Slashdot Mirror
The Science of Roadkill
Hugh Pickens writes "Sarah Harris writes that roadkill may not be glamorous, but wildlife ecologist Danielle Garneau says dead critters carry lots of valuable information providing an opportunity to learn about wildlife and pinpoint migratory patterns, invasive species, and predatory patterns. 'We're looking at a fine scale at patterns of animal movement — maybe we can pick up migratory patterns, maybe we can see a phenology change,' says Garneau. 'And also, in the long term, if many of these animals are threatened or they're in a decline, the hope would be that we could share this information with people who could make changes.' Garneau turns students out into the world to find dead animals, document them and collect the data using a smartphone app RoadkillGarneau and she has already received data from across New York, as well as Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and Colorado. Participants take photos of the road kill, and the app uploads them through EpiCollect, which pinpoints the find on the map. Participants can then update the data to include any descriptors of the animal such as its species; sex; how long the dead animal had been there; if and when it was removed; the weather conditions; and any predators around it. 'People talk a lot about technology cutting us off from nature,' says Garneau. 'But I found that with the road kill project, it's the opposite. You really engage with the world around you — even if it is a smelly skunk decaying on the side of the road.'"
do they put the deer crossing signs on such busy highways??
Or do what I did:
1. read the website, find it interesting
2. Search Google Play for app, couldn't find it
3. Read website again, found link to G-docs, which wont work with IE6/corporate nanny software
4. Email link to myself
5. Click link on phone, click link on webpage.
6. Read page 1 of 17 on G-Doc, it has QR code, wonderful, how to fucking scan that from my phone when reading it on my phone??? Hyperlinks are so last century.
7. Come back to Slashdot hoping to find download link.
8. Give up. Ain't nobody got time for this shit.
I notice there is an app for Irish Roadkill. It might be quicker and easy to move to Ireland.
Smartphones are cool. Every nerd should own one or three.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
Relevant is the menu for the Roadkill Cafe: You kill 'em, we grill 'em!
I am officially gone from
Yeah, there's some science to it, but not always.
I know of a business that involves teams of a couple of guys in vans roaming areas of the country doing repair services.
I happen to KNOW that one of these teams hit an armadillo in TX, and, in a creative fit of boredom, threw it in their cooler with ice and headed on their northern circuit. The next day, in Michigan, they dumped it out beside the road....I'm nearly certain some state biologist in MI got to spend weeks studying the invasion of armadillos.
(Now, that story has become a lot grimmer with the suggestion that handling armadillos - and probably, throwing it in your lunch cooler with your pop cans & sandwiches - may transmit leprosy...)
-Styopa
Bestiality and necrophilia at the same time.
That sums up Twilight.
Non-Linux Penguins ?