Overlapping habitats

General
1

Hi Everybody,

I am looking for a method to find overlapping habitats of different species.

For example I would like to find out where the Bobcat and Canadian Lynx have a lot of inaturalist sightings in similar areas.

I can search and take note of areas I know to be overlapping habitats for one species and then check the other but I would love to be able to search all of them.

Does anybody have any ideas how to go about this to produce a map with both (or more than two) species on it?

I have searched github but haven’t found anything there.

thanks in advance for the help

Adrian

2

You could export the data, import it to arcGIS or other GIS software, create buffers around the points, find where they intersect, and overlay a habitat raster. Alternatively you could clip the points to specific habitat types to see which species are distributed in specific habitats. I would love to hear if there is a quicker and easier solution though.

3

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/map?taxa=41976,41974 gives you

image
image1771×821 87.7 KB

2 Likes
4

Thanks for the ideas Michael.

I too would love to hear a quicker and easier solution because what you suggest sounds like a lot of learning. While I understand your individual steps I have no idea how to implement them.

However learning more about how to use GIS is on my todo list. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
5

Thanks Jane,

Now the question is how does one do that? I can obviously just find the tax id’s and then adjust your URL.

I imagine it is relatively easy but I seem to be missing something.

6

That’s how I do it. If you had a bunch, you could script something up. Or there are ways to call up the map tiles in GIS programs, but that gets more complicated.

7

Well thanks I will have to do it that way then. Glad you answered then because I would never have found the URL otherwise. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
8

Welcome to the forum @chasingwildlife And thanks for asking such a great question. I’m having a lot of fun working with the solution with other Felids and such.

1 Like
9

Hi Bob,

It is for the other cats that I am more interested in the answer. I want to find a spot in South America that will allow me to see as many cats as possible in a small area. The same in Borneo. Long term travel plans but not a bad way to find a good area to maximise my chances of photographing the wild cats.

10

Adrian, Sounds like a fun project. Not sure if you know your way around searching for the taxa but here is South America Felids: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/map?taxa=41970,42007,41997,74481,197781,41988,41987,74482,544590,1240547,1240545,926056,1240544,1264712#3/-25.589/-39.082
and
Borneo Felids:https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/map?taxa=922736,74753,41947,42033#6/1.582/113.709
Borneo is a great place to go to if you have not been.

11

Wow Bob,

Thanks for that. You did all the work for me. I can get the taxa but it is a bit of a laborious process.

Well I still have to do Africa. But I pretty much know those ranges off the top of my head. Also it is only the golden cat and the black-footed cat that are difficult to find.

I have’t yet been to Borneo. Looking forward to the end of the Pandemic and the ability to plan travel again.

12

yep, they are hard to see even in places where they are common on camera traps

13

Very hard it seems. All and any hints and tips are welcome.

14

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.