[Babase] Fwd: [Fwd: Snames not in BIOGRAPH]
Susan Alberts
alberts at duke.edu
Thu May 7 11:36:08 EDT 2009
Ah, very enlightening Catherine, thank you.
Catherine sent me the email below, which was in the babase email list
archives I gather.
The important point is that we should not add TUR and HAD to the
babase_pending list -- Lacey, ignore my previous request on that.
Catherine's email makes clear that by the time we dug up Turkana and
Hadada, the snames TUR and HAD were already in biograph for other
animals in study groups (Turuh and Hadley). So, these are NOT snames
"not in biograph" and we should not add them to this list. Makes sense?
The upshot is that we decided to just ignore the fact that there might
be notes somewhere about animals named Turkana and Hadada, because if
so they are lost in the mists of time and we can't locate any
references to them.
Susan
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Catherine Markham <amarkham at Princeton.EDU>
> Date: 7May, 2009 11:18:50 AM EDT
> To: Susan Alberts <alberts at duke.edu>
> Subject: [Fwd: Snames not in BIOGRAPH]
>
> Hi Susan,
>
> I wanted to send this to you - does it help at all? I know it is
> quite dated at this point (message was from Jul 2006), but it seems
> to reference some of the same issues as your recent email.
>
> Hope perhaps it can help,
> Catherine
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Snames not in BIOGRAPH
> Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:05:14 -0400
> From: Catherine Markham <amarkham at princeton.edu>
> Organization: Princeton University
> To: BaBase Listserv <babase at eeblistserv.Princeton.EDU>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm sending this to the list for archiving. The text below is from
> Susan (responding to an email from me) with reference to snames that
> are
> not currently in BIOGRAPH but should not be reused by the field team
> when assigning names/snames to new individuals. It includes some
> useful
> info on the source of these non-BIOGRAPH, as well as few specific
> comments on particular individuals.
>
> Catherine
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: weather and names
> Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:02:02 +0300
> From: Amboseli Baboon Research Project
>
>> The snames list was fairly easy to do as well, but I did want to
>> ask you
>> a couple questions about it. I put the attached list together by
>> combining the snames that are in BIOGRAPH with the snames that were
>> in
>> an old Daphne file labeled "snames not in BIOGRAPH" (note that this
>> file
>> only contained snames and names - there was no additional info on
>> birth,
>> matgrp, etc.).
>
> Yes, I know about this file. Daphne and Jeanne together created this
> file when we did the last update of the snames file in camp, because
> there are a number of animals that do not occur in biograph.
> I believe these fall into 3 categories: (1) offspring that were born
> after we stopped studying a given group. For instance I think there
> are some Lodge group babies and some Proton's group babies that got
> named after we stopped monitoring the groups and they are not
> incorporated into babase. (2) animals that occurred in the very
> early days of observation in the late 60's and early 70's (or early
> 80's for
> Lodge group), but for whom we have almost no information -- for
> instance BAN who was a putative Lodge group male that occurred there
> just when we first started but then disappeared. He is not in babase
> but we don't want to re-use the name. I believe that BIG (A
> Hightail's animal) and Boxer and Hairpintail are also in this
> category. (3) Animals that got named in nonstudy groups but were
> never in study groups. DON was an Olkenya female. A number of the
> others are males in Stud's or Olkenya's that never immigrated into
> study groups and that we only knew for a short time. We don't want
> these names duplicated but they are not in babase. Perhaps it would
> be good if you annotated Daphne's file with this information if this
> is not already done.
>
> One note -- Cameroon appears twice in the file you sent, once with
> sname CAM and once with sname CS1. Cameroon was an infant that was
> born after we stopped observation on Proton's group (or we stopped
> right around the time she was born), to Casey I think. I think that
> in the old version (foxpro version) of Biograph this animal did not
> appear, but this animal has been incorporated into the new version
> of biograph. So, she appeared in Daphne's "snames not in biograph"
> as CAM but appears in the new biograph with CS1 (indicating that her
> mother was Casey I believe). You should decide how Cameroon should
> appear (CAM or CS1) and then let me know. In the meantime I will
> assume that CAM is taken and is not available as an sname.
>
> Another note: The male born Aug 05 into 1.21 with the sname DIP has
> the full name Dipstick in our records. In Biograph he just occurs as
> DIP for the full name but he is referred to here by the full name
> Dipstick (mother is Dunlin).
>
>>
>> 1. Check that the sname list at camp does not have any additional
>> snames?
>
> There are none (other than babies born since Dec 2005 -- I have just
> added those here to the working snames file that I am printing out).
> Daphne compiled the complete list in 2004.
>
>> Jeanne suggested
>> that I (or Tabby) send an sname list to the team after every
>> demography
>> update. This wouldn't be difficult at all, especially after we
>> sort out
>> which snames need to be appended to our BIOGRAPH records.
>
> I think that this is something that is easier to do it when Jeanne
> or I are here. It is not something that needs to be done often
> (every 2 years seems about enough) and after you send the updated
> biograph list one must go through the annotated list here in order
> to add all the births since the last biograph update. This seems
> like an easy place for error to creep in, and it is perhaps better
> not to go through this process too often and it is easy to do when i
> am here. Also, it doesn't seem to me that this needs to be done that
> often. I don't have the sense that "mistakes" come from them not
> having an updated list, at least not in the past 2 years since we
> started the current system that incorporates all the snames not in
> Biograph. So unless you feel there is a really compelling reason
> (and you are certainly more aware of sname errors than I am), I
> suggest that we continue to try this system, where I (or Jeanne) do
> an update here every couple of years. It does seem that it will be
> good to quickly document on your end how you combined Daphne's file
> with biograph.
>>
>> 2. Ask the team about snames TUR and HAD.
>
> TUR is Turuh, born into Viola's in 2004. HAD is Hadley, born into
> Nyayo's in 2004. Turkana and Hadada were names that were given to
> non-study animals at some point, and I believe that TUR and HAD were
> named before we put together Daphne's list of snames not in biograph
> with biograph. So, there were, at some point at least briefly,
> animals with the names Turkana and Hadada but they were either
> nonstudy group males that we have lost track of or they were babies
> or adult females in nonstudy groups.
>
>> Also, I wanted to point out that the sname list includes all the
>> snames
>> as of our last demography update (so through December 2005). If you
>> like, I'm happy to go through the datasheets and manually add
>> snames for
>> new individuals named between January and April of 2006.
>
> Thanks, it was easy to do here with the annotated snames list in the
> office.
>
> Susan
>
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Alberts, Department of Biology, Duke University, Box 90338,
Durham NC 27708 USA, Phone 919-660-7272, FAX 919-660-7293, alberts at duke.edu
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