Dear SARCAlites

As you know, members of the public are making a substantial contribution to SARCA. They are doing this by helping the Project Herpetologist, Marius Burger, in the field, and by submitting photographs of reptiles seen in the wild to the SARCA Virtual Museum (VM). The VM is, to our knowledge, a unique innovation that has great potential to be used in a variety of other biodiversity surveys. It is the contributors to SARCA who have demonstrated its potential.

In this newsletter I want to give you some interesting statistics about the VM that provide an indication of how we are doing in this aspect of SARCA. Note that all of the following stats are drawn from only the first 2000 records in the VM.

1) Number of contributing observers: 329 observers

2) Number of quarter-degree grid cells included: 451 grid cells (22%)

3) The grid cells with the most records submitted are:

4) Number of species included: 208 species (~50% of the species in the atlas region)

5) Number of records identified to date: 1545 records (77%)

6) The 30 most commonly recorded species, and their numbers of records, are:

7) The observers who have submitted the most records are:

Personally, I feel that these stats indicate a most laudable contribution by SARCAlites, a contribution that will undoubtedly expand our knowledge of the distributions of species within the atlas region, and contribute to our assessment of their conservation status. However, it is also clear that the number of contributors, and the number of grid cells they are managing to record from, are still relatively small. I would like, therefore, to urge you to pass the word on to your friends and associates, and especially to your herpetological/botanical/birding/wildlife/hiking/mountaineering clubs and societies, that we are very keen to welcome them into the SARCA fold and to receive their observations of wild reptiles. Please always refer them to the SARCA website so that they can get the method of submission correct from the start.

The SARCA VM is already closing in on the 3000-record mark, largely as a result of your excellent response to the VM Competition. I will soon supply you with the results of that competition. In the meantime, keep those cameras clicking!

For me, stuck in my office, it has been a huge pleasure to enjoy your field experiences vicariously through your VM records. Long may they continue to stream in!

Best wishes

James A. Harrison