Chimp & See Talk

Animal Selfies

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Calling all Chimp&See citizen scientists, we are working on a new project and need your help!

    Thanks to your awesome #selfie and #camera_reaction finds such as http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP0006vvi (baboon) and http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP00073yb (chimp), I will be starting a new project looking at the behavioural response to camera-traps from different primate species (and the very clever elephants too!). The aim will be to investigate whether differences in behaviour reflect species-typical personality traits or whether local environmental factors have a greater influence on an individual’s response to the camera. Importantly, these camera-traps represent new and strange objects in the natural habitat of these animals; therefore this project will be interesting not only for animal behaviour research, but also for what we can learn about the application of camera-traps for monitoring these species in the wild.

    So… can you help me out? You’ve already begun to do this but I would need a more systematic examination of videos with baboons, gorillas, chimpanzees and also elephants. You have already been using #camera_reaction and #selfie (and these are pretty interchangeable) but if you are having trouble deciding what to use, here is what would be the most helpful:
    #camera_reaction: (from the field guide) Animal is directly reacting to the presence of the video camera. The animal can be staring at the camera while being interested or wary, or poking at the camera. Sometimes you will see an animal look into the camera, walk by it, and then jostle the camera from behind, causing the video to shake.
    #selfie: If at least one animal in the clip looks directly, face forward at the camera like the example videos above. This is slightly different from #camera_reaction, because the animal does not have to react in any other way to the camera-trap other than just looking directly at it.

    NEW HASTAG #camtouch (please also tag these as #selfie when you can see the animals face) : when individuals are quite bold and unafraid and even touch and interact with the camera. How to get started?

    1. Go through the chimp video list (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VuVWXWdZHB6p11qpCxIweWFstwgFavT1e5iazqajrlQ/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0)

    2. Go through the primate video list ([https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Mf8GlpPoD-AHABSyLnPAFC1uPBkXCwyuAzL5uD3SVrU/edit#gid=1708400825]) (if people can add to the species name list or mark the videos as #need_id if they aren’t sure of the species as they go through this list – that would be incredible!)
      Keep in mind for baboons we expect to find #guinea #baboon, #olive #baboon and #yellow #baboon. I will add a description of the yellow baboon, Papio cynocephalus, soon to our field guide but for a detailed description visit http://pin.primate.wisc.edu/factsheets/entry/yellow_baboon.

    3. Go through the elephant collection (http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/collections/CCPL000007)
      There are so many clips of these primates and elephants so having more and more videos tagged for this behaviour across the sites will be incredibly helpful.

    Thanks for all your efforts with this special project!

    • the Chimp&See Science Team

    Guinea baboon selfie

    Posted

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Hi everyone! Just wanted to say how amazing you all are! In just a few hours you have identified so many #selfie and #camtouch and #camera_reaction clips! Thi is super awesome!!!!
    Just to clarify, use #camtouch when you can clearly see that the individual has touched the camera, if you do not see the finger or face touch it on the screen use additional indirect cues such as when the camera visibly moves.
    Thanks again 😃

    Posted

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Hi all, just to follow up because I've been asked recently what is the best way forward for organizing how we work on this project.
    Firstly if you check out this link here:

    http://www.chimpandsee.org/identified-chimps/

    Here you have per site, the updated list per clip of all tags, including other primate species ids. The first group of sites is for other primate, and the second for chimpanzees.

    I would suggest that users first check these lists to get an idea of which clips are missing baboon identifications, or #selfie/#camera_reaction hashtags, and then to revisit these clips and classify them for the missing species ID and to check for the 'selfie' behaviour. Then if we could do the same for the chimpanzee data that would be super!

    IMPORTANT: Dry Lake 11 and Quiet Wood 1 (maybe a few) are the only sites so far that I expect to find baboons, so only for these two do we need to revisit the clips. All other sites with baboons are yet to be uploaded. Chimps are at every site 😃

    Of course this all works based on the generosity of each of you for devoting your time and efforts so you are welcome to work as you prefer! I just ask if you do decide to make a more targeted effort for finding the 'Animal Selfies' it would be great if you could respond to this post and identify what site and/or species you are working on. Or if you just want to do the first 100 or so clips of chimps for a site, that's also great and you can write it up here that you've updated that. This way others can work out what is still needed and we can work together in the most efficient way possible.

    Thanks again for all your hard work, you are an amazing group of citizen scientists!

    Posted

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Also just a note for clarification, #camera_reaction, #camtouch, or #selfie will mean that the clip will be used in further analyses. So whether you tag a video as having 1, 2 or all 3 of these hashtags I will be including it in the project so it is not as important to review clips that already have such tags unless you just want to be extra thorough 😃

    Posted

  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Thanks Ammie! I am super excited for this project!!!

    I just want to remind everyone who is participating - while you are going through the primate list if you can also tag the primate species you observe that would be wonderful! and we can cross two 'Ts' with one stroke of the pen

    as a reminder the primate guide is here with all the appropriate tags: http://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/boards/BCP000000e/discussions/DCP00007sb

    Thank you, you wonderful Chimp&See citizen scientists!!!

    Posted

  • Snorticus by Snorticus

    I'm wondering if this entire elephant series is not one long camera reaction because the elephant seems to notice the strange object and cautiously make its way over to touch it.

    Magnificent #elephant at #DawnBird exciting! Series: ACP0007up5 ACP0007up9 ACP0007upc ACP0007upf

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  • jwidness by jwidness moderator

    AnLand went through most of the elephant collection, and I finished from where she left off.

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  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Hi everyone!

    With all the new users and new sites that have been added to Chimp&See I just wanted to take the chance to thank you for all the hard work you have put into hashtagging #camera_reaction, #camtouch, and #selfie. I can see there are many more videos of baboons, chimps, gorillas and elephants being tagged! Woohoo!

    I have noticed that at times videos are only tagged as camera reaction after they have been identified to the species level; so don't assume that just because something is as #chimp, #baboon, #elephant or #gorilla (the species of interest for this project) that it has no camera reaction - please double check the video to verify that a camera reaction or touch has not been missed! It is sometimes easy to overlook a subtle camera reaction, i.e. an individual just staring at the camera, so having multiple users look at a clip can help us to ensure that we haven’t missed any 😃 which is the power of citizen science! So thanks for double (and triple) checking!

    Thanks again for your wonderful support of this project and please feel free to ask me any questions!

    Posted

  • etaylor16 by etaylor16

    I love the animal selfies! I just wanted to say thanks for all of your hard work in tagging and hashtagging those pictures! I'm working on a Citizen Science project at Lauralton Hall in Milford, CT, and I'm observing chimp behaviors based on the regions and areas they're in. Your work has helped me to find so many videos of animal interactions! Keep it up!

    Posted

  • AnLand by AnLand moderator

    Hi @etaylor16,

    I am glad you like our work and the great camera reaction footage. So, what are your favorite videos here on Chimp & See? We are happy to discuss them with you.

    Thanks for getting involved!

    Posted

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Calling all Chimp&See enthusiasts: Update on the Animal Selfies Project!

    Great job so far everyone! Just want to say thanks for all your efforts in finding and hashtagging the chimpanzee, gorilla, elephant, and baboon videos with a #camera_reaction, #camtouch, and/or #selfie 😃

    To date, we have 190 chimp camera reactions, 22 gorilla camera reactions, a whopping 415 baboon camera reactions, and 94 elephant camera reactions!!!!

    If you were wondering, the #camera_reaction tag seems to be most popular and intuitive to users, so perhaps using that moving forward is best, along with #camtouch for those individuals who become physically interactive with the camera. But feel free to always add #selfie when you find a superb shot such as this one: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP0004tfv.

    Some additional examples of really nice (a few of my favourites!) #camera_reaction’s that you might find helpful when looking at new videos:

    A curious gorilla gets up-close and personal: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP000cebo

    A cautious female chimpanzee steals quick, clear glances towards the camera: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP000aum6

    A wary young elephant retreats after detecting the camera: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP000bgq8

    enter image description here

    Also here are a couple examples that are NOT camera reactions but illustrate how difficult it can be to sometimes be certain. Hopefully they help for future hash taggers.

    Olive baboons feeding on figs: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP000asim
    This is not a camera reaction because the baboon is looking towards the conspecific that arrives from same direction as the camera. If you are ever unsure of whether a camera reaction has occurred and there is a conspecific present near the camera too, just post under the video and feel free to ask me 

    Preoccupied Olga: https://talk.chimpandsee.org/#/subjects/ACP0002v34
    It seems as if Olga might have looked at the camera but she is looking around everywhere and seems preoccupied with feeding at the moment, doesn’t appear as if she really took notice of the camera even though she glances in that direction, so I would not tag this as a camera reaction.

    I hope these examples have helped and feel free to post here if you have any questions!
    Thanks again for your interest and help with this project! Chimp&See has an amazing community of talented citizen scientists 😃

    enter image description here

    -The Chimp&See Science team

    Posted

  • MimiA by MimiA scientist, moderator

    Update on the project on our blog! chimpandsee.blogspot.com/2016/10/halloween-countdown-day-1-update-on-our.html

    Posted

  • akalan by akalan scientist

    Hi everyone!

    I’d like to take a moment to update you about the animal selfies project.

    First of all, I want to thank you all for assisting me with this project by finding and tagging all camera reactions. It is a tremendous help to not only annotate the camera reactions in the classification step, but also tagging them here on Talk to allow discussions about the videos and to build tag group collections.
    Volunteers have already tagged almost 200 elephant camera reactions from all sites, 42 camera reactions of gorillas, more than 800 camera reactions from chimps, and many more curious baboons. This is amazing!!! We now have a solid and ever growing database for looking at how wild animals respond to camera-traps.
    enter image description here

    As new volunteers are joining the project all the time and others might have forgotten, I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone on the purpose of this project and how you can help. I am looking into the camera reactions of chimps and gorillas (foremost) and of baboons and elephants (secondarily). I am investigating behavioral differences towards the cameras on the individual level and across different communities and sites, as well as species. The baboon and elephant data will be coded and analyzed in a second step since it is necessary to identify elephants and baboons individually (or at least to the group level) as we do it here at Chimp&See with chimps and gorillas. At the moment, this is not possible – so the apes have priority – but this will hopefully be accomplished later. Therefore, tags and videos from more sites here at Chimp&See with those four species can always be incorporated in future studies.

    I am specifically asking for your help to tag all camera reactions of these species (chimps, gorillas, baboons, and elephants) with #camera_reaction or #selfie, and to add #camtouch, if the camera is touched. An important step in this process is to also make sure that the species #chimp, #gorilla, #baboon, #elephant, and the site name, e.g., #GreenSnowflake, is tagged too.

    Thank you again for all your help! If you have any questions, please ask them here!

    Posted