S4W Bushfires - Water and Food stations

Here are some commonly asked questions from volunteers. If your question is not answered here, try posting to our Talk page.

What are camera traps?
Camera traps are rugged outdoor cameras that are activated by motion. If an animal moves in front of the lens, the camera is triggered and takes a photo. We set up our camera traps to take three photos when triggered, each ten seconds apart, so that we have a greater chance of being able to identify the animals in the photos. This set of three related images is called a photo event. Sometimes the cameras can also be triggered by things like leaves, leading to a set of “empty” photos.

Can I use Zooniverse without signing up for an account?
Yes, you can use Zooniverse and classify pictures without an account but having an account will open up additional useful features. These include commenting on our forum and keeping a tally of how many classifications you have done!

Do I need to know a lot about animals to help with this project?
No, but knowing some of the common Australian animals will be useful! If you choose to help us classify our photos, we provide example pictures and a short description of most of the animals you may see. And if you are uncertain about your classification, you can indicate this during the process. Further, all pictures will be classified multiple times by different people, so while you should endeavour to correctly ID all the animals, if you make a mistake, we should be able to figure it out. We have also provided a link to the Australian Museum in the Field Guide if you want help identifying animals.

Does an animal need to be in all photos in a photo event to be counted?
No. If an animal only appears in one of the photos, then we still want that to be counted. We also want to know the total number of animals seen in a photo event. For example, if you see one Magpie in the first two photos but then two Magpies in the third photo, you should count this as two Magpies in the photo event. You might even see one animal in the first photo, then a different species of animal in the 2nd or 3rd photo. We’d like all the animals in the sequence of 3 photos identified

I don’t know what species is in the photo event.
That’s fine! It can be hard to interpret camera trap images. If you think you know what species it is but are not confident, then you should select that species and indicate you are uncertain. If you have no idea what species it is, but you can identify what group the animal belongs to (e.g. mammal), then select “Unknown mammal” or “Unknown bird”. If you can’t even tell if it’s a mammal or bird, then select “Unidentifiable”

The species in the photo event is not listed as an option.
We provide a list of animals that you are most likely to see, but you may see something not on our list! If this is the case, choose “Other mammal” or “Other bird”. If you know what species it is, then select "Done & Talk" on the last task and make a comment on that photo's discussion board.

I think I’ve seen the same photo event multiple times?
Zooniverse will not normally repeat the same photo events for registered users (another advantage to creating an account). However, you may see a photo event more than once if all other photos have been classified by the set number of people and therefore, we are “running out” of photos. Also, sometimes photos look identical but they were actually taken at different times (this can often happen if there is a lot of vegetation in front of the camera triggering it constantly). If you’re sure you’re seeing the same images again, then don’t identify them more than twice. It’s better if different people look at each photo because if everyone agrees we can be sure of the ID, if several people don’t agree we know it’s a tricky one we need to check.

There are many animals in this photo event, should I count every one?
Yes! We want you to count all the individuals for each species in the photo event. For large groups of animals, you can select “10 or more”.

Why am I seeing so many "empty" photos?
Camera traps are often triggered by things other than animals, and this leads to "empty" photos. We used an AI program called MegaDetector to detect these false-trigger photos, resulting in over 75% of the photos being discarded! However, because we don't want to miss any animals we set the program with a conservative cut-off value, and so there are still some empty photos to be classified.

How can I tell the difference between the macropods (wallabies and kangaroos)?
There are three macropods we would expect to see in our study area: swamp wallaby, red-necked wallaby, and eastern grey kangaroo. The swamp wallabies are the easiest to tell apart as they are very small, generally very dark (hard to tell at night though) and have a very obvious thick white chin stripe that is noticeable against their dark fur. The red-necked wallaby and eastern grey kangaroo are trickier, as they have more similar colouring - but the eastern greys really are quite uniformly grey. Red-necked wallabies often have a dark stripe down their face which can be a nice thing to look out for.

In general, the most obvious difference between kangaroos and wallabies is their size, with kangaroos being substantially larger than wallabies - but there is often no height reference in the photos. A good thing to look at is their legs, and the length between their knee and ankle. Kangaroos have a much larger length between knee and ankle, making them look like they have disproportionately large legs.

Below are photos (look for the red stripe I've added in) to show where this obvious leg size difference is:
Red-necked wallaby

Eastern grey kangaroo

Here are a couple of websites that go over these differences:
www.dw.com
www.echidnawalkabout.com.au

If you are really unsure, then you can categorise the animal as "Unknown macropod".

Where can I find more information about Science for Wildlife?
You can find some basic information about Science for Wildlife in the “About” section, but if you want more information then go to our website (scienceforwildlife.org) or follow us on Facebook (Facebook.com/ScienceForWildlife) and Instagram (Instagram.com/ScienceForWildlife). You can also ask us questions on our Talk page and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

My question has not been answered, what do I do?
You can ask questions in the “Talk” tab and the Science for Wildlife team, and maybe even other users, can help you. If your question is regarding a specific photo, then when you are in the classification task, click the blue “Done and Talk” button on the photo you are having trouble with.