Found butterfly here:
https://cumbriacrack.com/2018/03/01/new-wordsworth-house-exhibition-chronicles-battle-nature/
List of labs able to provide assistance to Ukrainian scientists, fwiw, here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jGFCqP2kj1ZAN6xy6EoRN1bozaggk9VEsbzYaIkkYcQ/edit#gid=0
I subscribed to the observations made in Ukraine. I canāt ID to species but I can help with some of the easier issues. If you have any ID expertise in that part of the world, please take a look. I noticed some of the staff from the Academy of Science of Ukraine was posting today. If we can get those observations to research grade they will be added to GBIF. Multiple confirming IDs are good.
And yes Eugene and others, many of us are praying for and thinking of you. Ukraine is a frequent topic of conversation in my circle. I tell the tiny stories of iNatters I see here. Wishing you safety and protection.
Thatās an incredible list - thank you for posting. Iāve passed the link on to the people I know in academic labs.
And many thanks for the link to the exhibition. That image of the collected butterfly isā¦ moving.
Iām doing Russian observations, just to support those folks, and let them know they are not forgotten.
I looked yesterday and noticed that there were plants that even those in the US might be able to ID since they appear to be native to Ukraine or the region (for instance European Lily of the Valley and, I think I saw, chicory) but brought here by European immigrants or through some other means. Obviously, we need to be careful, but just want to mention that there are some.
I am very distant from this conflict and donāt know how hard this is logistically, but is it possible to contact natural history museums or similar institutions in Poland and Romania to have someone pick up collections from the refugee entry points, for at least temporary safekeeping?
Last night I started going through the Ukrainian āunknownsā, simply because I felt helpless and didnāt know what else to do with myself.
I was thinking about this, but it is hard to get the collections to the borders. Right now the resources in Poland are used in saving peopleās and pets lives, and delivering first-need products on the borders. Even if we managed to get a bus and a driver, I think it would be more ethical to organize transport to people and pets if needed.
I am not exactly sure whether the collections are in the direct danger at the moment.
Is āReachā here intended as a version of German word, āReichā ? I.e. something like, āImperialistā?
No, thatās me being unable to spell sometimes.
We native English speakers have not yet mastered spelling of the language either. I would never want to have to learn English as a second language. It has no rules. Iām impressed when anyone not a native speaker becomes fluent in it.
Of course one thinks of people first and always, but here too are some of Ukraineās already endangered plants and animals. (From āThe Revelatorā which is put out by the Center for Biological Diversity):
https://therevelator.org/endangered-species-ukraine/
Boguo, thanks for starting the topic. Iām from Poland. Itās hard time for us. We keep actively helping our friends from Ukraine. A lot of people here are engaged. What more can we do?
Someone adviced to make at least some IDās for Ukrainian observations, as a sign of solidarity. I tried to make some IDās for brophytes. But after a dozen pictures of all those green and vivid mosses I started to cry. Such a contrast with all this what we see in the news! (But later Iāll try again.)
The mosses will survive. They always do. I would hope the same for people, for iNat users and for all others.
Another idea. Give a donation to iNaturalist. Iāve been watching the activity from Ukraine the last few days and have been gob-smacked at the number of observations that are being uploaded, many of them made in months past. My understanding is that iNat is available to everyone with internet access as long as the government doesnāt block it. The situation in many countries is such that people find it difficult to support iNat. I imagine this is the case for those in Ukraine right now.
https://www.inaturalist.org/donate?utm_medium=web&utm_source=inaturalist.org
Welcome to the forum. Albeit under difficult circumstances.
Iāve heard that Doctors without Borders is an excellent charity. They already have a presence in the Ukraine and are concerned about refugees in surrounding countries as well.
We do have rules. But we draw our words from many languages - so each one comes with anglicised spelling rules from its own language.
Elon Musk has made Starlink available to Ukraine.
This comment is an invitation to an orgy of recriminations, which will not end well for anyone and certainly does not answer the question of what can be done to help Ukrainian naturalists.