SEYCHELLES BIO GALLERY: BIOBLITZ CHALLENGE 2020
As part of the Seychelles Bio Gallery project, we are organizing a BioBlitz photo competition from the 13th of November to the 15th of December 2020. Everybody can participate, except the organizers (the Herbarium Team), and the top prizes will include:
1st prize: Samsung Galaxy A70S Smartphone
2nd prize: Samsung Galaxy M31 Smartphone
3rd prize: REDMI NOTE 8 PRO Smartphone
We will also include a few runner-up prizes which will be given to the competitors who do not win the contest but who place ahead of the majority of the contestants.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE?
To participate you need to join the "Seychelles Bio Gallery" iNaturalist project and fill in the registration form for the BIOBLITZ CHALLENGE 2020 (before 15th December 2020): https://form.jotform.com/203100919312543
SCORING SYSTEM AND RULES:
-Rule 1: 1 point for 1 observation of any terrestrial or marine animal or plant species found in the Seychelles (an observation is defined as: a species observed at a given time and a given place, supported by one or several photos)
-Rule 2: 2 points for 1 observation of a plant species that is considered as a "rare" "native/endemic" species in Seychelles according to the scientific community (see links below).
-Rule 3: 4 points for 1 observation of a plant species that is not yet recorded in Seychelles by the scientific community (see links below).
VALIDITY RULES FOR CONTRIBUTED OBSERVATIONS:
-Rule 4: Observations must be made between the 13th of November and the 15th December 2020
-Rule 5: Observations must be done in the Seychelles.
-Rule 6: Observations must be shared with the iNaturalist project "Seychelles Bio Gallery".
-Rule 7: Observations must be supported by photos that are potentially useful for species identification (we recommend to take more than one photo per observation, and to pay attention to what could possibly be the distinctive characters).
-Rule 8: Observations must include location data or geographic coordinates (GPS) that are accurate to at least 500 m (If your phone's GPS does not provide exact coordinates, you need to describe your position manually).
NOTE TO ALL PARTICIPANTS:
Participants with the highest scores in total will be selected as the winners. You may contact the organizers if you have any question about the rules and point system. For advanced users who want to win more points using the list of rare species (double points) and new records (quadruple points), please contact us to receive the up-to-date checklist of the flora of Seychelles. You can also have a look to the plant gallery: http://www.seychellesplantgallery.com/Rarest.html
Our scoring system provides a fair chance to both professionals of the environment and amateurs. If you have limited knowledge on species, you can still win by contributing more observations. In addition, by joining and following the project "Seychelles Bio Gallery, you will know when we are organizing field trips with professional scientists. You can join, get to know some of the species that are rarer and therefore get more chances to achieve higher score. Finally, do not neglect your own garden! From our experience, private gardens are an abundant source of exotic species that have not yet been recorded in Seychelles, and those are worth a lot of points. Take a look to the Seychelles Plant Gallery (www.seychellesplantgallery.com) or to iNaturalist to get a glimpse of what is already known or recorded.
We wish you good luck for this photo competition. And we invite you to pass by the Seychelles National Herbarium (Bel Etang Building, Mont Fleuri, Tel: 4326066 OR to contact us (bsenterre@gmail.com, tarah_p@hotmail.com, charles6422@gmail.com) if you need any help on how to use iNaturalist or to set it up on your Smartphone.
Follow this link for more information on how to get started with iNaturalist:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started
Best wishes,
Members of the developing Bio Network team
