Animal injuries
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WillowSkye
There's a large chunk of hair missing from the deer's flank (edge of photo). Will animal injuries form part of the behavioural study?
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mason_UWI
scientist
We don't get enough data of this type for it to probably be helpful (aside from possibly mange on coyotes), and for disease related studies it is often better to get the animal in hand (i.e. trap it).
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DZM
admin
Poor deer, though. ;_;
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WillowSkye
Thanks for answering. However, it would be interesting to know whether the incidence of head up/head down would be different in a scarred/injured animal to that of a normal/healthy animal? One half assumes that the fight/flight response will be different and species specific when the animal has undergone some form of trauma and that it will also have an effect on its, apologies for lack of the English word, in Afrikaans we call it "veerkragtigheid" - the ability for the scarred/injured animal to sort of "bounce back" to normality over time. Maybe in future, should you continue with the photo capturing project, you might have enough data to pursue this further? Would be interesting to read what your conclusions will be and how big the difference is, should there be one.
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mason_UWI
scientist
That certainly is a possibility, but camera traps probably are not the best tool to use to address questions like that. If we wanted to quantify "veerkragtigheid" (super cool word by the way, how do you pronounce it?), we would need to collect data on individuals. This is not really that easy to do with our north american mammals for a couple reasons. First, a deer looks like other deer, coyotes look like other coyotes (i.e. they dont have distinct stripes like a zebra or spots like a leopard). But let's consider a situation that the animal has an injury that makes it so we can 'make' it an individual, like the deer in this photo. We would need a sufficient sample over time to measure veerkragtifheid at the appropriate temporal scale (does it take minutes. hours, days?), and we cannot ensure that the deer is going to camp out in front to determine this. In this case, it would probably make the most sense to use a hunting blind (basically a big camouflaged sheet with a hole you peer through), sit there, and collect data by hand. This would be similar to studies done on lots of African apes for instance. The more specific a question gets, the more intense the data you need. For camera traps (with our suite of mammals), we can calculate rates of occupancy (whether a species is there or not), colonization rates and extinction rates. Behaviorally, we feel that we can only ask the most rudimentary of questions with the data we have, because we feel that the images do not provide enough information to ask more pointed questions.
We are always going to be continuing this project though, we have our cameras out right now actually!
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WillowSkye
Thanks for taking time out to explain this to me. Makes sense. However, if it were up to me, I would not only put a GPS collar and unique signature marker on injured animals chosen for study but also mount a small camera on the collar to collect data on head-up/head down for a chosen period of time (especially the drunken coyotes), but this is just going way overboard and more Sci-fi than reality (also, it would cost far too much money).
There was, however, one individual deer that stood out from all the rest in the pictures I've seen so far. I will call this individual Lucky. It looked like it had a graze/flesh wound caused by a possible projectile (not a shotgun shell, I assume, otherwise I would expect it to be dead and not posing for the picture). But somebody had tried to take a pot-shot at it. Why did I not flag this picture for your attention? Because the data is not real time. Besides, I don't know whether Lucky is still alive or not and I wasn't sure if it is in fact a flesh wound that I was seeing, although my gut tells me so.
Why am I mentioning this now? Because I realized, after some thinking, that you probably are already aware that people would try something like this. After all, Homo Sapiens Sapiens is as Homo Sapiens Sapiens does (regardless of gender, race, culture, nationality). Once a hunter; always a hunter. Hardwired in the BID (Basic Instincts Department) of the brain. If people will try to take a pot-shot at the small mammals/predators in our fragmented urban areas, they will do so in yours as well (although our rhino in conservation areas is currently more of a concern right now). Personally, I think one should only kill for subsistence and not for pleasure but there are many, many people who will not agree with me. I did however, see a homeless guy in the pictures, so Lucky might have been in the sights of someone who was hungry?
When I wrote that word down I did not foresee that you would want to pronounce it! It may be super cool but it's also super hard. Goodness gracious. Okay, here goes:
v - sounds like f in feather;
eer - sounds like eer in deer (pun intended : ) );
kr - sounds like cr in crocodile;
a - sounds like a in fast;
g - now this is the tricky one, but if you have some Jewish friends, it's way easier - similar to the ch they pronounce in L'chaim;
ti - sounds like ti in tin;
g again;
hei - sounds like ha in hake;
d - another tricky one, softer than the d in door but louder than the t in tin.I wish I could hear all of you try and pronounce it. Got to have some Jewish friends to help you, though! Haha 😃
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mason_UWI
scientist
Okay. I think here is my best try!
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WillowSkye
I am speechless. Correction: we are speechless. Showed it to friends here. Congratulations: You scored 94% on your first try. Your score should actually be higher which is my fault. I totally forgot that you also need Spanish friends. The r is more pronounced similar as in Por favor. Wow! we have not heard anyone learn such a difficult word so fast. Especially with the g. Most English-speaking people don't get that one right on their first try! However, don't know what happened with the 2nd time around because you changed the v to a w. Haha, stick with your first attempt. Well done. Absolutely, amazingly, well done 😃
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mason_UWI
scientist
Thanks! The true test will be trying to incorporate it into a presentation!
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WillowSkye
A presentation? You're kidding, right? Your pronunciation is 'out-of-this-world' excellent, so it's not really a test. You'll be able to pass with flying colours no matter where you speak the word. But a 'presentation'??? Goodness gracious.
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mason_UWI
scientist
Other languages can offer up much better words to introduce concepts. Whenever I give talks on bird migration I always mention the german word "zugunruhe" which effectively means migratory restlessness (yes, birds get an 'itch' to migrate). I appreciate how other languages have single words that would need a whole sentence worth of explanation in another.
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WillowSkye
Interesting. Just as 'beauty is in the eye of the beholder", appreciation of language is in the ear of the listener. Some people are attuned to many words to find meaning, others require just one. To each his own. Cannot beat "The Great Salmon Run" with one word, though.
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WillowSkye
After thinking, not knowing how many people read the posts, I probably should explain the rantings of a foreigner. Tried to say, don't let go of your own language so fast when it comes to explaining things. Some of us need many words to understand (others that are very clever can get by with just one word). I have found that English has a profoundness to it that many times surpasses that of other languages i.e. appreciation is in the ear of the listener. Many times I wish to convey so much more in my own language but find myself stuck with just one word. Nevertheless, each person has the right to their own opinion, hence "to each his own". This is my serious side, which is not good, should stick to the humour. This being said, I need a cup of coffee.
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