This map illustrates all the Moose and Wolf sightings identified in North America on the website inaturalist between 2005 and 2023. I used Open Refine to clean up the data by regulating the format of each data entry. I used ArcGIS online to plot the data on a map and stylize my presentation. My first idea was to plot the points by date to see how migration over the year effects when and where naturalists can find these animals. I later decided it might be more interesting to see where each of these clusters of animals fall in relation to big cities in North America. I crated a hosted feature layer from the wolf and moose data set because it was too large to go directly on to a web map. I then color coordinated the animals by common name and lowered the opacity because of the sheer density of dots on the map. Each dot returns values for the date the animal was observed, the time zone, a link out to the original inaturalist post, an image, a description if there is one, the place, the exact location, and the scientific and common name among other values. My base map is a topographical map to show the mountain ranges and give an indication of the topology of the US without too much distraction with colors or labels.
I also overlaid another layer called “Global Human Settlement – Urban Centres Database” that was created by Ersi Deutschland and updated on October 13th 2023. This layer highlights all the major cities in the world and returns values for biome classes, soil groups, elevation, climate classes, precipitation, temperature, population and lots more environmental categorizations. I think combining this map with the wolf and moose map could return some interesting information. How does environmental changes in and around a city effect the wildlife population nearby. You might also ask questions about how cities interact with local wildlife. Denver and Salt Lake City both have very close clusters of animals right up against their city limits. What does that say about the relationship between people living in these cities and wildlife in general, or the popularity of the app inaturalist in certain cities?
Combining these two data sets might not yield anything but questions but as a tool for humanistic inquiry, it seems to have already succeeded. The Digital Humanities aims to put data into a readable format but more importantly, into situations where it can be cross examined and return interesting takeaways. A close reading of this data should return more questions and encourage a closer look at the “story” that the data is telling.
