Please contribute to the H.E.R.P. database!
Posted: August 5th, 2011, 4:14 pm
If you are new to the California forum, welcome! Chances are you came here, above all, because you would like to learn how to find snakes or other herps, meet like-minded people, or just "talk story." You have come to the right place. Our members share your passion for herps and are an excellent source of information.
But you should also know that H.E.R.P. is not just about finding, appreciating and sharing information about snakes or other herps. Rather, we have made it our mission to work toward "the common goal of better understanding, conserving and managing native North American reptiles and amphibians."
H.E.R.P. is a continent-wide database where field herpers of all experience levels, working in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A., enter their finds. In less than five years, our database has grown to 80,000+ records. You can find the database at http://www.naherp.com. You can search the records by contributor, geographical area, or taxon – you’ll be amazed at the quantity of information at your fingertips.
So, please take a few short moments to read the information below about the H.E.R.P. database and consider contributing your finds, past or future. It would be an excellent way to give back a little, in return for the privilege, as it were, of being part of our community and benefiting from its amazing collective know-how. You'll also find that once you start contributing to the database, other members will be even more forthcoming with information and treat you as a full-flegded "member of the club."
Here are answers to some of the questions you may have:
What is done with the data?
Various agencies - both governmental and NGOs - can request specific data from naherp.com. Data are used for only approved purposes, including academic studies, population management, conservation, and the formation of herp-related laws. Though the database is still in its infancy, seven database requests have already been made, approved, and delivered, including requests related to the Texas Natural Diversity Database, the Missouri Herp Atlas, the rewrite of the state of California’s “Species of Special Concern” list, the rewrite of the US Forest Service’s “Forest Sensitive Species” list, and a USGS project to measure the genetic diversity of Southern California's pond turtle populations.
What about protection of sensitive data?
Persons who enter data into the database can choose the level of privacy of each record. Specific locality information and GPS data are never publicly available under any circumstances. Publicly hidden data are kept strictly confidential and cannot be viewed even by other H.E.R.P. members. All data requests must be approved by the persons whose data are being requested.
Why should I enter my finds into the database?
There are a variety of different reasons why you should enter finds into the database. The most obvious one is the conservation of herps in North America. The more data which are available to scientists, government agencies and policymakers, the more effectively they can protect herps from habitat destruction, pollution, and other factors contributing to the decline of herps in North America. The requests for H.E.R.P. data that have been made thus far (see above) show that our database is, in fact, making a difference. By entering your finds into the database, you'd be making a small, but valuable contribution to the protection of the animals you love – herps.
Another, less obvious reason to enter your finds into the database is that it will make you a more successful herper. The data entry process as such will make you ponder the different variables involved (temperature, time, cloud cover, etc.), and start you thinking about how to further improve your herping technique. Plus, it will give you a chance to relive the exciting moments when you made your finds.
Once you have entered your finds, the database will organize and keep track of them for you. Chances are that as time goes by, you won't remember many or even most of the details of past finds. By entering your finds into the database, you will be able to view all of your records online, organized in reverse chronological order, and search your records by country, state, county, group, genus, species and/or subspecies. You will also be able to view the voucher shot(s) you have included for each record.
As you look at your past finds in a systematic manner, patterns will emerge that you may not otherwise have noticed. For example, you might notice that you found all or most of your rosy boas while roadcruising within the same temperature range, during the same moon phase or at the same elevation. To confirm the validity of your own observations, you could then even compare your own data with records entered by others. The options are manifold, and you may come up with ways of using the database that no one else has even thought of before. The bottom line is: The better you know what you found in the past and why, the more you will find in the future.
An additional ‒ "just for fun" ‒ reason to enter your finds into the database is the database contest, or rather contests. There are a national contest as well as several regional contests. The basic idea of each contest is simple: The more data you enter, the more points you get. The contestant with the most points wins. The prize for first place is a herping trip to South Africa, all expenses paid. Well, just kidding. While there are some small prizes (books, T-shirts) for the first time this year (2011), that's not the reason people enter the contest. Many herpers, and you may be one of them, simply enjoy "racing" other herpers to goals such as the highest species count, the highest number of entries, the highest number of new counties. It's plain fun. That's all. More information on the database contests is available here (http://www.nafha.org/national/contest-2011).
How do I enter my finds into the database? Isn't it a lot of work?
Entering your finds into the database is easy (9-year Nicholas, the son of a CA chapter member, has learned how to do it) and not as much work as you may think.
Start by setting up an account at http://www.naherp.com, using the same username you are using for the FHF forums. Be sure to include your FHF username in the “profile” sectio of NAHerp. That'll take about two minutes and then you will be set to start inputting data.
To input a new record, simply click on "Add Record" in the upper lefthand corner. That will open a window with various drop down menus, such as genus, species, quantity, age, etc. As you will see, there are some items you may not have data for. For example, you may not know the sex or body temperature of the herp you found. Don't worry about it. Just input what you do know, most notably the group, genus and species, the date and time, and the country, state and county. But the more information you provide, the more useful the record will be, of course.
Next click on one of the little wrench symbols above "longitude" or "latitude." That will open a small GoogleEarth window. Find the (approximate) location of where you found the herp and click on that spot. The spot will now be marked by an orange marker. Now click the little "x" in the upper righthand corner to close the window and you're done. Or, you can use your own copy of GoogleEarth, and copy/paste the coordinates of your find into the longitude and latitude boxes. It’s also fun to “look around” the area with Google Earth – maybe there’s a nice ridge or valley that was just out of view you’ll now want to check out.
The last thing you need to do is attach a voucher shot (or, if you want, several voucher shots). This is done by uploading a picture from a web album of some kind (e.g., Picasa, flickr). Note that the picture needs to be in the correct format. In Picasa, for example, you need to select the format "small." Otherwise the voucher will not be accepted. Data entries without vouchers are widely regarded as worthless. So be sure to upload at least one reasonably good ID picture for each record.
Once you get the hang of it, and it won't be long, entering one record should not take you more than 2 minutes. That means that entering, say, 2 snakes, 5 lizards and 3 toads won't take more than 20 minutes of your time. Some people prefer to enter data on a regular basis so as not to create a backlog. Others like to sit on data for a while and then input lots of records at once. That's up to everyone to decide for themselves. The key thing is to come up with a way that works for you. If 20 minutes, or even 10 minutes, is too long for you, input only 1 or 2 records at a time to spread out the work. You'll see, once you get started, it won't be as bad as you may think. Just give it a try.
To see your records, click on "View My Records" and there they are, all neatly organized in reverse chronological order. You'll see, you'll love it. It'll double your sense of accomplisment and make you want to enter more. But be careful. Data entry is addictive. Once you start, you may not be able to stop … and we are only half-kidding.
If you have any questions, feel free to send a PM to me or one of the chapter officers. We'll all be happy to help!
Thank you!
Kent VanSooy, former President CA NAFHA chapter
But you should also know that H.E.R.P. is not just about finding, appreciating and sharing information about snakes or other herps. Rather, we have made it our mission to work toward "the common goal of better understanding, conserving and managing native North American reptiles and amphibians."
H.E.R.P. is a continent-wide database where field herpers of all experience levels, working in Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A., enter their finds. In less than five years, our database has grown to 80,000+ records. You can find the database at http://www.naherp.com. You can search the records by contributor, geographical area, or taxon – you’ll be amazed at the quantity of information at your fingertips.
So, please take a few short moments to read the information below about the H.E.R.P. database and consider contributing your finds, past or future. It would be an excellent way to give back a little, in return for the privilege, as it were, of being part of our community and benefiting from its amazing collective know-how. You'll also find that once you start contributing to the database, other members will be even more forthcoming with information and treat you as a full-flegded "member of the club."
Here are answers to some of the questions you may have:
What is done with the data?
Various agencies - both governmental and NGOs - can request specific data from naherp.com. Data are used for only approved purposes, including academic studies, population management, conservation, and the formation of herp-related laws. Though the database is still in its infancy, seven database requests have already been made, approved, and delivered, including requests related to the Texas Natural Diversity Database, the Missouri Herp Atlas, the rewrite of the state of California’s “Species of Special Concern” list, the rewrite of the US Forest Service’s “Forest Sensitive Species” list, and a USGS project to measure the genetic diversity of Southern California's pond turtle populations.
What about protection of sensitive data?
Persons who enter data into the database can choose the level of privacy of each record. Specific locality information and GPS data are never publicly available under any circumstances. Publicly hidden data are kept strictly confidential and cannot be viewed even by other H.E.R.P. members. All data requests must be approved by the persons whose data are being requested.
Why should I enter my finds into the database?
There are a variety of different reasons why you should enter finds into the database. The most obvious one is the conservation of herps in North America. The more data which are available to scientists, government agencies and policymakers, the more effectively they can protect herps from habitat destruction, pollution, and other factors contributing to the decline of herps in North America. The requests for H.E.R.P. data that have been made thus far (see above) show that our database is, in fact, making a difference. By entering your finds into the database, you'd be making a small, but valuable contribution to the protection of the animals you love – herps.
Another, less obvious reason to enter your finds into the database is that it will make you a more successful herper. The data entry process as such will make you ponder the different variables involved (temperature, time, cloud cover, etc.), and start you thinking about how to further improve your herping technique. Plus, it will give you a chance to relive the exciting moments when you made your finds.
Once you have entered your finds, the database will organize and keep track of them for you. Chances are that as time goes by, you won't remember many or even most of the details of past finds. By entering your finds into the database, you will be able to view all of your records online, organized in reverse chronological order, and search your records by country, state, county, group, genus, species and/or subspecies. You will also be able to view the voucher shot(s) you have included for each record.
As you look at your past finds in a systematic manner, patterns will emerge that you may not otherwise have noticed. For example, you might notice that you found all or most of your rosy boas while roadcruising within the same temperature range, during the same moon phase or at the same elevation. To confirm the validity of your own observations, you could then even compare your own data with records entered by others. The options are manifold, and you may come up with ways of using the database that no one else has even thought of before. The bottom line is: The better you know what you found in the past and why, the more you will find in the future.
An additional ‒ "just for fun" ‒ reason to enter your finds into the database is the database contest, or rather contests. There are a national contest as well as several regional contests. The basic idea of each contest is simple: The more data you enter, the more points you get. The contestant with the most points wins. The prize for first place is a herping trip to South Africa, all expenses paid. Well, just kidding. While there are some small prizes (books, T-shirts) for the first time this year (2011), that's not the reason people enter the contest. Many herpers, and you may be one of them, simply enjoy "racing" other herpers to goals such as the highest species count, the highest number of entries, the highest number of new counties. It's plain fun. That's all. More information on the database contests is available here (http://www.nafha.org/national/contest-2011).
How do I enter my finds into the database? Isn't it a lot of work?
Entering your finds into the database is easy (9-year Nicholas, the son of a CA chapter member, has learned how to do it) and not as much work as you may think.
Start by setting up an account at http://www.naherp.com, using the same username you are using for the FHF forums. Be sure to include your FHF username in the “profile” sectio of NAHerp. That'll take about two minutes and then you will be set to start inputting data.
To input a new record, simply click on "Add Record" in the upper lefthand corner. That will open a window with various drop down menus, such as genus, species, quantity, age, etc. As you will see, there are some items you may not have data for. For example, you may not know the sex or body temperature of the herp you found. Don't worry about it. Just input what you do know, most notably the group, genus and species, the date and time, and the country, state and county. But the more information you provide, the more useful the record will be, of course.
Next click on one of the little wrench symbols above "longitude" or "latitude." That will open a small GoogleEarth window. Find the (approximate) location of where you found the herp and click on that spot. The spot will now be marked by an orange marker. Now click the little "x" in the upper righthand corner to close the window and you're done. Or, you can use your own copy of GoogleEarth, and copy/paste the coordinates of your find into the longitude and latitude boxes. It’s also fun to “look around” the area with Google Earth – maybe there’s a nice ridge or valley that was just out of view you’ll now want to check out.
The last thing you need to do is attach a voucher shot (or, if you want, several voucher shots). This is done by uploading a picture from a web album of some kind (e.g., Picasa, flickr). Note that the picture needs to be in the correct format. In Picasa, for example, you need to select the format "small." Otherwise the voucher will not be accepted. Data entries without vouchers are widely regarded as worthless. So be sure to upload at least one reasonably good ID picture for each record.
Once you get the hang of it, and it won't be long, entering one record should not take you more than 2 minutes. That means that entering, say, 2 snakes, 5 lizards and 3 toads won't take more than 20 minutes of your time. Some people prefer to enter data on a regular basis so as not to create a backlog. Others like to sit on data for a while and then input lots of records at once. That's up to everyone to decide for themselves. The key thing is to come up with a way that works for you. If 20 minutes, or even 10 minutes, is too long for you, input only 1 or 2 records at a time to spread out the work. You'll see, once you get started, it won't be as bad as you may think. Just give it a try.
To see your records, click on "View My Records" and there they are, all neatly organized in reverse chronological order. You'll see, you'll love it. It'll double your sense of accomplisment and make you want to enter more. But be careful. Data entry is addictive. Once you start, you may not be able to stop … and we are only half-kidding.
If you have any questions, feel free to send a PM to me or one of the chapter officers. We'll all be happy to help!
Thank you!
Kent VanSooy, former President CA NAFHA chapter