Numbat Discovery

Getting to know Western Australian fauna

Can you see an animal but have no idea what it is? Go to the buttons above the name choices and see if you can narrow the possibilities down based on the animal's body shape, colour or coat pattern. Many of our native fauna are mainly nocturnal so you may often only get night images, colour can be obscured during night shots, but coat pattern and body shape can often still be discernible. Peruse the field guide on the right hand side of the main screen. We know that sometimes it is not easy to see what an animal is particularly if it moves quickly or you can only see part of an animal. But do your best and make your best judgement on what you think it might be.

I don’t know what it is, please can we have a “don’t know” button

Can't tell what the animal is because it moved too fast or only part of the animal is visible? Don't worry, take your best guess using clues such as its size and whether it has fur, feathers or scales. This will tell us if it is a mammal, bird or reptile and from its size you may be able to narrow it down to a few possibilities. Twenty different volunteers will view the subject and if we receive a wide variety of answers it will highlight the need for that subject to be reviewed by one of our researchers. We left out the 'I don't know' button because we really want you to guess!

Size

Many of our macropods can look the same, particularly if you are not used to seeing them. But their size, colour and tail shape can often be a clue to what they may be. If it is medium to large animal it maybe a wallaby (up to 9.0 kg or 17.5 lb) or kangaroo (54 kg or 120 lb). If its smaller maybe a woylie (up to 1.8 kg).

Joey in the pouch

For this project we are defining an infant as still living inside the pouch, not fully developed  (i.e. not fully furred and/or too weak to hop/run/climb effectively), and a juvenile as being fully developed (i.e. haired, able to walk/hop strongly etc), living entirely outside of the pouch but still clearly smaller than the adult (indicating that it is still dependent on its mother for survival).
We will ask you to identify the number of adults and juveniles in an series of images. Please do not count infants.

How high off the ground is the camera?

Cameras are set up as shown in Step 2 of the Project Tutorial. Cameras are ~30-40 cm from the ground.

When/How do I hashtag?

If you are 100% sure about your classification and the image is a particularly good or interesting one, you can click ‘Done & Talk’ after you have identified the species. You can then add one of the ‘popular tags’ shown on the right hand side of the Talk screen. When searched for, these popular tags can show interested users a wider range of examples of each species.

I don’t know what it is, can I choose “nothing”?

Please do not use the 'Nothing' option for images where clearly IS something, even when it is impossible to ID. Images classified as 'nothing' are only viewed by three volunteers and then removed from the classification process where they will wither away sad and alone. Images that are classified as an animal are seen by 20 volunteers. If there is no consensus on the species present, our researchers will have a closer look. So please don't be afraid of being incorrect; make your best guess. Even if incorrect, it will actually help!