Refreshment dip into Yzerfontein during lockdown
“Starting in my home grid cell on 1 January 2021, I will upload records to the Virtual Museum of as many species as possible (and I will be especially careful n...
Author: Les Underhill
Prof Les Underhill was Director of the Animal Demography Unit (ADU) at the University of Cape Town from its start in 1991 until he retired. Although citizen science in biology is Les’s passion, his academic background is in mathematical statistics. He was awarded his PhD in abstract multivariate analyses in 1973 at UCT and what he likes to say about his PhD is that he solved a problem that no one has ever had. He soon grasped that this was not the field to which he wanted to devote his life, so he retrained himself as an applied statistician, solving real-world problems.
Progress with BirdPix in the Western Cape during 2020
This is planned to be the first of many similar blogs. We are starting with an easy project, BirdPix, in my home province, Western Cape. It is still a bit exper...
Fundamentals of Citizen Science, a BDI course
During 2021, the BDI will offer a course called "Fundamentals of Citizen Science".
Archive/BDI Citizen Scientist Hours/BDI YouTube Channel/Biodiversity/Citizen Science/News/Virtual Museum
BDI YouTube Channel: three months of growth!
The BDI launched its YouTube channel on 2 July. Three months later, the channel contained 61 videos and these videos had had more than 3,000 views. Up to now th...
Citizen Science Week #1 from 19 to 27 September 2020: OdonataMAP in South Africa
OdonataMAP is the Odonata Atlas of Africa. OdonataMAP is one of the sections of the Virtual Museum. From September 2020, the project has been hosted jointly by ...
Fanie Rautenbach’s Great LepiMAP Challenge 2020/21
Fanie Rautenbach has worked his way through the LepiMAP records for South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland, has identified data gaps, and is challenging us to fill...
Impacts of Rhodes on Biodiversity 2 : Common Chaffinch
The first blog in this series talked a bit about Cecil John Rhodes and his beliefs, which can can be summarized in this quote: “Remember that you are an E...
Impacts of Rhodes on Biodiversity 1 : Eastern Grey Squirrel
Cecil John Rhodes, who believed that the English were the best, introduced grey squirrels, from America, to his estate in Cape Town about 1900. This is the stor...
BirdPixing since the start of lockdown
During the lockdown period in South Africa, the Virtual Museum kept going. 4008 records were submitted to BirdPix during 27 March to 23 June 2020. But only 34% ...
Mozart moth: Variations on a theme
LepiMAP aims to atlas not only butterflies, but also moths. Which species of moth was recorded most frequently in LepiMAP during the lockdown period starting 27...