[Babase] Demography Notes Question for Jeanne, Susan, Karl, and Leah

Catherine Markham babase@www.eco.princeton.edu
Tue, 19 Apr 2005 15:27:03 -0400


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Hi all,<br>
<br>
I was hoping to get your feedback on the use of demography notes in
BaBase.&nbsp; Daphne went over the demography notes with me before she left,
but I just want to be certain I got it all before finishing the 2004-B
demography update.<br>
<br>
As I understand it, there are two basic scenarios that occur
with the demography notes . . . <br>
<br>
1.&nbsp; Demography note date/group/sname consistent with a census record:
<br>
In general, the objective here is to add additional notes to BaBase
that otherwise wouldn't or couldn't be entered.&nbsp; Examples include the
date an infant was first observed in the field or the first observed
immigration date for a male.&nbsp; Demography notes are not given for deaths
and male emigrations.&nbsp; Because all the information in the demography
note and the group census is consistent, this note is not really
changing anything about how members is determined through Karl's
programs (the same
presence/absence and interpolation would be calculated with or without
the demography note).
<br>
<br>
2.&nbsp; Demography note date/group/sname not consistent with a census
record:
<br>
In these cases, we have the opportunity to place an animal in a group
(or list it as alone or with unknown group) based on "chance"
observations.&nbsp; Examples here include a note on a male that visited a
group after the group was censused or a note for male observed alone
off in the
distance while the team is monitoring a study group.&nbsp; The information
in these notes will be putting additional info. in census and members
that we wouldn't have if we relied on group censuses alone.&nbsp; <br>
<br>
A stumbling block I'm having is how to decipher whether the information
in the hand-written data warrants placing an animal in a group through
demography notes.&nbsp; For instance, say the team is monitoring Viola's
group and after the Viola census they observe Liberty interacting with
group members.&nbsp; Since Liberty wasn't present at the time of the census,
I don't want to simply add Liberty to the group through the demography
note.&nbsp; So then would I list Liberty's group as unknown for that day by
default and mention in the "notes" field that he joined late and
interacted?&nbsp; And what if the team mentions something specific, like
Liberty joined Viola's from Omo's . . . is that enough to justify
placing Liberty in Omo's even if I don't have any other information
on Omo's group for that day?
<br>
<br>
And, one last questions for Karl:&nbsp; What would happen if you mistakenly
put an animal in, say, group A with a demography note but also had a
record of that animal being censused in group B on the same day.&nbsp; How
would members handle it, or is this something the demography note
validation checks for?<br>
<br>
Sorry for the long email and thanks for any comments!<br>
Catherine<br>
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