Kenya Virtual Museum Records

Rene Navarro1, Colin Jackson2, Michael Brooks3

1 FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Rondebosch, 7701, Cape Town, South Africa; 2 A Rocha Kenya, Plot 28, Beach Road, Watamu, Kenya; 3 

Corresponding author(s): Rene Navarro (rene.navarro@uct.ac.za), Colin Jackson (colin.jackson@arocha.org)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Abstract

This data-set contains Virtual Museum records for Kenya, it is part of the project "Prioritizing conservation management in an East African forest landscape" (Project ID BID-AF2017-0274-NAC).
The Virtual Museum (VM) is a database system and corresponding web front-end, it is a research tool with the following main objectives: (1) to provide a platform for citizen scientists to contribute to science-driven biodiversity projects; submitted records are identified and vetted online by a panel of experts; (2) to serve as a repository for the long term curation of distributional data sets; (3) to provide open access to distributional data in the form of maps and lists. The VM has been used as the platform for the Conservation Assessment of reptiles, butterflies, mammals and birds.  Currently the VM hosts 17 biodiversity projects: BirdPix (bird pictures archive), BOP (odd plumages of birds), DungBeetleMAP (atlas of dung beetles, Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), EchinoMAP (atlas of African Echinoderma , sea stars, sea urchins and brittle stars), FishMAP (atlas of freshwater fish in southern and eastern Africa), FrogMAP (atlas of African frogs), LacewingMAP (atlas of African Neuroptera and Megaloptera), MushroomMAP (atlas of South African Mushrooms), OdonataMAP (atlas of African Odonata), OrchidMAP (atlas of African Orchids), PHOWN (photos of weaver nests), LepiMAP (atlas of African Lepidoptera), ReptileMAP (atlas of African Reptiles), ScorpionMAP (atlas of African Scorpions), SpiderMAP (atlas of African Spiders), MammalMAP (atlas of African Mammals), TreeMAP (atlas of South African trees).

Keywords: Occurrence, temporal, spatial, genus, species, citizen science, volunteer; Birds; Dung Beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae); Echinoderma (sea stars, sea urchins and brittle stars); Freshwater fish; Frogs; Lacewings (Neuroptera and Megaloptera); Mushrooms; Odonata, Orchids; Lepidoptera; Reptiles; Scorpions; Spidera; Mammals; Trees., Observation

Project details

Project title: A checklist of the reptiles and amphibians of Arabuko-Sokoke Forest, Kenya, 2018
Personnel: James Ashe, Steve Spawls, Patrick Malonza, Jesse Borden, Rene Navarro, Colin H.W. Jackson, Judith A. Ochieng
Funding: European Union through GBIF: https://www.gbif.org/project/7EOzw96rgAoSKKUgYaoaCe/prioritizing-conservation-management-in-an-east-african-forest-landscape
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Arabuko-Sokoke Forest is the largest remaining patch of indigenous coastal forest in East Africa. It is located just south of Malindi at 03° 20’ S, 39° 50’ E. It predominantly consists of three distinct forest habitat types: Cynometra Forest (c. 23,500 ha) which is dominated by Cynometra webberi and Manilkara sulcata; it used also to be dominated by Brachylaena huilliensis but this has been largely selectively removed; Brachystegia Woodland (c. 7,700 ha), dominated by Brachystegia spiciformis on white sandy soil; and Mixed Forest (c.7,000 ha) which occurs on the eastern side and has a diverse tree flora including Afzelia quanzensis (formerly dominant), Hymenaea verrucosa, Combretum schumannii and Manilkara sansibarensis and the cycad Encephalartos hildebrandtii. A series of seasonal wetlands run north-south along the length of the forest where the more clay-rich red soils of the Cynometra underlie the permeable white sandy soil of the Brachystegia. Plantations of exotic trees exist mostly around the Gede and Jilore forest stations in the north with one smaller plantation along the southern boundary. The forest now fully isolated as a habitat being surrounded by low grade farmland with all forest cover removed.
Design description: This checklist contains records of reptiles and amphibians found in Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. It is based on a list first compiled by James Ashe in 1999 and added to and edited by the other lead authors. The records are from confirmed observations, identifiable photographs and trapped animals. The checklist was digitised and prepared for publishing through GBIF by A Rocha Kenya.

Data published through GBIF: http://aduipt.uct.ac.za:8080/ipt-2.3.2/resource?r=kenya_virtual_museum_records

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Most occurrence correspond to photographic records identified to species level by an appointed panel of taxonomic experts in each major taxa covered by the data set.
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Aves, Osteichthyes, Amphibia, Reptilia, Mammalia
Order: Neuroptera, Megaloptera, Lepidoptera, Scorpiones, Araneae
Family: Scarabaeidae
Common names: Birds, Dung Beetles, sea stars, sea urchins and brittle stars, fishes, Frogs, reptiles, Mammals, Lacewings, Ant lions, Alderflies, Dobsonflies, Butterflies, Moths, Scorpions, Spiders

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: This resource covers Virtual Museum records throughout Kenya.
Coordinates: 5°23'24''S and 4°57'0''N Latitude; 33°30'36''E and 42°36'36''E Longitude 

Methods

Method step description: The Virtual Museum consists of photographic records submitted by citizen scientists, the data includes locality description and precise point-location data.
Study extent description: Virtual Museum data consist mostly of photographic records submitted by citizen scientists across Africa.
Sampling description: The Virtual Museum consists of photographic records submitted by citizen scientists, the data includes locality description and precise point-location data. However, the coordinates of the data presented here are given as the center-point of a 15x15 minute grid.

The VM system can also include other type of data: sighting data, museum (specimen) records, camera-trap records, and literature records.
Quality control description: Identification of photographic records is done by an appointed panel of taxonomic experts in the respective taxa that the various projects hosted by the Virtual Museum system.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Kenya Virtual Museum Records
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://aduipt.uct.ac.za:8080/ipt-2.3.2/archive.do?r=kenya_virtual_museum_records
Publication date of data: 2025-04-19
Language: English
Licences of use: This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode">Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License</a>.

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2019-02-13
Hierarchy level: Dataset