Chicago Wildlife Watch Talk

Alarmed Animals

  • WillowSkye by WillowSkye

    Hey Hillbilly, you're a joker too,aren't you? Let me just get my new pair of spectacles to see if I can read between the lines here. The focus is a bit out, you know, what with all the "butt's" you posted, it's difficult to see straight.

    Anyway, I get what you're saying. Thanks for being so honest. Don't like the Afrikaans, do you? So, I asked one of my British friends to explain your "kitty" joke and now I've got that one too! Isn't it great 😃

    Should change your name to "Hillbully"

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  • WillowSkye by WillowSkye

    Go back to ACH000dpd9 - if the word "alarmed" was not the correct English terminology, what other word should I have used? Take a longer look into the eyes of the deer and tell me you don't see what I see? .... Fear.

    Please stop the bullying remarks. I want to continue working here. I don't want to be bullied out. If the so-called "Young Present" irritates you, why don't you follow the old adage "Children should be seen and not heard". The moderator, scientists and other nicer people are here to guide me out of my Ecological Ignorance. You don't have to do so by posting remarks, 'butts' and 'kitty-jokes' in my direction.

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  • DZM by DZM admin

    ... Hey, @WillowSkye -- what comments are you responding to?

    Were there comments that have been deleted? This board is not great about tracking such things.

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  • WillowSkye by WillowSkye

    Hi, no, they're still there. Look at ACH000axb2 - the post about the skunk. The one posted here, ACH000bs64 and the butt's: ACH000czi9, ACH000aiwe, ACH000d2f1. These posts were made after mine of ACH000dpd9. Nobody else had used the word "alarmed" in their posts so it wasn't difficult to put 2 & 2 together and with the kitty-joke thrown in, it looks like a pattern forming. I enjoy humour but in a good sense and this is not it. There isn't a deleted post between my two posts above. As I was writing to the same person, I didn't post their name again. I am basically trying to ascertain why the word "alarmed" wasn't the correct English word to use and thought I would just write the 2nd post so that should the other person respond, they can just get down to the real issue at hand without us having to write multiple posts.

    Furthermore, I referred them back to the post of ACH000dpd9 in order to determine if they also saw a sudden, quick "fright" response in the deer similar to what humans experience with a slamming door or window, book falling on the floor, etc. - an unexpected, sudden occurrence (seeing or hearing something) that causes a split-second scare and then returning to normal. The deer looks as if it had a fright - the eyes are wider, the position of the ears. Doesn't look like curiosity. Either the camera is in fact making a sound or it was one very lucky photo shot - but this is not the usual run-of-the-mill pictures of deer I've seen so far.

    The person named in my 1st post obviously has great knowledge not only of Ecology but other subjects as well but obviously has a problem with my posts. "Alarmed" is not a word that English-speaking people usually uses. It's mostly used by Afrikaans-speaking people like me. Afrikaans is derived from Dutch-German and very similar to Flemish - hence the word "alarm".

    Maybe I am just oversensitive? It is very daunting taking part in a project where most of the participants are from 1st world countries with a far superior education and intellect than I have. My degree is 3rd world standard (it isn't in Ecology) - but as a South African we tend to joke rather than cry. If I had kept quiet and just looked at the pictures, how else would I have learned? Through asking the stupid questions and making stupid observations (in a joking manner so as not to bore people), I am learning. By the way, are there other South Africans taking part in this project? Other Developing Countries? According to the Zooniverse survey there are only 2 % of the Developing World taking part in Zooniverse projects. Assuming I am 1 %, where is the other 1 %? If they are also working on this project, it would be great to make contact 😃

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  • mason_UWI by mason_UWI scientist

    I would say that both posts (the deer and the young coyote) use the word alarmed in the appropriate manner. The deer is alarmed (for the exact reasons that you put forth), the coyote may not be alarmed because it may be sniffing the lure pouch.

    I don't know the answers to your questions at the end there (not sure where zooniverse users are), but I do know that I enjoy your presence on CWW @WillowSkye , especially here in the talk section! I'm giving a presentation at a conference in a few weeks, and I hope to be putting up a blog post soon on some of the results I have from these data so that everyone can learn more about the ecology of these urban mammals in fragmented landscapes.

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  • WillowSkye by WillowSkye

    Sorry, it seems I am wasting far more of the scientists' time than intended, but thanks for replying here as well and providing feedback on the word "alarmed".

    Also thank you for the kind words. It is great that everyone can take part in and learn from the project. Just wish there were more people from developing countries taking part in Zooniverse projects than 2 %. But then again, this project might just cause the ripple effect required to gather some more interest as surely there must be others who are curious about North American "critters" (new word leant courtesy of ForestPreserve) like me. When I began taking part there were 4001 users. Including me 4002. Now there are 4818. Time frame: approx. 3 months. Who knows?

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  • ForestPreserve by ForestPreserve moderator

    Kind of missed this discussion and some of its precursors, but making up for lost time now. Putting on my Mr. Linguist hat.

    "Critter" is a "dialectal pronunciation" of "creature", according to wiktionary. (Not to be confused with dialectics, sorry Hegel.) Kind of like the relationship between "victuals" and "vittles".

    "Kitty" is in general a perfectly acceptable substitute for "cat" in US usage, and seen on ACH0001scn, and it's not uncommon for a "Katherine" to be known as "Kitty" to friends and family. Nevertheless, Wiktionary informs us of another meaning, such that the Goldfinger character could be renamed Kitty Galore. So I've taken the liberty of zotzing the offending post, which seems to have relied on this somewhat obscure sense for its questionable humor. Good call on that one, thanks to the British friends for spotting one that flew under the radar of us literal-minded Americans.

    I think "alarmed" has been dealt with, synonym of "alerted", "startled", "frightened", and so on. I'm not seeing anything inappropriate in the comments here, scientific merit aside. Let us know if the Brits spot something.

    As for "butt", it may be Poor Taste, but my sense is that it's now widely acceptable on broadcast TV. And it was never one of George Carlin's Seven Words, so I'm inclined to ignore it at low frequencies. It's even used in quotation on the website of the US Federal Communications Commission (enforcer of broadcast decency standards), in reference to what the FCC euphemistically rephrases as "pocket dialing".

    I believe there's a "report" link that shows up when you hover over a comment or a discussion board posting. Please use this link to report any problematic content. I use my Powers of Moderation sparingly, but they are effective.

    OK everyone, back to classifying....

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