The Naturalist's Guide is for our backpack program that is starting this summer at local libraries and will be a generalized wildlife and nature guide for those who borrow the backpack. The main goal of the guide is for the users to discover the wildlife, geology, and history of the open spaces they are visiting without having to find larger, more complex books on the subjects. In order for that to be done, we are including species common names, scientific names, short facts/descriptions, and clear pictures for identification. I am searching for photographs of each species (about 90 or so) that are full body, individual or pairs, possibly with an edited out background. The blank or blurred background is to make identification easier for users and it gives the guide a cleaner look (I have seen guides done both with and without edited backgrounds and the edited ones just look better, but I'm still not sure what we are going to do yet). This can be done in post by our graphic designer unless someone in the club is interested in doing the editing. I am also looking for landscape pictures that show the key landmarks of each of our open spaces to use for those sections of the guide.

Picture Requirements:

Each picture must be a full body image of the animal, preferably from the side to get the entire body clearly. Key characteristics must also be visible for users to clearly identify the animals. If part of the animal is blocked, it is okay as long as it is not one of those key characteristics (ie a leg can be blocked on a black-tailed prairie dog, but the black tip on the tail should be visible). I'm not trying to be too strict on these, but imagine if you are brand new to wildlife identification and the pictures we have for you to identify the animals are just of the head or are missing the tail so you might think a muskrat is the same as a beaver. We just want to make it as easy as possible for beginners to use while also being informative to more advanced users.

Links:

Google Sheets list of species -  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Npn6DtUDnDrNQ4bK2HBkTUYPdfB0qgA3_TaGeLQbCkI/edit?usp=sharing

Google Photos naturalist's guide album - https://photos.app.goo.gl/3TX5zBQkQ32dsmx49

If you choose to submit photos, make sure that you put your name in the photo description so I know who to give credit to if/when the photo is used in the guide.

Hopefully this helps and is enough information. Again, if you have any further questions, please send me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you!

Hailey Levea