BackyardBio's Journal

May 21, 2021

Global Biodiversity Festival!

Hey BackyardBio-ers! Thanks so much for such special contributions as part of our first international effort with this campaign! It's been so thrilling seeing such lovely wildlife shots from over 25 countries on 6 continents so far :)

As a nice compliment to your efforts to get out and spread awareness for wild creatures, consider joining us for free at the Global Biodiversity Festival! We started yesterday and will be rolling for another 55+ straight hours of epic broadcasts with some of the world's top conservationists!

Tune in and learn more at https://www.globalbiofest.com/

Posted on May 21, 2021 02:36 PM by jessehildebrand jessehildebrand | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 17, 2021

BackyardBio - A ‘Sight’ To Behold!

May 17, 2021

Greetings Fellow Nature Lovers!

The big day is coming up quickly. May 22nd, International Day For Biological Diversity - We’re part of the solution #ForNature.

If someone had have told me last year that I would love taking pictures of bugs, birds, butterflies, and other insects or animals for a biodiversity event taking place the month of May 2021, I would have said – YES, You’re Right! I love being part of BackyardBio’s inspiring and invigorating program that gets kids/teachers and all sorts of people out learning more about their own backyard’s flora and fauna and how they can take part in learning how to preserve it for future generations.

I’m Fran Duthie, and I am the President and Co-Founder of Elephanatics, an elephant nonprofit organization in Vancouver, Canada. The mission of our organization, elephanatics.org, is to assist global elephant conservation efforts by educating Canadians about issues of ivory poaching, habitat loss, and the continued exploitation of elephants by humans, and to connect Canadians directly with elephant conservation partners in Africa and Asia.

I hope everyone is enjoying this fantastic event as much as I am and posting as many critters as they can find. Appreciating and bringing awareness to the importance of each and every species and the role they play in keeping ecosystems in balance is critical for our own survival. The term ‘circle of life’ couldn’t be more fitting in that we are all part of this grand design and ultimately, responsible for the upkeep!

Two years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the Mara Elephant Project in the Maasai Mara, in Kenya. MEP is an elephant organization based in the Mara that protects elephants to conserve the greater Mara ecosystem. I got to see, first hand, elephants, hippos, lions, and a cacophony of other animals co-existing in their natural surroundings. It was surreal! Dr. Jake Wall, a Co-Founder of Elephanatics, works for Mara Elephant Project and was gracious enough to provide us with a tour of their facility and visit some of the elephants he has collared for tracking. His job entails enhancing the protection of elephants and the habitat in which they and other wildlife depend; a huge job given the ramifications of Covid and lack of tourism causing immeasurable economic damage to so many conservancies and elephant organizations over this past year. Our trip was an experience beyond words and a trip of a lifetime never to be duplicated.

The importance of elephants for biodiversity cannot be underestimated. Elephants are a keystone species in that they help maintain forest and savannah ecosystems for other species and are integrally tied to rich biodiversity. They modify their environments by tearing down trees and dense grasslands making room for smaller species to exist and they create water holes used by other wildlife. Their dung is responsible for the dispersal of up to 35 different types of tree seeds. Because so many other animals rely on different types of plants this promotes species biodiversity by creating new niches for organisms to inhabit. This is why they are referred to as ‘ecological engineers'. Elephants are not only magnificent, intelligent, compassionate, and family-oriented animals, they are also climate change mitigators. Elephant herds that dwell in forests help sequester more atmospheric CO2. They do so by feeding on fast-growing plants in more open spaces, which facilitates the spread of slow-growing trees with higher wood density. These plants are better at sequestering carbon from the air.

For teachers or educators who are interested in learning more about the importance of the elephant to climate change and biodiversity, please refer to:

https://elephanatics.org/education/intermediate-lessons/
Lesson plan #4 – One mouthful at a time: How Forest Elephants Fight Climate Change

Quick Facts:

• Within the past century the African elephant population has decreased by 96 percent, from 10 million in 1930 to a few hundred thousand today.
• In the last forty years, elephant habitat has decreased by nearly two-thirds largely due to human activities.
• The International Union for Conservation of Nature - IUCN - has updated its red list of threatened species to include the African elephant. It is now split into two different categories with the Savannah elephant classified as endangered and the forest elephant classified as critically endangered. It highlights a broad scale decline in African elephant numbers across the continent. The number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years, while the population of African savanna elephants decreased by at least 60% over the last 50 years, according to the assessments.

Loss of biodiversity is also greatly affected by wildlife trafficking, wildlife markets, poaching, and hunting. Live animal markets are a major source of new viruses including ones that cause zoonotic diseases, such as Covid, that are transmitted between species. We are living today with the results of our actions due to the mistreatment of our environment through our continued commodification of wildlife and nature. Wildlife is being hunted and poached to extinction for fake medicine, trophies, pets, and exotic food. There is a finite number of elephants and other species available for exploitation. We need a ban on markets trading in wildlife and a ban on the domestic and commercial trade of elephant ivory in order to address the all-encompassing loss of biodiversity. Please sign our petition at: change.org/IvoryFreeCanada.

Taking part in #BackyardBio has given me the opportunity to be able to assist in connecting schools in Vancouver BC, with schools in Africa, as well as other areas globally. We have connected schools in San Diego and Vancouver with schools in Kenya and Zambia. We hope these schools continue to connect throughout the year and make it a monthly event to compare their respective flora and fauna, or just to say hi and learn more about each other’s culture and life experiences. How fun would that be!

We would also hope that teachers/educators take advantage of our free education lesson plans that are written for both the US and Canadian curriculums. https://elephanatics.org/education/

Nature is all around us waiting to be explored. As David Attenborough so eloquently states - "It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. ...

It’s up to all of us to be the caretakers of our world. Let’s keep exploring and sharing and making nature part of our daily routine as something to be acknowledged and respected and not just something to be taken for granted. Everything has worth and should be recognized for its place in the wheel of life.

Thank you, Jesse Hilderbrand, for creating an event that piques the interest of the inner child and encourages everyone to be a willing participant in restoring our planet for the betterment of all. I’ve had a blast taking pictures with my grandsons and preparing them to become future stewards of our planet's biodiversity, as well as getting schools and students involved globally in the fun.

Looking forward to May 22nd. Enjoy the rest of the month everyone!

Fran

Posted on May 17, 2021 08:39 PM by dogz444 dogz444 | 0 comments | Leave a comment

May 2, 2021

And we're off!

BackyardBio officially kicked off yesterday on Saturday May 1st and we've already had over 2800 observations submitted of nearly 1400 species in 9 countries! A marvellous beginning to what should be an epic month of celebrating and showcasing the natural world!

A reminder too that any and all participants are also welcome to share on any social media platform with #backyardbio and for classrooms to connect via the BackyardBio website which also has a slew of resources to keep the learning going!

Posted on May 2, 2021 03:38 PM by jessehildebrand jessehildebrand | 0 comments | Leave a comment

April 1, 2021

One month to go!

We are in the home stretch leading up to the exciting kickoff of BackyardBio!

Thus far we have over 140 groups and classrooms registered to be connected with one another from 9 countries internationally and the real partner engagement and advertising is yet to officially begin! Should be a very exciting time :)

In the lead up to the festivities I have and will be hosting a series of Youtube live programs highlighting how folks can get involved - and you can check them out at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nflgo3puOFo&t=228s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAZEC0CnwMY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnKV3U9AeN8

We're hoping to get hundreds of new families and classrooms registered on INaturalist over the course of the month to broaden the reach of this fantastic platform! So come join me in celebrating local bioidiversity and get out there!

-Jesse

Posted on April 1, 2021 03:46 PM by jessehildebrand jessehildebrand | 0 comments | Leave a comment

March 11, 2021

Nature is everywhere!

My name is Susan Hewitt and I live in New York City. I have been fascinated by nature since I was a little child in England. I grew up at the edge of the suburbs of London, and these days I live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in NYC, in the US.

I wanted to encourage everyone to bear in mind that nature is everywhere, even within the concrete canyons of the big city. You just have to look really carefully, and really thoroughly, and eventually you will start to notice all kinds of different organisms. And iNaturalist can help you work out what those organisms are, if you yourself sometimes have no idea what you are seeing.

Here in NYC we will be moving into Spring very soon (March 20th will be the first day of spring), and right now we are having a few warm days, perhaps to get us used to the idea that winter is going to be saying goodbye. However, our spring is rather slow and rather late compared to some other parts of the Northern Hemisphere, especially those places that are further south than we are, so it will take a while before everything looks spring-like here in NYC.

In cities I usually recommend that people look around really carefully in parks and gardens (basically that means almost any square, rectangle, or triangle of green that you can see on the map) to discover what you can find that is wild. Not everything in parks and gardens is planted or intended to be there.

If your city is on a river, or on a coastline or estuary, there are almost certainly also a few places where you can safely get down close to the water, and in those places you can maybe find some evidence of what organisms live in that water, and which wild plants like to live next to the water.

I hope you can enjoy nature as much as I do. It's all a lot of fun to find -- birds, fungi, weeds, wildflowers, insects, spiders, other creepy crawlies, seashells, seaweeds, crabs. It's mostly outdoors of course, but in addition to the outdoors, a number of interesting kinds of (mostly quite small) critters live in basements and dusty corners of your home.

Good luck! Have fun!

Yes, nature is everywhere!

Posted on March 11, 2021 09:23 PM by susanhewitt susanhewitt | 4 comments | Leave a comment

March 1, 2021

Two months till we go live!

A happy March to all of you and welcome to the countdown in the lead up to our BackyardBio global nature campaign!

Building off the success of our September pilot project we've gone bigger than ever - inviting museums, zoos, conservation groups and a wide array of teachers worldwide into the fun. With partners on six continents we're poised to make this one of the largest nature campaigns on the planet!

And while INaturalist will play a huge role as we roll out the campaign, people can get involved in other ways too! On social media with #backyardbio people can share images on twitter, facebook and instagram! And, through the BackyardBio Website people can learn about how they can connect their group with others worldwide to share their biodiversity images and stories directly!

Be sure to check out our sub-campaign on The International Day for Biodiversity -May 22nd - where through the INaturalist "Snapshot of Life" campaign we're trying to paint a comprehensive picture of life on earth through images from communities internationally! Check it out at our project page

Join in today! And bring your friends! The more people we have out exploring the more fantastic wildlife we'll discover together!

Posted on March 1, 2021 02:17 PM by jessehildebrand jessehildebrand | 0 comments | Leave a comment

September 26, 2020

Black in Nature

Hi everyone!

I’m Peter Soroye, and I love being outdoors exploring and looking for cool plants and animals (both big and small). Nature has always been my favourite place to be. When I was a kid growing up in Northern Ontario, I spent many happy days outside in the small woods near my parents’ house, building forts, digging up bugs, and listening to the birds. In the summer when school was out, my parents used to take my siblings and I to Algonquin Park, sometimes for weeks at a time, and we would constantly be hiking, biking, canoeing, and exploring the beautiful park. Being immersed in the outdoors gave me a huge love and appreciation for the animals and plants that lived there, and started me on the path to becoming a conservation biologist (https://www.petersoroye.com/).

I’ve loved exploring nature and the outdoors since I was a little kid, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that because of the color of my skin, this was really surprising for some people. Apparently, Black naturalists and outdoors-people are a rare species. There is a reason for this: historically, Black people (and other minorities) have been deliberately excluded from nature and the outdoors. The effects of this exclusion are still visible today: look at any ad for an outdoor store, promotional images from a Park, or nature documentary, and you will struggle to find any Black faces. Nature should be for everyone regardless of your skin color, but to this day, it can be an unwelcoming place if you’re not white. I’ve had the pleasure to explore nature across the world, from BC and California, to Scotland and South Africa, and while my experience has overwhelmingly been awesome, I’ve also had to experience the surprise, dismissiveness, avoidance, and rare hostility that is sometimes directed towards black people enjoying the outdoors.

For me, the joy of exploring nature and appreciating the beautiful creatures in it far outweighs any feelings others might have of me being there. And this month’s Backyard Bio has been an incredibly fun time for exploring nature! While out discovering the wildlife in my (figurative) backyard, I’ve made some new friends and had a fun time exploring with some old ones as well. Some of these new and old friends were also Black, showing that we Black naturalists are not such a rare species after all!

More and more often, and especially though events like Backyard Bio or the #BlackInNature week that happened across social media this summer, I’m encountering naturalists and outdoors-people who don’t fit the traditional mold of a naturalist or outdoors-person. Organizations like Black Girl Outdoor World (https://www.facebook.com/Browngirloutdoorworld/) and KINxFOLK (https://www.kinxfolk.com/) are making spaces for these historically excluded people to enjoy nature, and more parks and companies are taking steps to make sure outdoor spaces and communities are truly welcoming for everyone.

Nature has always been my favorite place, and I’ll always love sharing that space with other people. If you’ve ever been curious about the world around you, take some time in this last week of Backyard Bio to record and share some of the beautiful and weird creatures around you. And if you’ve been going out for Backyard Bio already this month, use the last couple days to invite someone new out exploring with you. Let’s make sure that we’re doing our best to share the beauty and wonder that we experience exploring the outdoors with everyone.

See you in the wild!

Posted on September 26, 2020 10:23 PM by petersoroye petersoroye | 0 comments | Leave a comment

Herping in Virginia

Hello all Naturalists and Naturalists in training,

I am glad to see everyone getting out and posting some cool stuff! I am typically a Herper/Birder/Fisherman but I have been having an absolute BALL submitting as many species as possible for September Bioblitz of several sorts. I just wanted to share some of my expertise and experiences from this month to our inspiring Herpers.

First off, "Herp" is short for Herpetofauna, which is the Latin term for any organism that is a Reptile or Amphibian. In Virginia these would be Turtles, Snakes, Lizards, Salamanders, and Frogs. September is a month where everything is starting to wind down before the cold soon to come. My main targets in September are the salamanders, as they are not too bothered by the cooler temperatures, but several snakes are moving right now as well. Female Copperheads are searching for locations to birth their 3-21 live young. These snakes are venomous, so caution should be taken in approaching this species, but this species is not going to chase anyone, but will strike if it is irritated. My advise is, DO NOT, UNDER ANY CONDITION, SHOULD YOU APPROACH ANY SNAKE UNLESS SOMEONE THAT ABSOLUTELY KNOWS SNAKES SAYS IT IS SAFE.

So, lets talk about salamanders. Salamanders are some of my favorite animals. They are incredibly diverse, and there are numerous rare species. I spent some time this month chasing some incredible and rare species in Virginia. So, I wanna share a few of my experiences this month, so you all may learn some tips to find some of these amazing animals.

I kicked off the month in the coastal plains with @koaw and had some incredible animals. For starters we had a juvenile Carpenter Frog (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58347426) and Mud Sunfish (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58347366). Both of which are rare species in the state that lives in very few of the swamps. I was happy with that, until later, as we were walking the road on that wet night, we found a rare Atlantic Coast Slimy Salamander in the road (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/58347578). Now, first I must caution anyone who is road herping, that this can be dangerous. Keep in mind there is hundreds of people, some of which are not paying attention (texting, speeding, distracted, or any other driving malfeasance), driving 1,000+ pound machines at high rates of speed. Practice extreme caution. Herping from road though yields many, good herps.

My second trip I was actually targeting salamanders with my bestfriend @easpears , most importantly the Shenandoah Salamander. This salamander is extremely rare, and only found on the north ridge of three mountains. They are living in direct competition with Eastern Red-backed Salamanders, which are common and winning the competition. We searched the north side of one of the mountains which they are found, and found many Eastern Red-backed Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59968057). Finally, I found a small over hang in a talus slope, where water had clearly been running off. Salamanders require wet areas, as they have permeable skin. So, I flipped one rock here, and found a beautiful Shenandoah curled up underneath (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/59939917).

This week we went down to the Cumberland Plateau. We had several great Salamanders. Flipping Rocks in the creek gave us several species such as Black Mountain Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60670561), Long-tailed Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60669044), and the third state record of Kentucky Spring Salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60663214). We searched in the cracks of the rock walls as well, and found several more awesome species. This technique yielded Cumberland Plateau Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60670702), Northern Slimy Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60671116), and Green Salamanders (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60669813). Now, be cautious when handling salamanders. Their permeable skin can suck-up salts, oils, and perfumes from your hands and insert them in the animal's blood stream. This intern can poison the animal, and cause it to die. So, if you have to handle salamanders use a clean, wet hand. I recommend using a container like a clear, plastic cup. You will see in many of my observations, I have plastic sauce cups I use, and they are great.

On my way home, we swung by White Top Mountain. Here we searched the creeks and found this gorgeous Black-bellied Salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60714013). This salamander is the reason I like using clear containers, as you can clearly see the black belly of the animal. I recommend, when submitting a salamander to iNat, take a photo of the top, side, and bottom of the animal. This should yield the best ID results. Other great salamanders included Northern Gray-cheeked Salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60712652), Blue Ridge Two-lined Salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60713237), and the rare Weller's Salamander (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/60712705). All of which were under logs.

So, get out there, and safely explore! Carefully flip logs, rocks, and boards; and find some cool stuff! Thanks for the opportunity to help all the wonderful students and thanks to the Naturalist across the globe helping as well.

Posted on September 26, 2020 03:47 AM by tysmith tysmith | 1 comment | Leave a comment

September 25, 2020

Don't forget to look down!

Hey BackyardBio kids! I hope you’re having a great time getting out there and opening your eyes to the natural world around you. There are just five days left of this month’s project, so let’s get cranking on some observations and IDs!

I admit, I spend most of my time looking up for birds, but this project has made me realize how many living things there are out there… and you don’t have to look far, you just have to look down! I usually go for a short walk, and failing to a bird sitting still long enough for a photo, I think “Well, nothing to see today.” But I have watched as other project naturalists have posted hundreds upon hundreds of plants, moths, butterflies, grasses, trees and insects. I also realized how much there is for me to learn!

For example, look at the project observations from @thebeachcomber. Tiny little flowers as small as your fingernail! So beautiful, yet I would probably walk by not even noticing. And what is even cooler is that Mr. Mesaglio’s observations are from Australia! We’ve had opportunity to learn about the living organisms in a part of the world most of us won’t see.

© Photographer: Thomas Mesaglio | iNat Observation: 60696720

And what about @tysmith… he’s been flipping every rock in Virginia this month and showed us eighteen different species of salamanders along with hundreds of other observations. Again, I probably would have walked right on by those rock piles and rotting logs thinking, “Well, there’s nothing to see here.”

© Photographer: Ty Smith | iNat Observation: 60670239

And this thing from @hawksthree??? I don't even know what the heck that is!!!

© Photographer: Scott Wright | iNat Observation: 60627066

So don’t get frustrated when your out the next few days thinking, "There's nothing to see here." Don't forget to look down and examine the details. Let’s see what you can find! And don't forget to look at the BackyardBio Project Observations and see if you can identify anything.

Posted on September 25, 2020 03:03 PM by williamwisephoto williamwisephoto | 5 comments | Leave a comment

September 22, 2020

Nature Around Home

Hi Everybody!

My name is Quinten Wiegersma, and I am a passionate naturalist and an avid user of iNaturalist. Although I have been in love with the outdoors my entire life, it wasn’t until I was eleven, probably around the age some of you guys are, that I was bitten by the bug to start systematically recording what I saw. My first love was the same as many naturalists, birds. Although I had casually watched birds for many years prior, it wasn’t until I discovered eBird (https://ebird.org/home, another great website for you to check out!) that my interest in birding really started. About a year later, I decided it was time to start learning about other things in nature, so I chose to look at butterflies, dragonflies, and damselflies. I was amazed at the diversity that could be seen right around where I lived! In 2018, I started to use iNaturalist, and that’s where my love for all things nature really took off. All of a sudden, I had a place to learn about what I was seeing! Since then, it has completely dominated my life. I expanded my interests far beyond what they originally were, adding botany (study of plants), moths, fishes, fungi, mammals, more insects, and so much more to my radar. I absolutely love it! My passions have taken me to some amazing places, such as the coast of James Bay with the James Bay Shorebird Project (https://www.jamesbayshorebirdproject.com/), and I have met many amazing people along the way!

Despite being to so many incredible places, one thing that continues to surprise me as much as it did years ago, is just how much can be seen right outside your front door.

For the last couple of years, I have undertaken the task of documenting the species that can be found in my neighbourhood. I have utilised iNat to do so by creating a project (https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/uplands-study-area) So far, I have recorded over 1800 species, which I think is quite spectacular! In fact, right in my own suburban backyard I have recorded over 1000 species of living things! The best part is, as I learn more about nature, I continue to discover new things!

So, how does one find nature right around where they live? The answer is simple. Go outside! There is no right or wrong way to discover the great outdoors. There certainly are ways to enhance your experience, such as with an insect net for catching bugs, or setting up a white sheet and a UV light for moths and other nighttime insects (I have recorded almost 550 moth species right in my own backyard using this method!) The key is also to visit the same locations many (many) times, and in different seasons. Nature is a year round show!

Exploring your local area is very rewarding, and can very often yield some surprises. Whether it be an uncommon plant, a super cool bug, or a rare bird—this spring I found the globally rare Kirtland’s Warbler (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/46225992) with about 3600 birds left in the world! There is always something to see

Nature can be found anywhere you look. While not everyone may be as lucky as I am to have some decent quality woodlots close at hand, maybe pay attention to the "weeds" growing in sidewalk cracks, flip some rocks in your garden, or go on an indoor safari! Give some love to the spiders that make webs in the corner of your room. Even after this challenge is done, I hope your local explorations don't come to a stop! Please continue to upload your findings to iNaturalist. I look forward to seeing them! Good luck everyone!

Posted on September 22, 2020 02:32 PM by birds_bugs_botany birds_bugs_botany | 3 comments | Leave a comment