RESUMO
Species identification can be challenging for biologists, healthcare practitioners and members of the general public. Snakes are no exception, and the potential medical consequences of venomous snake misidentification can be significant. Here, we collected data on identification of 100 snake species by building a week-long online citizen science challenge which attracted more than 1000 participants from around the world. We show that a large community including both professional herpetologists and skilled avocational snake enthusiasts with the potential to quickly (less than 2 min) and accurately (69-90%; see text) identify snakes is active online around the clock, but that only a small fraction of community members are proficient at identifying snakes to the species level, even when provided with the snake's geographical origin. Nevertheless, participants showed great enthusiasm and engagement, and our study provides evidence that innovative citizen science/crowdsourcing approaches can play significant roles in training and building capacity. Although identification by an expert familiar with the local snake fauna will always be the gold standard, we suggest that healthcare workers, clinicians, epidemiologists and other parties interested in snakebite could become more connected to these communities, and that professional herpetologists and skilled avocational snake enthusiasts could organize ways to help connect medical professionals to crowdsourcing platforms. Involving skilled avocational snake enthusiasts in decision making could build the capacity of healthcare workers to identify snakes more quickly, specifically and accurately, and ultimately improve snakebite treatment data and outcomes.
RESUMO
Early incubation has been suggested as a defensive adaptation against potentially pathogenic bacteria colonizing avian eggshells in the wild. The inhibitory mechanisms underlying this adaptation are poorly understood and only recent experimental evidence demonstrates that keeping eggs dry is a proximate mechanism for the antimicrobial effects of avian incubation. We estimated partial incubation (the bouts of incubation that some birds perform during the egg-laying period, days of lay 3-5 in our population) intensity of female pied flycatchers breeding in nest-boxes using data loggers that allowed a precise measurement of temperature just between the eggs in the nest-cup. We also measured relative humidity within the nest-boxes and related it to incubation intensity, showing that more intense incubation during laying contributes to drying the air near the eggs. We analyzed separately the effects of incubation and of relative humidity on loads of three types of culturable bacteria known to be present on eggshells, heterotrophic bacteria, Gram-negative enterics and pseudomonads. Our results show an association of early incubation with an inhibition of bacterial proliferation through a drying effect on eggshells, as we found that incubation intensity was negatively and relative humidity positively associated with eggshell bacterial loads for heterotrophic bacteria, Gram-negative bacteria and pseudomonads, although the significance of these associations varied between bacterial groups. These results point to microclimatically driven effects of incubation on bacterial proliferation on eggshells during laying in a temperate cavity nesting passerine.
