Eric Burnham

Eric Burnham

Mar 11, 2015

Group 6 Copy 50
3

Google Hangout for Backers (+ Friends!)

Hey everyone,

We're about halfway through our campaign (~30 days in), and I wanted to take some time to reflect and thank each of you, my early supporters, for seeding this Mexican Gray Wolf research community.

Building communities is not something that scientists are trained to do, though I think it's critically important. It's sometimes easy to lose sight of the fact that science isn't just about working in the lab and writing papers, but also about engaging with the public, and ensuring that good science is communicated!

This is important now more than ever as it relates to wolf conservation research (as many of you are well aware).

Some fun tidbits for the community:

+ Roughly 30 days in, we've hit ~10% of our goal with an initial group of 10 patrons for wolf research - this is an very exciting sign that a community is growing!

+ We've been featured by a number of prominent Wolf Advocacy groups generating a bunch of Facebook engagement (two examples here, and here).

+ We've had over unique 1,000 page views, from over 21 countries (from the US to Peru). That's one thousand people that now know a little more about Mexican Gray Wolves, and the importance of counting them properly!

At this point, I wanted to take the opportunity to try something different - and flip the tables slightly. I'd like to host a Google Hangout for this community so that we can all have the chance to meet each other. I've prepared a short 15 min lecture on the topic of this project's research and will leave the remainder of time for discussion / sharing of stories from the group. As much as crowdfunding is about online, I still place a high value on putting faces to the names (call me old fashioned, haha).

(EDIT) I've formalized the event date for Friday March, 20. Feel free to sign-up and say hi at the link below:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-conversation-about-mexican-gray-wolf-conservation-research-tickets-16194119046

Please feel free to also invite a few friends, and fellow gray wolf-advocates to the hangout. The more the merrier.

A standalone, shareable invite can be found here for friends.

https://experiment.com/u/BDwU0A

Looking forward to the discussion!

-Eric Burnham

3 comments

Join the conversation!Sign In
  • Sara Cope
    Sara CopeBacker
    I'd love to connect with some of your other sponsors. the only date that works for me is 3/20. I'm teaching on the 19th.
    Mar 12, 2015
  • Eric Burnham
    Eric BurnhamResearcher
    That's OK; 3/20 works for me too.
    Mar 13, 2015
  • Jason P Schein
    Jason P ScheinBacker
    Great idea, Eric. I wish I could join you but neither of those days work for me. Have fun!
    Mar 11, 2015
  • And1
    And1Backer
    Ditto the other labnote, I've signed up. Looking forward to meeting everyone!
    Mar 11, 2015

About This Project

Wolves play an important role in ecosystem health. When re-introduced into forests like Yellowstone, they helped control elk/deer populations and increased streamside vegetation. Our project aims to non-invasively identify rare and elusive Mexican wolves using their "scent", to get more accurate population count and estimates of age and gender structure. This is critical for informing forest restoration efforts in the Southwest. Backers will be rewarded with seeing the science, as it unfolds!

Blast off!

Browse Other Projects on Experiment

Related Projects

Wormfree World - Finding New Cures

Hookworms affect the lives of more than 400,000,000 men, women and children around the world. The most effective...

Viral Causes of Lung Cancer

We have special access to blood specimens collected from more than 9,000 cancer free people. These individuals...

Cannibalism in Giant Tyrannosaurs

This is the key question we hope to answer with this study. This project is to fund research into a skull...

Backer Badge Funded

Add a comment