Welcome to WildStripes.Africa, my citizen science project!
I love visiting game parks and nature reserves and always have my camera in hand. I have taken way too many photos on these visits. Whether it’s a flower, insect, bird or one of the big 5 I have tried to photograph them all.
In the last two years my focus started to change. I thought that it would be great to recognise the 200+ Plains Zebras at Rietvlei Nature Reserve in Centurion South Africa. Zebras are generally quite easy to photograph, particularly at reserves like Rietvlei. They are not concerned about cars and often you must squeeze past them on the roads.
This led to me collecting photos of the Zebras and building a database of photographs and information on them. Along the way I have been learning about their behaviour by spending time watching them.
Zebras are often overlooked by visitors to parks because they are relatively common and are often very visible. Sure, people let the kids watch them for a few minutes before moving on to look for more “exciting” animals. The fact is that Zebra numbers are in decline over much of Africa. I can’t imagine what a visit to a game park would be like without Zebras being around.
All the above led to the creation on this site. I have always admired ordinary people who have contributed to the pool of knowledge on a subject. I made the decision to make my contribution by building a site devoted to Zebras in general but focused on a way of identifying and recording individuals.
My goal is to develop the technology that allows people on safaris to upload a photo of a zebra and get feedback on that individual. If it is not already in the database, then it will be added. Over time the database will build up and be able to provide interesting information on individual zebras.
Is this possible? Of course it is! We have technology that allows human fingerprints and faces to be identified. Each Zebra has a unique set of stripes, so it is very much like an enormous fingerprint.
How can you help me on this project? I am looking for sponsors and for people to go out photographing Zebras and sending me the photos.
If you have any questions or proposals, then I would love to hear from you. Go to my contact page to send me an email.
Thanks for visiting this site.
Steven Herbert