2. Monitoring – Long-term Value
• The information never goes out of date
• The information NOT collected now can NOT be
collected later
• I and M data are used many times by many
people
• I and M data creates the foundation for Research
and Researchers
• The names and legacies of these people are kept
in our memories
• Many are NOT professionals
4. How do we know there are Coqui
Frogs in Hawaii?
• Native Crickets?
• Introduced Katydids?
• Etc.?
5. Counting Crickets with Cell
Phones: How we Harnessed
New Yorkers’ Favorite Tool
During the NYC Cricket Crawl
Lou Sorkin, Sam Droege,
Elizabeth Johnson,
John Pickering, Tammy Pittman,
Emily Sweet
6. Goals
• Collect scientifically defensible data about
“singing” Orthoptera in metro region
– Survey 7 easy to ID species
– Look for Common True Katydid colonies
• William T. Davis mentions them being absent [The True
Katydid nearly extinct in New York City] in the early part of
last century, published in the Journal of the New York
Entomological Society. Vol. 28(1), March 1920)
7. More Goals
• Engage the public in data collection
– have scientific, non-scientific groups, and citizens work
together
– generate excitement and intrigue to lure people into going
outside, thinking about nature, and possibly pursuing
natural history study
• Test out new citizen science protocols
– people sending in data immediately from the field
– entering and displaying data by the end of the night
8. More, More Goals
• Integrate art into a scientific venture
• Set an example for what other groups could
replicate elsewhere
• Do it for 0 dollars
• Have fun
9. Quick Overview
• September 12, 2009 – rain date
• Advertised via list serves, facebook, emails,
other PR
• Data quality
– selected 7 relatively easy to ID species
– set up website with training materials, audio files
– encouraged group survey (allowing folks to confer
on ID)
– expert field confirmation of questionable
submissions
10. Participation
• ~ 400 sites surveyed
• ~ 300 individuals involved
– Most people went out in small groups
• Families went home afterwards
• Other people went out to bars afterwards
• Some worked overnight into the morning
• Some ??
11. Data Submission
• Information submitted:
– Observer name, exact location, time, species
heard
• Phone message (converted to .mp3file)
or email linked to drop.io box and picked
up by workers at Cricket Crawl HQ
• Data entered by people at Cricket Crawl HQ
and on the Internet – listen, transcribe
13. Maps of the Results
• Generated by John Pickering at the University
of Georgia
• Programmed to update every 10 minutes
throughout the night
14. Map Legend
• Yellow dots are sampling locations
• Red dots are places that recorded that species
15. Orocharis saltator
Jumping Bush Cricket
• Common species
• Potentially some confusion with Snowy Tree
Crickets (not included in the survey) and with
Fall Field Crickets
• Not mentioned by Davis as present during his
time
25. Pterophylla camellifolia
Common True Katydid
• Large clumsy species that appears in small colonies
• Essentially doesn’t fly
• Disappeared from Staten Island in the early part of the
last century
• Only reappeared lately (re: Paul Lederer and co. work)
• Unclear how long present on Manhattan
• Distribution clumped, but present in some very small
woodlots (re: Marie Winn’s)
• Follow-up to confirm some localities
needed
29. Things People Liked ….
• Being outside at night looking at something
they thought they knew, but really didn’t
• Sending in data with their cell phone
• Being part of an event
• Learning about crickets and katydids in general