Monday, December 9, 2019

New MonkeySee (part 2): Monkeys and prosimians at Xenon Bloom

In part 1 of this series, we introduced the new MonkeySee workflow. Here in part 2, we visit the first live MonkeySee workflow for the Xenon Bloom site, a mixed savannah and woodland habitat in West Africa. Let’s have a look at the monkey and prosimian species you can watch and learn about at Xenon Bloom. 

Category: Baboons


Guinea baboons (Papio papio) are the enthusiastic stars of the Xenon Bloom show. They are often seen in bigger troops and have a rich repertoire of social behaviors and vocalizations. Just go to Chimp&See and check out some special greeting rituals and other interesting aspects of their social life. We were very excited to see “play swimming” of juveniles as most primates are known to avoid getting wet.


Guinea baboons have thick, light reddish- to greenish-brown fur. Their faces are hairless, with purplish-black skin and the squared, a bit dog-like muzzle that is typical of baboons. Their rumps are bare and pinkish in color. Males have a mane, though sometimes subtle. Females can display bright pink swelling. The newborn infants have a considerably darker color than adults.
The Xenon Bloom site is situated where the geographic ranges of Guinea and olive baboons meet. Until now, we did only see Guinea baboons, but might encounter here olive baboons, too.

Category: Chlorocebus


The Green monkey (Chlorocebus sabaeus) is a medium-sized and semi-terrestrial monkey with light golden fur on the head, back and tail, and lighter gray or white fur on the chest and legs. The face and ears are dark, though lighter in younger individuals


Category: Colobus


We did not actually expect to see colobus monkeys in this rather open habitat. But surprisingly, there has been a King colobus in several videos already. The King colobus (Colobus ploykomos) is a species of Western black-and-white colobus. It has a black coat of rather long fur, especially on the back. The face is black, with a halo of short white fur around it that extends down the throat and chest, and the on the shoulders. The long tail is all white.

The surprise guest - a King colobus - in the back and a female Guinea baboon in the foreground

Category: Patas Monkey


The Patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) is my personal favorite. Patas monkeys occupy exclusively the savannah grass- and interspersed woodlands. They almost never venture into closed forest habitat. It is the fastest-running primate and normally seen on the ground.


Patas monkeys are bright reddish-brown from the top of their head down the back of their body and their long slender tail. The face, chest and legs are a light to medium gray. They usually have a distinctive black line of fur at the brow line that may extend to the ears on either side. Males are much larger, with more dramatic coloration and a mane.

Category: Prosimians


Prosimians are not monkeys, but belong to a more primitive group of primates, along with lemurs. We use this new category for the nocturnal galagos and pottos

Galago

Galagos (genus Otolemur),  also called bushbabies are very small nocturnal primates. As many animals active at night, they have large eyes that glow in our infrared night footage. They have round ears and a rather bushy, long tail. They can be seen climbing, but are actually some formidable jumpers.


Potto (Perodicticus potto) 

The potto is another type of prosimian, nocturnal like the galago, but larger. It has a short tail, thick fur, large round eyes and lobster-claw like hands that it uses to grasp branches. It climbs slowly through the tree canopy, rather than jumping, and is rarely, if ever, on the ground. It will be a surprise when we actually see a potto at Xenon Bloom.

Xenon Bloom's MonkeySee classification interface lists some other species that might be seen here, but still haven't. Watch out for sooty mangabeys, red colobus, or Campbell's mona monkeys as well.

The primate descriptions in this post are based on the comprehensive Monkey Guide created by Chimp&See citsci moderator Kristeena Sigler.

Check out MonkeySee at Chimp&See and enjoy amazing primate clips from this beautiful West African landscape!

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

New MonkeySee (part 1): What is new and how does it work

In September, we opened the new MonkeySee workflow for the monkey aficionados among you. This workflow presents volunteers exclusively with videos of monkeys and prosimians during classification to determine the exact species. These videos have already been pre-sorted in the Species ID workflow and at least four people said that one or more monkeys or prosimians are seen. The video is then moved to the MonkeySee workflow for further specification. This two-step classification process allows Chimp&See to annotate videos faster and in more detail at the same time.

The process is faster, because the science team knows already after four (unanimous) classifications that monkeys or prosimians are present. And after only four more annotations in MonkeySee (again provided the volunteers agree on the species), the videos are retired with all individual species labels applied. In addition, videos with more than one primate species can be easily identified with the new workflow. This wasn’t possible before.

Here is how it works


MonkeySee presents the volunteers first with a video and broader categories of primate groups, like baboon, chlorocebus, or prosimian, as well as an absence category. The volunteer chooses then between single species options in the next step. The species choices include all species that are known to be at this site and species that haven’t been confirmed there yet, but those ranges are close. So, there is a reasonable chance to actually see them at the site we're working on and confirm (or add to) known species ranges.

A detailed tutorial helps with species identification.


If you want to try out MonkeySee, go to Chimp&See and choose the MonkeySee workflow under the Welcome banner. The current site Xenon Bloom with its mixed grass- and woodland habitat features some unique savannah primates, for instance the highly entertaining Guinea baboons.

Enjoy! Be a Citizen Scientist and help us annotate African wildlife videos at Chimp&See.

Friday, November 15, 2019

Update on the leopard mini-project

In July, Chimp&See re-launched the new project interface at Zooniverse with an upgrade of new workflows and remodeled discussion forums that facilitate exchange of the volunteers with the science team and among each other. At the same time, we re-launched the leopard mini-project that aims to assess the density of this important chimpanzee predator at all PanAf sites by identifying individual leopards.

The new interface enables us to have a dedicated discussion board for leopard videos and discuss questions related to leopards and other predators. Here the volunteers can post leopard videos they found during classification and discuss individual match proposals. Every video will be tagged by the volunteers with #leopard and the site name. We also ask for behavioral tags (like #marking, #resting, or #hunting), the sex, if seen, and to tag which sides of the body are visible in the video (front, back, left, or right). For discussing individual leopards in match proposals, it is important to compare the same side of the body for assessing the identity of the highly individually-specific pattern of spots and rosettes for any given leopard.

An example of a rather difficult perspective for identifying this gorgeous
leopard as the pattern is highly distorted. Original video here
In the first months of identifying leopards, we discovered that often for us the best perspective on the leopards from the Chimp&See video footage is the back view, when a leopard is walking away from the camera. The side views that many scientists use are, of course, even better, but rarely displayed in our footage and often distorted (see image above). Many cameras are set up facing animal trails, so when the leopard is walking slowly, we have the best chance to get a good look on the pattern found on the hind limbs and a reasonable number of images to confirm their identity. You can see here an example from “Tau”, a named male from the Quiet Wood site.

The images are stills from two videos captured on two separate days and different locations. Find more videos of Tau here.
The leopard video list and any information about the individuals seen are stored in the new open leopard spreadsheet. This spreadsheet, which we hope to automate partly in the future, replaces the old static known and prospective list for leopards. A storage solution for images of the identifying fur pattern will be added soon. The currently running Xenon Bloom site in West Africa already features beautiful leopards and we hope to name the first individual soon. You should ge involved.

If you want to discuss leopards and see how we identify individuals, please come over to Chimp&See, help us classify videos, and discuss with us!

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Trotters ID workflow

Today we are opening the Xenon Bloom trotters workflow at www.chimpandsee.org. Help us identify hoofed and cloven-footed creatures like ungulates, duikers and hogs at the species level! The tutorial acts as a mini field guide to help you identify the species if you're a beginner or an experienced annotator that needs a bit of help 😊

You'll find the trottersID workflow on our start page under the main photo. Enjoy!


Monday, September 2, 2019

Happy International Primate Day! To celebrate come and check-out our Xenon Bloom MonkeySee workflow

Happy International Primate Day! To celebrate come and check-out our new Xenon Bloom MonkeySee workflow.

In addition to the two usual species ID workflows, each site will also have its own primate-specific workflow called MonkeySee.

Right now at MonkeySee you can learn about Xenon Bloom primates and identify them to the species level. Not sure how to tell monkeys apart? Don't worry! There is a handy tutorial to help you learn.

 You can find the link to MonkeySee under the main picture at chimpandsee.org:


Hope to see you at ChimpandSee (and MonkeySee!) soon :)


*MonkeySee includes other non-monkey primates like galagoes (bushbabies) and pottos

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Chimp&See featured on MDR Wissen

Ein großes Dankeschön an MDR Wissen für die weitere Unterstützung von ChimpandSee.org!

A big than you to MDR Wissen for their continued support of ChimpandSee.org!


Monday, July 15, 2019

Chimp&See is back! Chimp&See ist zurück! ¡Chimp&See ha vuelto! Chimp&See est de retour! Chimp&See je zpět!

From African golden cats to zebra duikers, Chimp&See lets you get up close and personal with African wildlife


Have you ever wondered what an elephant gets up to during a typical day? Or maybe what a baboon sounds like? What about the social circles of chimpanzees? If so, then good news – you’re not alone! Thousands of people from all walks of life have come together to form a community at Chimp&See, a citizen science project hosted by Zooniverse where members of the public can volunteer their time to watch, classify, and discuss camera trap videos taken from sites all across Africa as part of the [Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (PanAf)](http://panafrican.eva.mpg.de/) from the [Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology](https://www.eva.mpg.de/index.html).

 "The growing field of citizen science is centered around the idea that involving the general public in scientific research can potentially produce more accurate data faster than a just few scientists could", says Mimi Arandjelovic, primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. "At Chimp&See, citizen scientists can classify videos to tell the official research team which species of animal is present, how many individuals there are, which behaviors they are doing, and, in the case of chimpanzees, identifying the specific individuals who are there." With this information, the research team can determine the habitat distribution of dozens of species, how they interact with one another and answer a myriad of evolutionary, ecological and conservation questions facing African wildlife today.

Citizen scientists can also directly contribute to studying how chimpanzees use tools as well as their social behaviors. If you’re lucky, you can spot a chimpanzee using tools to accomplish tasks like cracking nuts or collecting honey– something that was once thought to be a uniquely human behavior. Given how closely related human beings and chimpanzees are, collecting data like this can help researchers uncover how our ancestors lived, evolved, and became dependent upon tools for survival. "The project also aims to inspire people and organizations to take an interest in learning about and protecting these stunning habitats and the amazing animals that live there", says Hjalmar Kühl, an ecologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv).

Between 2015 and 2018, over 50,000 citizen scientists at Chimp&See classified more than 140,000 videos and contributed to the data that was used in papers on nocturnal chimpanzee activity and ape reactions to camera traps. Starting July 15th, Chimp&See will relaunch on its new platform with over 40,000 videos from two new research sites, with 26 additional sites and hundreds of thousands of more videos planned for the future. We are also super excited to announce that thanks to an amazing team of volunteer translators, ChimpandSee.org will be available in German, Spanish, French and Czech with Italian and Chinese planned for the near future.

If you have never classified animals and their behaviors before, don’t worry! There is a classification guide and an experienced team of moderators to help answer any questions that come up along the way. We want to thank everyone who has contributed so far and look forward to working with our growing community in the years to come! "Chimp&See is a great way for families, classrooms, and individuals to get involved in science", says Arandjelovic. "So, whether you’re curious about what chimpanzees do with their friends, or you want to make meaningful contributions to science, consider joining the Chimp&See community. With so many new videos, you’re sure to find something worth watching."

--

  • Press release in English
  • Pressemitteilung auf Deutsch
  • Comunicado de prensa en español
  • Communiqué de presse en français
  • Tisková zpráva v češtině
  • Sunday, July 14, 2019

    Chimp&See relaunches July 15th, 2019!

    🐵 On #WorldChimpanzeeDay we are super happy to announce that TOMORROW, July 15th 2019, we are finally relaunching ChimpandSee.org with lots of new upgrades !!!!

     Details to come tomorrow, see you back soon at Chimp&See!


    Thursday, July 11, 2019

    With Heavy Hearts: Rest in Power Dawna Wallis (aka 'Snorticus')


    It is with a very heavy heart that we post today to pay tribute to Dawna Wallis (aka Chimp&See citizen scientist "@Snorticus") who we recently found out passed away on June 13 2019.

    Dawna was one of our long time participants and her enthusiasm and kindness were infectious! In fact, one of our PanAf scientist had even written to her about doing field work as she was so observant and keen at Chimp&See.

    Thank you so much Dawna for all the chimp collages you shared, all the chimps you helped identify, all the great chimp names you gave and all the fun discussions we had about wildlife, you will be so very dearly missed. We wish your family all the best and send our deepest condolences to them.

    Below, a few of the tributes to Dawna we have received:
    "What sad news indeed, and what a shock. Dawna was so helpful to me during my early days with C&S and her sense of humour often made me smile. Please convey my sympathies to her family. "
    -Jane aka @Batfan
    "That is such sad news. Please pass on my condolences and best wishes to Dawna's husband and family."
    -Fiona aka @puddock
     "I'm shocked and very sad. I very much liked Dawna's subtle power of observation, her humor and her entire presence."
    -Lucia aka @Luca-chimp
    "That is so very sad... I don't know what C&S would have done without her contributions, and it definitely would have missed out on many laughs. We were blessed to have her."
    -Kris aka @ksigler
     "Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Dawna always voiced her independent opinion when it came to chimp matching. She did not let other people's opinions take over to what she actually saw. I learned from her lots about how different light, shadows, and colors can make a chimp look like. She discussed again and again how the way a video / image was taken and then presented influences what we believe to see and that you really need to focus on every detail (especially the ears - one of her specialities) and not shrug it off for a seemingly harmonious sum of the parts.
    But most of all, she was an appreciated voice and friend on twitter with opinions about the world - and chimpanzee conservation."
    -Anja aka @AnLand
    "I am so so sorry to read those lines. Deeply shocking and sad indeed.Although I weren't that close with her, she seemed like a very nice person, passionate about everything she worked on."
    -Zuzi aka @yshish
    "It is a shocking and very sad news. I knew her less than others. However, I remember Dawna as such a helpful, and very kind lady.
    She will be deeply missed."
    -Flavie aka @Orohena
    "I am very sad and shocked. I will miss Dawna's smart and friendly nature very much. She also leaves a large gap at Chimp&See."
    -Heike aka @HeikeW
    "I am terribly sorry. I do not know what to say, I am in shock. I am really sorry."
    -Paula aka @PauDG
    "Oh no, this is so sad, I'm deeply shocked! I liked her very much, her humor, her power of observation, her intelligence, her sense of justice, her lovely character. I enjoyed very much to communicate with her also on facebook. I will carry her in my heart."
    -Heidi aka @Boleyn
    “Dear Dawna, you have been a wonderful companion in this amazing journey of species conservation, who always understood the meaning of the words ´team work´. I will be greatly missing you. My thoughts are with your family and friends during this difficult time. See you somewhere, wherever there are animals to protect around <3 “
    -Nuria aka @NuriaM
    "What sad news 😢. I thought I had not seen her around much, but assumed it might be due to her waiting for the relaunch. Thank you for telling me. She will definitely be missed."
    -Laura aka @LauraKLynn 

    Also, a big thank you to our moderator Heidi/@Boleyn for checking in on Dawna when she noticed that Dawna was not commenting anymore at Chimp&See. We are so very grateful to Heidi, and our other mods, for creating such a caring community at Chimp&See and notifying the rest of us of Dawna's passing, as well as collecting the kind thoughts you have read above.


    One of many examples of Dawna's incredible detective work:

    They both have odd 'butterfly' shaped nostrils. Big ears sit high on the head.

    Infant has pale fingers & ear folds in especially big ear, dark line in middle of the curved brows

    Similar profiles, similar shape left ear positioned high on the head:

    long nipple on females & pale fingers on infant


    Friday, June 14, 2019

    Inclusive chimpanzee conservation

    "Thanks to a pair of great primatologists we had the chance to highlight chimpanzee conservation in a recent letter published today in Science. Check out the important discussion about culture, conservation and of course chimps!" - Ammie Kalan

    Read the letter and the PanAf response here: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/364/6445/1040.2.full.pdf


    Friday, April 26, 2019

    Chimp&See v2.0 update!



    We are almost done incorporating all the comments from Beta Testing into the new Chimp&See!

    For now, when you go to ChimpandSee.org, you will see our place holder page, but we will be back soon, better than ever!

    In the mean time, you can still join us on Talk for chimp matching and other video discussions until we relaunch!

    Thursday, March 14, 2019

    Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps

    Another new paper from Ammie Kalan and collaborators including data from the PanAf and Chimp& See's animal selfie's miniproject!! :) Thanks to all the citizen scientists who helped hashtag camera reaction videos !!!


    Novelty Response of Wild African Apes to Camera Traps (Current Biology)

    And watch some best of videos HERE

    Highlights
    • Bonobos and gorillas had stronger looking impulses compared to chimpanzees
    • Young apes looked longest at camera traps compared to mature individuals
    • Presence of a research site or conspecifics reduced the duration of looking
    • Both social and environmental factors affect great ape curiosity in the wild

    Abstract
    Temperament and personality research in humans and nonhuman animals measures behavioral variation in individual, population, or species-specific traits with implications for survival and fitness, such as social status, foraging, and mating success. Curiosity and risk-taking tendencies have been studied extensively across taxa by measuring boldness and exploration responses to experimental novelty exposure. Here, we conduct a natural field experiment using wildlife monitoring technology to test variation in the reaction of wild great apes (43 groups of naive chimpanzees, bonobos, and western gorillas across 14 field sites in Africa) to a novel object, the camera trap. Bonobo and gorilla groups demonstrated a stronger looking impulse toward the camera trap device compared to chimpanzees, suggesting higher visual attention and curiosity. Bonobos were also more likely to show alarm and other fearful behaviors, although such neophobic (and conversely, neophilic) responses were generally rare. Among all three species, individuals looked at cameras longer when they were young, were associating with fewer individuals, and did not live near a long-term research site. Overall, these findings partially validate results from great ape novelty paradigms in captivity. We further suggest that species-typical leadership styles and social and environmental effects, including familiarity with humans, best explain novelty responses of wild great apes. In sum, this study illustrates the feasibility of large-scale field experiments and the importance of both intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping animal curiosity.

    Press release:
    Wild African ape reactions to novel camera traps

    Thursday, March 7, 2019

    Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity

    photo: Liran Samuni


    We are so super proud to announce the publication of our latest PanAf paper "Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity" We hope it helps spur the call-to-action for conserving chimps and their behaviours across their range! 

    Abstract:
    Chimpanzees possess a large number of behavioral and cultural traits among non-human species. The ‘disturbance hypothesis’ predicts that human impact depletes resources and disrupts social learning processes necessary for behavioral and cultural transmission. We used an unprecedented data set of 144 chimpanzee communities, with information on 31 behaviors, to show that chimpanzees inhabiting areas with high human impact have a mean probability of occurrence reduced by 88%, across all behaviors, compared to low impact areas. This behavioral diversity loss was evident irrespective of the grouping or categorization of behaviors. Therefore, human impact may not only be associated with the loss of populations and genetic diversity, but also affects how animals behave. Our results support the view that ‘culturally significant units’ should be integrated into wildlife conservation.

    Paper: 
    Kühl HS, Boesch C, Kulik L, Haas F, Arandjelovic M, Dieguez P, Bocksberger G, McElreath MB, Agbor A, Angedakin S, Ayimisin EA, Bailey E, Barubiyo D, Bessone M, Brazzola G, Chancellor R, Cohen H, Coupland C, Danquah E, Deschner T, Diotoh O, Dowd D, Dunn A, Egbe VE, Eshuis H, Fernandez Rumen, Ginath Y, Goedmakers A, Granjon AC, Head J, Hedwig D, Hermans V, Imong I, Jeffery KJ, Jones S, Junker J, Kadam P, Kambere M, Kambi M, Kienast I, Kujirakwinja D, Langergraber K, Lapuente J, Larson B, Lee K, Leinert V, Llana M, Maretti G, Marrocoli S, Mbi TJ, Meier AC, Morgan B, Morgan D, Mulindahabi F, Murai M, Neil E, Niyigaba P, Ormsby LJ, Pacheco L, Piel A, Preece J, Regnaut S, Rundus A, Sanz C, van Schijndel J, Sommer V, Stewart F, Tagg N, Vendras E, Vergnes V, Welsh A, Wessling EG, Willie J, Wittig RM, Yurkiw K, Zuberbuehler K, Kalan AK (2019) Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science. doi: 10.1126/science.aau4532


    Press: 


    Video Abstract:


    Tuesday, February 5, 2019

    Year of the pig – let’s talk about hogs!

    According to the Chinese (Lunar) calendar and starting today, 2019 is the Year of the Pig. We will take this opportunity to have a look the hogs (pigs) at Chimp&See as we’ve just realized, we have never really talked about them before and don’t have a formal guide (yet!).

    Chimp&See features four different hog species with some great video footage. They all have large body sizes, a wedge-shaped big head and the signature out-turned huge canine tusks in common. But a closer look at fur, adaptations, and also location of occurrence shows striking differences.

    A short video guide from our camera trap footage - and more details below.


    Giant forest hogs (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) can be seen in all African forest habitats. As the name suggest, they are the biggest African hog, heavily build with a big, sturdy head and broad, naked face. They have often rather spare dark fur with the lighter orangey-brown skin shining through. Variation in coat length and density and in different lighting situations let them appear in a wide range from light-brown and hairless to almost black with a thick fur. Male giant forest hogs can have enormously swollen preorbital glands (shown in the screenshot below) that are considered as a type of scent glands, but could also have anti-pathogenic effects.

    A giant forest hog with enormously swollen preorbital glands.

    Red river hogs (Potamochoerus porcus) can be seen often and in big groups at almost every West and Central African site. Their shiny red coat is short and very well visible in the forest. A clear blonde dorsal crest is usually seen. The faces are dark with white cheek tufts; the ears have adorably looking light tassels.

    Red river hog

    Bushpigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) have the coolest and most diverse color morphs of all African wild pigs. Their coat color ranges from black / brown / gray to red and blondish and is accentuated by white applications at the face and towards the dorsal crest. They have also these cute ear tassels, usually in black. Although subspecies are identified, the color diversity is seen in single groups of these animals. The fur is quite long and looks shaggy, especially after a good rain. Bushpigs are the smallest of the four species and are found at our Eastern sites, like Restless Star and Green Snowflake. More towards central Africa – where they meet the red river hog home range – a zone of interbreeding between these two closely related species can occur.

    The multi-colored bushpig

    The warthog (Phacochoerus africanus) lives predominantly in arid savannah habitat like at our West African site Dry Lake. It is most easily distinguishable from the other hogs because of its unique body build. The warthog body is more barrel-shaped due to the lack of subcutaneous adipose tissue and the legs are longer. In addition, warthogs fancy a mane that reaches from the head down to the spine. Because of their long legs and a rather short neck, we often see them kneeling down to feed or drink.

    A warthog dropped to its knees to feed.
    A detailed field guide for hogs and other ungulates will be part of the new Chimp&See interface to be launched soon.

    For everyone celebrating the Chinese New Year, all fans of hogs, and just everyone – we wish you a happy and successful 2019. Come over to Chimp&See to check out camera trap video footage from Africa’s wildlife!

    Forget me not 🌼


    I´m afraid this one is not going to be the most didactic text I will write. It´s not even going to be about elephants, chimps or animal welfare actions. In fact, this is about passion, friendship, fellowship, self-confidence and finding my own way.

    It was only five years ago when I received a link telling: “hey, this might be something for you 😉 “. It was Ingo from Africa sending me a link from the PanAf team asking for help to code videos recorded by camera traps located all over the chimpanzee natural range in Africa - sounds familiar?

    Right at that time I was experiencing quite a frustrating professional moment in Germany, you know, when you feel like “I love being a mother, I love my kids, I know I do a great job…but I need to feel professionally complete”. So this was the right moment…the big moment! I still remember when I got the videos to be coded and a short letter from Mimi saying:

        “Dear Nuria, thank you so much for your help coding videos for our project! Welcome to the PanAf team!”.






    Welcome! PanAf team!!!! YAY!!!! Can you believe it? I had no idea what I had to do or even if I was qualified to do it, but I knew that I wanted to do it and that I was going to do all my best, about that I was absolutely sure!!

    I´m going to tell you a secret: ever since I was a child I wanted to be like Dian Fossey. Remember the film “Gorillas in the mist” when she introduces herself to the professor who searches for volunteers to do gorilla censuses in Africa? after he asks her what she knew about Gorillas she replies: nothing, but I can count”. Isn´t it great? That´s exactly what I believe it´s all about: it´s about wanting to, about having passion for what you do…and if you work with all your heart and put all your dedication and trust in what you do, the knowledge will come easy.

    I´m not going to lie, this wasn´t always an easy pathway. In fact, I felt very unsure, overwhelmed and scared at times, which I think made me a stronger woman now. But you know what? When you have the best working team of the entire world, what can go wrong? Even though I have been working remotely, my team/friends have always made me feel that I belonged to the group, and that they considered me as a part of the project. Now I´ve grown as a person and as a professional, and they incredibly helped me with this.

    I already had had my experience as an ecologist, but never in my whole years of University and later jobs had I learnt so much about wildlife, ecology, conservation…and of course working remotely helped me catch up on computer things, from writing to reading formal emails properly (oh God, I didn´t even know what ASAP in an email meant!!)…and have a look at me now, I am a blogger!💪

    Then came C&S. C&S…I owe you guys soooo much! You won´t believe it. From each and every of you I have learnt how to coordinate a team, how to work tidily, how to be patient and rigorous. And how to be humble and always bear in mind that it´s absolutely fine if I make mistakes. And this specially I owe to Mimi, who has been so empathic and encouraging even when I did crap. These last five years have been the greatest, most rewarding professional years in my life, and at that point of my life I wasn´t expecting that; what a beautiful surprise, my job, my love, my passion…my life.

    Although I think of all the possibilities that will for sure come now for me and that I´m ready for a new and exciting phase in my life, I feel tremendously sad for leaving and can´t help my tears from falling while I write this.  I´m going to miss you guys, all of you! I and the PanAf team have so much to thank you all volunteers! You have been doing an awesome job. We can never thank you guys enough in the name of conservation. In this crazy world with so many ecological challenges in sight, what we did for species protection has no price, really, and I am f… proud of us!

    I hope our paths will cross again, at some point, at some place…

                                                                              Hey, we did a great job together 😊

           
    Germany, 2016
    Spain, 2019





    Friday, January 18, 2019

    “MonkeySee” – primate mini-project: A big thank you and a little sneak preview

    Although Chimp&See has its main focus on chimpanzees, other species, especially other primates, play an important ecological role in the African rainforest and their presence can be an indicator of biodiversity and potential disturbances at a site. The current Chimp&See annotation interface only supports the classification of monkeys in the broad category “other primates”. From site to site many different species of monkeys and even other primates like galagos and pottos are summarized here. These classification data do not allow differentiating species or giving any indication about the occurence of rarely seen species, like the endangered Western red colobus.

    Early on in Chimp&See, we asked all volunteers to tag all species they can identify to the species level to improve the information that we get from the classification stage. We thank all volunteers who took this time over the years and engaged in ID discussions with the moderators and the science team for some rather difficult cases!

    In addition, we used the current hiatus on Chimp&See to gather some very (very!) dedicated volunteers to finish tagging all primate videos and check hashtags and comments. As approximately 50% of our clips have been tagged during the site classifications, this adds to several thousand video clips! A very special thanks to @Batfan, @Corcaroli, @HeikeW, @midnightsun and @Snorticus, as well as the moderators coordinating this mini-project.

    From left to right: Western red colobus, sooty mangabey, blue monkey, and olive baboon
    These data can now be used to study single species of interest, their behaviors like reactions of baboon to our camera traps in our “Animal Selfies” mini-project and even potential interactions with chimpanzees like scavenging of leftover nuts from chimpanzees nutcracking sites by sooty mangabeys.

    And we have good news for all the primate fans among you! The science team decided to use the current relaunch of Chimp&See (in progress) on the Zooniverse Panoptes Project Builder to integrate a new workflow dedicated solely to monkeys and prosimians (galagos and pottos) into Chimp&See. This new workflow that aims to identify all primates to the species level already during classification, leaving room for tagging exemplary videos and interesting behaviors and thus saving time. Stay tuned for the new Chimp&See interface!

    Again pant hoots and thanks to everybody engaged in this mini-project “MonkeySee”!