Why we do Chimp Matching

Dear Chimp&See friends

Thank you so much for all your hard work annotating videos at our new site, MathematicalTreefort! Feel like a change? There is a whole lot more to do at Chimp&See!

For one, there’s the hashtagging of videos you classified with the exact species or behavioural tags, which allows us a more thorough analysis of our data. Want to get started? Check out our hashtagging video tutorial

On top of species identification, another big goal of Chimp&See is to get precise population site estimates for each and every site. For this reason, we do chimp matching to figure out all the unique individuals we have seen (and seen again, and again and again…if we are lucky 😀). At the end of every site we determine the minimum number of males, females, juveniles and infants and from there use mathematical models to estimate the population size. During chimp matching, we also discuss the behaviours we see and any signs of disease, injuries or other hazards. This is all important data for the conservation of chimpanzees. Chimp Matching at MathematicalTreefort, or MT in short, starts on January 29th! 

At MT we’re going even further! Among the animals we see are African Forest Elephants and Western Lowland Gorillas. Both species are classed as 'Critically Endangered' on the IUCN Red List. Therefore, it is of interest to determine the population size and different demographic parameters like sex, age class and group size for these species too. For this, we are going to need to identify individuals, and we like to invite everyone to contribute in the matching and hashtagging process. The following links lead you to the elephant matching board and the gorilla matching board on Chimp&SeeTalk.

So don’t hesitate, participate and try something new to help save endangered animals. Thank you so much for your contribution!

Your Chimp&See team