Observers need Identifiers - Identifiers need Observers

No observations - nothing to identify. No identifications, no connection to what we think we already know. If you know the name, you can find out what else is known about it and what is left to find out.

Frustrating an observer's itch to know more can be a barrier, especially for new observers. Recent events aside, it has been easy to believe that the human knowledge has a pretty good handle on what is going on here on our planet. Sure in the tropics there might be some gaps - there are a lot of weird beetles there after all but here in Manitoba, we pretty much know everything there is to know, right? So it can be a little surprising for an observer to hear from an identifier that the problem is not the lack of focus in their image - or the need for some feature not visible in the observation - but that no one knows the species name of that one because we haven't gotten around to figuring it out yet.

Similar frustration awaits new identifiers used to identifying specimens separated in time and space from the moment of observation. Many keys are tailored towards identifying collected specimens using characters that do not change when an organism has been preserved. Some characters easily visible in a inert specimen in the hand can be impossible to discern in the a photograph or recording. It can also be a little disconcerting for an acknowledged expert to be challenged to explain their id when they may have been more used to a more deferential approach.

Both of these frustrations have a common root - observers and identifiers are exploring together the new opportunities that this tool offers to explore our understanding of nature. Already the identifier community is developing additional tools that depend on features visible in photographs of an organism. Observers are finding ways to improve their documentation of organisms based on the needs of identifiers. As observations are continuing to be added, the likelihood grows that someone somewhere will have added an observation of the organism that you can look at and compare with your own experience, whether you are an observer, an identifier or both.

Happy exploring!
Mary Krieger
St Andrews, MB

Posted on 20 de junho de 2021, 03:32 PM by marykrieger marykrieger

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