All the Pretty Pangolins
Many of you might be aware that pangolins are, at present, the most illegally-trafficked mammals in the world, mainly because of the illusory medicinal value of...
Category: News
A Rainbow of Landscapes – PART TWO
Last week we took a look at the wonderful landscapes of the central plateau of South Africa. From the vast open plains of the central Karoo to the rolling red d...
Passionate about Nigerian birds and butterflies… BDI interviews citizen scientist Abubakar S. Ringim
Abubakar Surajo Ringim obtained his MSc in Conservation Biology from the University of Dar es Salaam. He is a keen bird atlaser and BioMAPper and he is actively...
A Rainbow of Landscapes – PART ONE
Biodiversity can be assessed at several levels. We can look at genetic diversity at species level, we can look at the diversity among different species, or we c...
Atlas maps: choice of grid scale
Traditionally, we have used the quarter-degree grid scale to generate distribution maps in biodiversity atlases. In southern Africa, this convention started wit...
Longevities of shrikes, bush-shrikes and helmet-shrikes
The shrikes, bush-shrikes and helmet-shrikes were formerly all classed together in one family, but have been split into separate bird families (shrikes, bush-sh...
How to create a species distribution map in the Virtual Museum
Today, we provide the recipe for creating a species distribution map for a butterfly, the Painted Lady Vanessa cardui, directly off the current and live data in...
Virtual Museum: open for refreshments!
As you drive your new car out of the showroom, its value drops dramatically, and then keeps on dropping. It’s not quite as bad with the Virtual Museum. Bu...
Quarter-degree grid cells made simple
Lump it or leave it, quarter-degree grid cells are entrenched in the mapping system of South Africa. In an article called “SA Mapsheet Referencing“,...
Exploring data: the median and the mean, and everything in between
Here is the assignment for this blog. “Write a report on the progress being made in the Western Cape by the BirdPix section of the Virtual Museum.” ...