Happy New Big Years!!! And a new HoTX Challenge.....

2015 is done, and once again, Connor Adams( @connor22 ) reigns supreme: http://bit.ly/HOTX2015

Connor posted 488 observations, including a total of 126 species.

The HoTX Century Club: In total only three people broke the 100 species barrier: Connor Adams (126), Ashley Tubbs ( @ashleytubbs 105 species) and Toby Hibbitts ( @toby 102 species). All three will be receiving a surprise prize to help with 2016: a brand new Black Diamond headlight!! I was only able to log 90 species in 2015, but 2016 is looking up!

For 2016, we have three challenges:

Big Year, how many species can you find? I heard @connor22 is slowing down, so this is a good year to go for it. @ashleytubbs already has a good start! All observations must be research grade, and observed in 2016. Any tie will be broken based on their total number of observations and the locational accuracy of observations.
The HoTX Century Club: Can you find 100 species in one year? If you can break 100 species, you know you had a good herping year!!

http://bit.ly/HOTX2016

Turtles and Crocodilians: To celebrate the arrival of a new guide Texas Turtles & Crocodilians by Troy D. Hibbitts ( @troyhibbitts )and Terry L. Hibbits ( @dianaterryhibbitts ), we are posting a Spring challenge to see who can find the most species of Turtles and Crocodilians. If you find more than one wild crocodilian, I will be very impressed! All observations must be made between January 1st and May 31st, 2016. The top two winners will receive a copy of the new guide signed by the authors.

Book: http://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/hibbitts-texas-turtles-and-crocodilians

Leaderboard: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/user_stats?projects%5B%5D=herps-of-texas&quality_grade=research&taxon_ids%5B%5D=39532,26039&d1=2016-01-01&d2=2016-05-31

Posted on January 11, 2016 10:47 PM by

cullen

Comments

I like the idea for the new challenges, Cullen.

Posted by kucycads over 8 years ago

Wow! Great work everyone!

Posted by carrieseltzer over 8 years ago

I also just created a hotlink for the big year leaderboard: http://bit.ly/HOTX2016

Posted by cullen about 8 years ago

Hi, I've noticed that the leaderboards are counting subspecies as full species. (For example I've have observations for both Eastern Mud Turtle (no subspecies rank) and MS Mud Turtle (ssp. hippocrepis), which listed me as having 2 species instead of one). Are the final results going to be tallied off the leaderboards, or will it just include species?

Posted by kucycads almost 8 years ago

@kucycads thanks for pointing that out. The intent was species, and for the sake of simplicity I think we should keep it at that. I will check to see if we can correct the leaderboard.

Posted by cullen almost 8 years ago

Thanks for fixing it. I guess that you should probably check to see if the main leaderboard also has the same problem.

Posted by kucycads almost 8 years ago

About to post something now.

Posted by cullen almost 8 years ago

Add a Comment

I just updated the leaderboard to include Crocodilians: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/user_stats?projects%5B%5D=herps-of-texas&quality_grade=research&taxon_ids%5B%5D=39532,26039&d1=2016-01-01&d2=2016-05-31

@kucycads here is an updated leaderboard that just counts species:

http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2016-01-01&d2=2016-05-31&project_id=herps-of-texas&taxon_ids=39532,26039&quality_grade=research&view=observers

Ok, this is the updated big year leaderboard: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2016-01-01&d2=2016-12-31&project_id=herps-of-texas&quality_grade=research&view=observers