The Smithsonian Institution has created a data platform that allows for the management of volunteers to provide wildlife photographs and metadata that share a metadata structure, can be verified by experts, are curated by the Smithsonian, and can subsequently be shared across projects at a public website (emammal.org). The public website was launched in January, and the site has more than 25 active projects and 5 million images. Dr. Bill McShea will explain the dataflow and the utility of the site for science, conservation, education, and outreach.
Speaker(s)
William McShea
Dr. William McShea is a wildlife ecologist for the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute at Front Royal, Virginia. He received his education at Bucknell University (BS), University of New Hampshire (MS), and State University of New York at Binghamton (PhD). He has worked at the Front Royal facility since 1986. He is currently co-chair of the IUCN Deer Specialist Group, which is responsible for setting endangerment levels for deer species worldwide, and a member of both the Bear Specialist Group and the Bovid Specialist Group. He has edited four volumes on wildlife management (deer, oak forests, Asian wildlife, and giant pandas) and co-authored a book on deer ecology. When not in Virginia, Dr. McShea has worked in Southeast Asia, Gabon, Brazil, and China. He has conducted training courses in wildlife survey and monitoring in Brazil, China, Mongolia, Myanmar, and Thailand. He has more than 120 publications in scientific journals, many involving wildlife populations in the developing world. In addition to the training countries, he has mentored professionals and students to co-author scientific publications on wildlife in Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia. Dr. McShea’s current research focuses on the management of wildlife populations in forested ecosystems, including Asiatic black bears and giant pandas in China; rare ungulates in Southeast Asia; and large mammal surveys in Myanmar, Thailand, and China.