Snapshot Serengeti Talk

Classify distant animals?

  • zoombob by zoombob

    There are lots of deer-like animals in this image but there isn't enough detail to identify the species.
    Should I just check the "Nothing here" checkbox?

    Posted

  • BHamer by BHamer

    It's pretty much always preferable to guess than to use "Nothing Here" when you can tell that there is, in fact, something there. The only suggestion I've seen from a moderator or scientist counter to this is the situation when all you can see is movement from something so indistinct that you can't even make out a body type. ("Hmmmm... could be an elephant. Could be an impala. Could be a penguin.")

    There's a good discussion of this question on the first page of the FAQ forum on this Help board. The key point is that even a collection of guesses- remember, several other people will see and classify this same image, too- conveys more information than does a bunch of "Nothing Here" votes. In this case the combined efforts of everyone seeing this image would at least tell the researchers that there are something that look like deer in this photo, and it's possible enough guesses would agree that a tentative classification can be made.

    Also, holding down CTRL and repeatedly hitting "+" will enlarge the picture on your monitor. After doing that on this picture, I'd vote for one of the gazelles. (I'm no expert, though.)

    Posted

  • AowlanCrystal by AowlanCrystal moderator

    With difficults in the distance, on the horizon, if you can make out a general body shape, ie is it slender and small, or big and bulky, has it horms or not, does it look like a horse/donkey, cow or deer, if you can also make out a colour, it can help narrow down the possibles, to zoom in (if you are using a keyboard) press your Ctrl button plus the + key, and to zoom back out use the - key with the control key.
    With this image, you can easy rule out anything large like elephants, buffalo, giraffe, and also anything really small, birds, rodents, mongoose for examples, but they have a similar shape and colour of the Gazelles or Impalas, but they appear small, so less likely impala and Grants gazelles are bigger than Tommys too, so my guess would be that they are likely Thomsons Gazelles. It is better to guess something, it doesn't matter if it is wrong, as a number of others will get to see and classify the same image and also put their guess down, where 9 out of 10 people put 1 Elephant down and one puts 1 Buffalo, its more likely an Elephant, however with this imagine, you might get a mix of guesses that include Grants, Tommies and Impala, someone might even put Lion (female/cub) cause of the colour, then later on, the scientists can check the few that will occur with differing answers, they will decide what it/they are.
    However, if after you have zoomed in, it still looks like a small blob of pixels without any recognisable form, even if it moves then you can click 'nothing here'.
    Hope this helps. 😃

    Posted