We wanted to take a moment and acknowledge all the work you have done on our digitization project: Ranges: Mammal Traits from western North America, we are incredibly grateful for your contributions. I also wanted to share a bit about our collections. The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is home to about 101,000 cataloged mammal specimens. Our collections date back to the late 1800’s and represent specimens from around the world, with a regional focus on California and the surrounding areas. About half of our terrestrial mammal specimens are from the Ranges geographic focal area, western North America.
As you know, the goal of the Ranges project is to “mobilize” the trait data that has not been uploaded to databases. For our collection this has meant enlisting students, staff, and volunteers to look at specimen tags, verify data in the database, and image tags for individuals that have trait data missing from the database. These images have been used for you to transcribe the data, but they will also be uploaded to our database as part of the specimen record. The imaging work has largely taken place in the collections work spaces, but we have also had the opportunity to do demonstrations and talk with museum visitors about the project.
If you are interested in reading a bit more and seeing some pictures of our team in action, there is a story about the project here.
Your work in combination with our staff and volunteers has resulted in improved data for:
374 species (from shrews to gophers and weasels to bats) with trait data confirmed for 23,817 specimens and tags imaged and transcribed for 22,670 specimens. Thank you!
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