ACTION!
CALLING ALL CITIZEN SCIENTISTS TO HELP US COLLECT DATA: HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP!
1. Team Building- Introduce yourselves
- teach Dr. Hoof Stock about your habitat- create a photo essay and upload it to Facebook (TIP- include all the important parts of habitat, e.g. food, shelter, water, space to hangout)
- add Dr. Hoof Stock as a friend on Facebook: Hoof Stock
- learn about waterbuck habitat by exploring the pages and comments on this blog
- add comments and questions for Dr. Hoof Stock to reply
- search the web for “waterbuck”, decide which sites are credible and which are “urban myth”
- tell Dr. Hoof Stock what you found by posting links in our comment space below
- OPTIONAL: do the Project Wild activity “Oh Deer!” to learn why food, shelter, water, space are so important to provide for the habitat quality of creatures on earth
2. Plan your photo-safari
- decide which camera each member of your team will use (TIP: digital cameras, video cameras, cell phones may be used to take snapshots that you can upload to Facebook)
- practice using your cameras before you go on safari, so you will be ready to shoot when you get there!
- email Curt to get a list of photo-survey points: cur...@fossilrim.org
- bring a GPS unit if you can (TIP: learn how to use it before you go on safari)
- print out and bring this Data Form
3. Shoot photos at photo-survey points
- find the first point using GPS waypoints or the map provided by Curt
- stop the vehicle at the pullout so other traffic may pass
- decide how you will take photos in all directions (360 degrees) at the same time (TIP: each person choose a direction, or one person take a series of photos, one right after another)
- count how many waterbuck were in your photos and write down the number for that survey-point
- count how many individuals of other hoofstock species were in your photos and record it
- describe the quality of waterbuck habitat at that point (TIP: habitat quality is food, shelter, water, space)
- repeat the same procedure at each photo-survey point
4. Report your results
- upload your survey photos to your Facebook page and invite Dr. Hoof Stock to view them
- make a list of what you observed at each survey-point and upload it in the comment space below (TIP: make a table like the data form provided above with columns for Point, Count of waterbuck, Count of other hoofstock, Food, Shelter, Water, Space)
- write a short essay on what you learned and post it in the comment space below
- tell us what worked or didn’t work and your suggestions!
THANK YOU! WORKING TOGETHER, WE CAN DO SO MUCH MORE FOR THE EARTH, THAN ALONE!
If you are having technical difficulties posting your report, try faxing it to: 800-662-1751
Hello Jane,
Thought I would drop you a note letting you know that I am now blog friendly. Question, do you think it possible to extrapolate how many open females there are based on a short observation period? I ask this because once the intact male is removed, we would want to know how many open females remain. This can be answered through observation periods given the relativly small hard, but can a determination of open females be made on much larger herds where individual female observations would be much more difficult? Again, thank you for all that you are doing with this project
Good question. If a female is still open after the intact male has been with the group, then she probably will be attractive to the replacement male. During our observations in January, Lucifer was with one female constantly and followed her everywhere. We have not observed that intensity of courtship during the observations in February. I was thinking that female would cycle again at 3-week intervals, but we have seen no sign of it. As to how long we would need to observe a herd to determine if there were any females open and still cycling, I would think 30 min. observations would be enough to detect if the male is interested in a female. If the duration of estrus is about 3-7 days, then observations would need to be done twice a week. Does that count as a “short” observation period?
What is curious to me is that if Lucifer covered that female in January, and she is not cycling now, then the hypothesis would be that she is pregnant. It will be very interesting to see when calves appear!
It will be interesting to observe if/when cows calve in relation to when the bull was vasectomized and introduced. Also, what was the condition/age of the female that the bull was following, and did she already have a calf?
Kelley, I can answer the second question, the “hot” female did not have a calf. The first question is a little more difficult, because we did not have a record of her age at the time this female was tagged.
One thing we have been noticing is that some of the females have more ribs showing than others. Do you think this might be because they are older?
We have verified that all females have access to the supplemental feed. However, an older female may have more worn teeth and not be able to digest food as well, so her health might be relatively not so good compared to younger females? What do you think?
Jane
Iris & I spoke briefly about an opportunity to design a education/research activity that would piggyback with the ongoing long-term waterbuck research. So I sent an email to outline some initial thoughts and to include others in some thinking that emerged from discussion of Renee’s
presentation today.
First, our problem is that we need to continue observations on Doug, the new waterbuck male while he is with the females for May and June. We have notyet identified a student who would be able to respond to this opportunity.
So, we were brainstorming about the feasibility of finding interested persons to help, such as:
1) Fossil Rim volunteers
2) local AP biology students
3) volunteer college intern who wants research experience
Depending on the level/experience of the assistant(s), we were considering the following options for the activity:
a) 1-hour rapid assessment several times/week
b) 1 weekend (noon to noon) observations during daylight hours
We were tentatively thinking of a structured training procedure:
1) preview video to learn observation techniques
2) on-site training and observer reliability measure
3) post-activity video for processing data
What are some initial thoughts on these ideas? We welcome your input.
Dan Vulinovic on May 13th, 2008 wrote:
Have you witnessed any of the male waterbuck interacting with the Sable antelope?
Dr. Hoofstock: No, I have not heard any reports of this.
Also have you seen the Gemsbok and Sable interacting?
Dr. Hoofstock: Yes. Previously, a male gemsbock and sable in the main pasture interacted in an agonistic manner. Our grad class did an inquiry project on this case study.
Thank you for the reply. I am very interested in hoof stock, particularly Gemsbok and Sable. Since they are a related species and seldom seen together (in zoos or the wild) and have an aggressive nature, I was curios on their interspecific relationship. In the above reply…was the Sable a male as well? Could you explain what happened? Also quite curios to note….I have only once seen a photo of the two species together. It was a water hole setting at the Waterberg Plateau (Namibia). It would be terrific if someone would snap a photo of the Fossil Rim Gemsbok/Sable standing together…maybe at a feeding trough or waterhole (and of course posted on the the website!)
Thank you for the interesting website Dr Hoof!
Dan Vulinovic
Dan,
To answer your question, yes, the gemsbock and sable that were interacting were both males.
I’ve been watching for an opportunity to snap a photo of sable and gemsbock side by side, but have not seen it happen. The two species segregate in this setting.
Jane
Hello Jane…is it typical for Sable and Gemsbok to segregate? Do either socialize with other species in the pasture? I have been to Natural Bridges Wildlife Park and I was surprised at how the Wildebeest, Gemsbok and if I remember correctly Zebra all just hung out in one large group.
Dan, it is hard to say what is typical, since the two species would not likely be in the same habitat in the wild. At Fossil Rim, the zebra and wildebeest are in a separate pasture from the gemsbok.
Jane
Jane….are the roan antelope out in a large pasture now? What other antelope or deer are kept with? Has anyone been monitoring their interactions with other species?
Dan, no one is formally studying the roan antelope. Fossil Rim staff monitor their well-being on a daily basis. Some of the other species in their pasture include blackbuck, white-tailed deer, wildebeest, zebra, etc.
Jane
To Jane…I wanted to share this website with you. It has several photos…but if you scroll down you will see an interesting pic. of a bull sable walking towards some gemsbok. They are definately alert and interested. The pic was taken in Etosha. There are something like 30 sable running loose in the park as part of an introduction many years ago. Sable do not fare well there due to the shortage of rain. Anyway enjoy. http://www.descubrenamibia.com