. The matching, comparing and discussing serves my liking for detective work. And now we are even able to match leopards. How great is this?

Today I just classified my 18'000 video at C&S. How did @squish5 say: That's a lot of duikers. But hell, I love every little flapper - they take me easily back to Africa every single day I like!

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Thanks, Heidi, and all our volunteers for making C&S such a special project!  See you tomorrow for another story!

(If you would like to submit your own, there's still time!  Just submit this form by Wednesday, 4/26.)

***Updated!*** Meet our chimps: The One Where Lesley’s Infant Gets a Name

The “Meet our chimps” mini-series closes with adult female Lesley and her infant daughter – whom we also want to name with you!

Adult female Lesley is none of our most memorable and special chimps. She has a friendly face with a slightly reddish pigmentation, cute pointy ears, some balding, and a strong body. Although that’s not something very special for females with dependent offsprings, she seems to be a bit less gregarious (i.e., social) than other members of her group. She is more often seen alone with her infant or in smaller groups with just another adult, not in the big traveling or feeding parties.

Her already big infant daughter makes the most of this situation, plays and investigates on her own whenever she gets the chance – and provided that mom is still close. This little girl is one of the few infants overall at Chimp&See that has been matched on her own due to a defining trait: the small scar or dent at her right eyebrow. Usually, we can only match the infants because we can identify their mothers. She is special in that regard and that’s why we wanted to present her here and use the opportunity to let use choose a name for this little girl!

To go with her mother’s name and our brief thoughts about sociality in this posting, we decided to go with another pop-culture theme, the great 90ies TV show “Friends”. So, growing up, do you think she will be perfectionist and bossy like Monica, eccentric like Phoebe, or always emotionally outpouring like Rachel? Please vote here! 

***Update (April 26, 2017) ***

 

Welcome Phoebe! Thank you so much for helping us again to settle for a name for another sweet little infant. Lesley’s daughter will now get her final “ID” with this wonderful name. A clear majority for Phoebe emerged already in early votings and could sustain its ranking against a rising share for Rachel in the very last hours of this poll. Just like her namesake from Friends, we hope she will be a great and tolerant friend, a bit eccentric, and get the “forest smartness” to survive in her changing environment.

If you wonder, why we name our chimps, instead of just keeping coded IDs (like Phoebe’s temporary ID: RSInf03), please read this wonderful blogpost by our mod Kristeena Sigler. And if you want to get the chance to name a chimp yourself, visit our discussion boards at Chimp&See and give chimp matching a go.

Chimp&See at the March for Science Leipzig

The MPI-EVA was well represented at the March for Science in Leipzig today and we even did some Chimp&See outreach that made it to the local paper! We were 1300 strong at our march and were humbled to be part of the worldwide peaceful protest :D

If you marched today we hope you had a great and safe march! #ScienceIsForEveryone

Meet our chimps: Nuka-Taka

Today we have a TON to celebrate: 

* The 2 year anniversary of Chimp&See 🐵🎉
* Earth Day 🌍 and
* the March for Science ⛓

Thank you so much for all your volunteer time on ChimpandSee.org for the past 2 years! Our incredible success is ALL thanks to YOU!


Today's Meet our Chimps focuses on chimpanzee Nuka-Taka:

We try to avoid this expression, but let’s face it: this chimp has an egg-head. We recognized this young male immediately because of his coned-shaped head, the orderly laid hair, and small ears, which together form a very distinct head and face. He seems to be younger than the other adult males, but is a full adult with a muscular upper body. For some time, we thought that we might have a second male with similar traits, but the small ear damage that “both” share made it clear that we have only one new chimp here: Nuka-Taka (both names – combined in the final match – by hoothoot). For the initial matching mistake we have to blame the sunlight. Face color and size/form of the nostrils vary greatly depending on the light situation, which makes it harder to compare finer details in chimp faces.

Nuka-Taka is seen in big parties with females and kids, but also in only male parties. Although confidently walking with the big males, he gets nervous when something happens. His “insecure” face expression looks sometimes a bit comical and increased our love for him considerably. But – as you can see in the video below – Nuka-Taka is also a guy who gives a hug, when it is needed.

Classifications at Restless Star are already finished, but we still have open matching discussions and want to identify and name more chimps.

If you want to get involved and see African wildlife from camera traps yourself, please come over to Chimp&See!

Meet our chimps: Yeye

At first, we totally got this chimp wrong. Sure, the match was without any doubt: we identified a young chimp (young adult / late adolescent) with an unusual light face that we’ve seen several times in different chimp parties. Because of the sturdy built, a robust upper body, and angular face, we thought it is a young male – and were mistaken. Fortunately, before naming this guy, we’ve seen the body from the side view and could see a female swelling.

Our long-term volunteer Boleyn proposed this match and named her Yeye. “This means he/she in Swahili. They do not make a difference and I think that fits her very well since I thought at first it was a young male.”

Yeye is still young and might not have reached full adult size by now, but she started cycling and we’ve seen her several times fully swollen (a sure sign for adulthood in females). She is very often seen with her BFF Jazz, another young female with a beautiful dark face.

Classifications at Restless Star are already finished, but we still have open matching discussions and want to identify and name more chimps.

If you want to get involved and see African wildlife from camera traps yourself, please come over to Chimp&See!

***Updated!*** Meet our chimps: Pandora and [we need a name!]

Next up on our “Meet our chimps” series is a very special pair: adult female Pandora and her infant boy – whom we want to name here with you!

Pandora has a dark face and overall dark hair. She has a triangular bald spot above the rounded eyebrows and a slightly gray beard. Her infant is always carried on her back. His pronounced key hole-formed face and the big nostrils make him super adorable. Pandora and her littlun are always curious and very interested in the camera. They are the chimps who most often not only recognize and react to the camera, but getting very close to investigate thoroughly.

Pandora has been named by our volunteer hoothoot who said: “I would like to name her Pandora as she seems very curious. :) My biggest hope for her is that she won't repeat the mistake of her namesake and thus will stay away from tempting boxes or other things which could harm her and her family.” At least for our field season, we can exclude that any harm happened to them and for sure nothing came “out” of our camera traps!

As classification at the site has finished, we are starting to name the infants of clearly identified females. Pandora’s infant is first and we decided to go with a magical “Harry Potter” theme and want to let you decide: Should the infant's name be: Harry, Ron, or Draco? Please vote here until Saturday (April 22nd)!

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*** Update (April 23, 2017) ***

Thanks for voting in the infant naming poll and welcome Draco! We got 44 votes and closed now the poll. Almost half of your votes went to Draco, leaving Ron and especially Harry far away from any interference here. This huge majority vote was somehow unexpected, but you’re right: Draco is the perfect name for this curious and decisive little chimp.  

***Updated!*** Chimp&See Science Team "Ask Us Anything" April 25th

To commemorate the 2nd anniversary of ChimpandSee.org, the Chimp&See science team will host a special “Ask Us Anything” (AUA) event that will be held on Tuesday, April 25th, 2017 at https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000u/discussions/DCP0001qor

Members of the science team will be online between 4 and 6 p.m. UTC to answer all the questions you might have about the project, its research questions, field work, preliminary results, lessons learned, and future directions. We're also happy to discuss our research, conservation and field experience so go ahead and Ask Us Anything :) To learn more about the science team beforehand, check out our Introductions, the PanAfrican Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee Website and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology website

For easier access, here again the scheduled time for the event (attention: it’s daylight saving time on the Northern hemisphere!): 4 p.m. UTC (Coordinated universal time is not on summer / daylight saving time!)

- 5 p.m. BST (London) 
- 6 p.m. CEST (Leipzig / Berlin) 
- 12 p.m. EDT (New York) 
- 9 a.m. PDT (Los Angeles) 
- 2 a.m. AEST – (Melbourne. Sorry, it’s very early!)

The board will open on April 25th a few hours before the AUA starts so that you can post questions before the event starts if you want. If we don't get to your question during the AUA we will be sure to get to it in the days that follow and, of course, you can always ask chimp-related and other questions at the regular “Questions for the science team” board

***UPDATE***
Thanks everyone!! Those 2 hours FLEW right by!

What an awesome experience and thank you so much for the amazing questions and your participation! You can check out the whole AUA here: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000u

Meet our chimps: Waldemar

This brief series, marking the 2nd anniversary of Chimp&See, will introduce you to some of the most remarkable chimps at our recent Restless Star site in East Africa. They are members of the Eastern chimpanzee subspecies Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii and live at this site in a mountainous environment along with gorillas and elephants.

We first met Waldemar climbing down a tree and elegantly hopping over some scrubs in front of the camera. Immediately, we dubbed him the athlete of the group. He is easily identifiable with his roundish and friendly face and an unusual light nose and muzzle. His hair shines almost silvery in the sunlight. He is not the biggest of the males here, but he makes sure that he is always in the center of everybody’s attention. He is named after the German marathoner Waldemar Cierpinski.

Classifications at Restless Star are already finished, but we still have open matching discussions and want to identify and name more chimps.

If you want to get involved and see African wildlife from camera traps yourself, please come over to Chimp&See!

Chimp&See 2nd Anniversary Celebrations!!!

🎉🐵🎉 We are quickly approaching the 2nd Anniversary of Chimp&See, and invite YOU to help us celebrate! Leading up to, and beyond, our anniversary on April 22nd, please join us for these special activities we have planned:

- We'll have chimp naming polls in the days to come to help us choose names for some of our baby chimps!

- Through the end of this week, be sure to visit the Chimp and See blog for a special "Meet Our Chimps" series! Each post will focus on different fascinating chimps from the Restless Star site. If you missed them, here's a chance to catch up on the personalities and stories that kept us enchanted with Restless Star over the last year! We kick off with the first "Meet our chimps" with an introduction to Waldemar!

- On Tuesday, April 25th, join us on Talk for a Chimp and See "Ask Us Anything!" Members of the science team will be online between 4 and 6 p.m. UTC and answer all the questions you might have about the project, its research questions, lessons learned, and future directions. Specialists will also be on hand for questions about animals behavior, field research, and conservation.

- Now through Wednesday, April 26th, share your story! We want to learn about the fascinating volunteers who are making Chimp and See such a fun, successful project. Tell us how you got started, recount a favorite memory, or share a photo of your favorite find. You can read all the stories on the Chimp and See blog at the end of the month. Send us your story now! 

We hope you can join us for our celebration! And, of course, thank you again for continuing your amazing work of classifying and matching!!! Let's keep it going strong as we enter our third year of Chimp and See!  🎉🐵🎉

3 million classifications! Thank You!!!

We hit tonight three million classifications by almost 9,000 volunteers. A huge thank you to everyone taking the time to watch, classify, and discuss our videos. We could not do this without you!

It does not happen very often, but sometimes animals recognize our cameras and it seems as if they start watching us. Here is a small selection of different interested parties:

We want to say thank you and always love to see YOU here at Chimp&See!

Volunteer Stories - Coming Soon!

As you may know, April is a very special month at Chimp and See. It was nearly two years ago, on April 22nd, that our project kicked off here at Zooniverse, opening up the wilds of Africa for us to explore through our screens.  To celebrate this anniversary, we'll be collecting personal stories and messages from our volunteers to share here on the blog.  If you have a story of your own to share about your experience with Chimp and See, or want to learn more, here's the official announcement.

We also have some very special posts and other activities planned for our anniversary, so stay tuned!