Crowkemon Go! Crowdsourced Masters Research
One of my favourite things about being part of the Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Geopark organization is that it suits my inner (and let’s face it) outer geo-nerd. All of the things I’m interested in (and there are many) can be found in our geopark. As such, education is especially important to me, both in terms of delivery to community and students but also in the promotion of research that community citizen scientists, researchers, students and organizations are creating within the boundaries of the geopark. It helps to tell our story and allows us to temporally view our progress as an aspiring and ultimate designated global geopark
Since the inception of the Geopark idea for Niagara up until now, there have been a modest number of research projects initiated or sponsored by the Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Geopark founding organization – Geospatial Niagara. Today there is geopark specific research being created and shared via journals to a global audience.
I’m proud and honoured to share these stories on the NPAGG website, to introduce the community to those undertaking research here. When opportunities for the community to contribute arise, those will be shared also
Geoparks, everything you love about…
Crows
“Corvus is a widely distributed genus of medium-sized to large birds in the family Corvidae. It includes species commonly known as crows, ravens and rooks. The species commonly encountered in Europe are the carrion crow, the hooded crow, the common raven and the rook; those discovered later were named “crow” or “raven” chiefly on the basis of their size, crows generally being smaller. The genus name is Latin for “crow”.[1]“ – Wikipedia
While scrolling through Facebook one day I came across a post sharing a media release from Brock University. The creator of the post also included a brief comment about seeking community participation and other contents and the words Crowkemon Go! jumped out.
I was intrigued…
I reached out to Brock University Biology Masters student Alex Popescu – the creator of this crowdsourced research project, to learn more about his work. He is a member of the Gotanda Lab at Brock University headed by Assistant Professor and researcher Kiyoko Gotanda. This lab is also affiliated with the Universidad de San Francisco Quito in Ecuador, just over two hours away from the Imbabura UNESCO Global Geopark.
As a geographer and proponent of crowd-sourced research, mostly from a community engagement perspective, I learned from Alex that in addition to the research component and his long time fascination with crows, crowdsourcing was almost a necessity. A) Because Niagara is big – over 1850 km2 , B) an unfamiliarity with the geography of the Niagara region and C) more eyes in the sky equates to more data being collected.
His hope is that the Niagara community will enter as many crow sightings as possible until May, the end of crow breeding season. As the map is populated Alex, whose specialization is Ecology and Evolution, will begin studying the distribution of these sightings to understand the factors that attract the crows within those cluster locations and how they have adapted to their urban surroundings when compared to their rural counterparts. In essence, we’re seeing the evolution of the crow right before our eyes.
We at the Niagara Peninsula Aspiring Geopark have extended an invitation to Alex to provide updates on the progress of his research and to present his results when completed. We look forward to it! Help Alex “spot’em all!
