Marvelous moths are a massive challenge: a selection from the Virtual Museum in 2018
Birds are simple. So are dragonflies. If you are looking for one of life’s tougher challenges then volunteer to help with the identification of the moths ...
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.
BestYear by 21%: There were 93,482 Virtual Museum records in 2018
The Virtual Museum had its BestYear ever in 2018, by a margin of 21%. The total for 2018 was 93,482 records. The totals for 2017 and 2016 were 75,408 and 73,104...
A poor documentation of a local extinction: Cape Dwarf Chameleon
Where have all the chameleons gone? For many years, I could find a Cape Dwarf Chameleon almost on demand in my garden in Rondebosch. If a visitor wanted to see ...
Do lots of Citizen Science in 2019
15 Citizen Science ideas for 2019 Keep your favourite camera handy! Grab all the opportunities which present themselves to take photos for the Virtual Museum. D...
Alien opportunities: 10 bird species with feral populations in South Africa
Research opportunities on alien birds Although alien species are widely (and rightly) regarded as a “bad thing”, they offer special opportunities for research! ...
Calvinia BioBash: Citizen Science in the Hantam
The Hantam is the general area north of Calvinia in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It’s an arid area, and poorly covered in biodiversity surveys. C...
What’s the value of a photo?
The take home message has to be that the value of photographic records to biodiversity mapping at the species level, as done by the Virtual Museum, is massive.
Industrial biodiversity 1 : Epping Industria I
What motivates this blog on industrial biodiversity? Well, the BDI took occupation of its unit in Epping Industria I on Monday this past week. Director Pete Lav...
Why studying African birds’ varied migration patterns is so important
A white-throated swallow, one of several intra-African migratory birds. Photo credit: MartinMaritz/Shutterstock -oo0oo- Les Underhill recently published this pi...
Birds and barbed wire
Birds and barbed wire – by Les Underhill Barbed wire was invented in America in the 1860s, and used to keep cattle inside of camps, or outside of crops. W...