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This
week’s Science Update is the first in a planned series about the importance of
data quality. For Snapshot Wisconsin to produce quality information for
wildlife management decision support we must have reliable, high quality data.
Our
first Data Quality Science Update is focused on Date/Time errors. The Snapshot
Wisconsin team has devoted a lot of effort over the last few months on
correcting date/time errors on our photos. These corrections are only possible
when trail camera hosts remember to enter the camera check events prior to
uploading their photo batches. Currently, volunteers are entering their check
events 88% of the time, we would like to increase this number to 100%.
Date/time
errors happen for many reasons. First, for unknown reasons, the trail cameras
sometimes reset to an incorrect date and time on their own. This has been the
case in 8% of batches to date. These photo batches had to be truncated to
remove photos with incorrect dates and times.
Second,
volunteers may forget to set the date/time, or set it incorrectly. Camera hosts
are in general doing a great job setting the date and time. However, we have
found that in 5% of batches, the date and time was either not set at all, the
date was off by 1-2 days or years, or the time was set without remembering the
24-hour clock so the camera time was off by 12 hours.
In
the above issues (13% of batches), the camera check events were consulted to
either make a date/time correction or determine what dates to use for
truncating the batch to keep only usable photos. Unfortunately, 3% of Snapshot
Wisconsin photo batches are not usable because the trail camera host did not enter
their camera check event.
Please remember to
enter your camera check event in your MySnapshot account prior to uploading
your photos. For help with this please refer to the camera manual you received in
your volunteer packet, or find an updated copy under the Resources tab of your
MySnapshot account.
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For all of our trail camera hosts who have been accepted into the project but haven't completed training yet, we have 3 in person training sessions scheduled for June. Check your email from an invitation sent from DNRSnapshotWisconsin@Wisconsin.gov. Sessions are being offered in Lac du Flambeau, Ashland and Madison.
Stay tuned next month for our announcement of training sessions offered through Fall 2018.
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If you have access to at least 10 acres of land in Racine, Rusk,
Crawford, Richland, Douglas, Ashland or Price County please consider signing up to host a Snapshot Wisconsin camera. We have a goal of having 20 cameras in each of our open counties and have fallen a bit short in these 7 counties. To sign up please visit www.snapshotwisignup.org. We will provide training and equipment and the trail camera host is the first person to see the photos from their camera(s).
We are always accepting applications in our open counties - for the full list please visit our webpage.
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The Snapshot Wisconsin team is proud to welcome Ally Magnin to the project, as our first Snapshot Wisconsin Intern. She will be helping us out over the summer with various Snapshot tasks. Ally is
a University of Wisconsin – Madison undergraduate student studying
Environmental Sciences with a certificate in Sustainability. She is from Oconto
Falls, WI and has grown up enjoying the outdoors. Her hobbies include
biking, horseback riding, kayaking, cross country and downhill skiing, and
snowmobiling. She also spends her time practicing and performing with the
University of Wisconsin Marching Band as a member of the drumline. Ally strives
to have a positive impact on the environment and she hopes to gain experience
in wildlife monitoring and conservation through her work with Snapshot
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Volunteers on our crowd sourcing site, SnapshotWisconsin.org are asked to classify certain deer behaviors along with the type of deer present. Check out this blog post discussing a recent article from NASA that utilizes data from these classifications.
The full article from NASA can be found here: Wisconsin's Deer Caught in the Act.
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Snapshot Wisconsin trail camera host, Tim Retaskie, sent us this close up video of a curious bear from one of his personal trail cameras in Bayfield County. No cameras were harmed in the making of this video but bears are our most common cause of camera damage.
Thanks Tim for sharing this interesting video with us!
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We will share one awesome animal photo each month. To enter one of your favorites from a Snapshot Wisconsin camera please send the image as a jpeg attachment with the animal classification, county location and date taken along with the reason why you love the image to DNRSnapshotWisconsin@wisconsin.gov.
This month's image was sent in by a trail camera host in Dane County and appears to show 2
screech owls mating. The volunteer submitted this photo because the likelihood of getting to see this is extremely small.
Contact Information for Snapshot Wisconsin
Phone: 608-572-6103
Participate on Zooniverse: www.SnapshotWisconsin.org
Find out more details on our webpage:
dnr.wi.gov Keyword "Snapshot Wisconsin
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