https://stagbeetle.observation.org/ is the data environment of the European Stag Beetle Monitoring Network. It is the data entry point for all European countries involved in the monitoring network and allows data entry for transect walks and habitat assessments.
https://stagbeetle.observation.org/ is a dedicated project site built on the observation.org-cluster. This means that it is also available as a project on the observation.org and waarnemingen.be-site:
- https://observation.org/projects/30/
- https://waarnemingen.be/projects/30/
- https://waarneming.nl/projects/30/
Although it is possible to enter data in observation.org or waarnemingen.be, you will have to use the dedicated site to become known as a stag beetle volunteer.
Select your language
The project site is (or will be) available in all languages of the participating countries. You can switch languages at the top right of the page.
Translation is a work in progress and is carried out by country coordinators. For some languages translation will be complete, for others there might be parts that remain to be translated (these parts are shown in English).
Make an account or log in
The account that you formerly used to enter stag beetle transect data will no longer work but after creating a new account you will be able to adopt your former transect and (in autumn 2021) see, edit and download all the transect data of previous years. In case you already have an account at Waarnemingen.be, Observations.be, Waarneming.nl or Observation.org, you can use the same login codes.
Otherwise, you need to sign up here.
The application will ask for your country. This information is used to show you the right locations and the most convenient map zoom.
Locations
Add a new location
Attention: Existing transects are already imported in the project. Before creating a new location, check at the locations tab if it doesn’t already exist.
Every stag beetle volunteer can create his own project locations by using the ‘Add location’ tab:
- Provide a short but clear location name
- Draw the location on the map. Use the ‘polyline drawing tool’ to draw your transect of about 500m on the map. Double click the endpoint of your drawing to finish it. Use the ‘marker drawing tool’ to define a point transect.
- Note that the coördinates of the position of the cursor are shown at the right bottom of the map. This can be helpful in forested regions with little reference points on the map.
- Zoom in and out by scrolling the mouse wheel
- Don’t touch the ‘Stag beetle’ tag
- Optional: provide a more detailed description of your location
- SaveLocations tab
The locations you created will appear under ‘Your project locations’
Editing an existing location
Attention: Formerly created transects are already imported in the project, but as a point, not as a transect. It would be of great help if volunteers replace these points by the transect for their own locations.
- Go to the Locations tab on top of the homepage
- Search for your location by using the filter or by using the map
- You can use the tick box ‘Only my locations’ to restrict the list to the locations you created yourself.
- If you click on the Zoom button after a location, the map will zoom to that location
- Clicking on a location on the map will show its name:
- Click on the edit button in the location table
- You can now either completely redraw your location or edit the existing location
- To redraw your location:
- Select the ‘polyline drawing tool’.
- Draw your transect of about 500m on the map. Once the drawing is finished, the old location will disappear.
- Click the Save button at the bottom
- To edit the location:
- Click on the edit button
The vertices are shown and can be repositioned with the cursor:
- After your editing, first save the changes in the map layer
- Then click the Save button at the bottom
Visits
Adding a new visit
- Go to the Add visit tab on top of the homepage
- Select a protocol (transect walk or habitat assessment)
- Select a location
- The habitat assessment form should be filled in once a year:
- Fill in the form with the abiotic variables
- Species observations cannot be entered in this protocol
- Click the Save button
- In case of transect walk:
- Fill in the abiotic variables (when known)
- To record an observation, click on the map on the spot where you have observed a stag beetle. When a large number of stag beetles are seen, observations can be aggregated in blocks of 50m or 3 min.
- A popup window will appear where you can enter the species and specimen counts for the different sexes, lifestages and activities:
- Click the save button on the popup window
- You can add other observations on other locations. Each observation will appear as a numbered spot on the map and as a new record in the observation table below the map:
- With the icons in the table, you can edit an observation, change the location of the observation or delete a sample
- When everything is OK, click the Save visit button
Editing or deleting an existing visit
- Go to the Visit tab on top of the homepage
- Search for your visit by using the filter
- You can use the tick box ‘Only my visits’ to restrict the list to the visits you created yourself.
- Open the visit by clicking on the visit date
Click on the edit or delete button to alter the visit
Export data
At the bottom of the home page, you can export your own data from the database:
Two export files are supported: csv file or SQLite database. The export will be created in the background and you will be notified by email when it is ready.
Old exports can be consulted by clicking on ‘My exports’ at the right top of the export box.
Country coördinators can export all the data for their country.
In the near future (autumn 2021) you will also be able to download your transect data from previous years.
