Report your observation of fish using tools

Any information is helpful, so don't hesitate even if you are not sure about your observation!

➡️ Fill in this participation form

or this anonymous participation form if you would like to stay anonymous.

➡️ Or send us directly an email at juliette.tarieladam@mq.edu.au.

🙏 Thank you!

Participant information

What will your observation contribute?

Your observation of fish using tools will help document anvil use by fish and determine factors driving tool use evolution (the project description is on the website here). The two researchers involved in the project and funders are described on the website here.

What will happen to your observation?

1️⃣ Initially, only the two project investigators have access to what you have sent to us. This means that if you have sent us photos or videos, only we can view them. Data is stored securely on Dr Juliette Tariel-Adam's computer and backup on OneDrive cloud.

2️⃣ If you provide your email, we will ask you if we can spotlight your observation. We try to promote all the observations sent to us to thank you and highlight your contribution. See what has been done on the News page, Instagram and Twitter.
But that is only if you wish, and we will ask for your consent and to check the content before it is published.

3️⃣ After that, we will compile all observations in a final dataset and analyse it to answer the project questions about the evolution of tool use. You will be informed of any publications on social media, on the website and by email (if you provided your email address). Once the first paper is published, the final dataset will be published in open access (see below). Of everything you have sent us, only what is included in this dataset will be made publically available. The rest will only be accessible to the two project investigators.

Withdrawal

At any time before the dataset is published, you can send us an email to modify or delete your observation at juliette.tarieladam@gmail.com.

🗂️ What will the final dataset contain?

The final dataset will compile all observations with the following information for each observation:

According to your consent, the final dataset will also include:

We ask for your consent on the form and by email.

🤝 Why make the final dataset open access?

We believe that science must be collaborative, transparent and open access to be as efficient, reliable and fair as possible. Everyone will be able to access the final dataset for further research or simply out of curiosity about the use of tools in fish.

©️ Licence used for the final dataset

Firstly, what is a data licence? A licence is an agreement intended for data users to specify what they can or cannot do with the data. The final dataset will be under the Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0, don’t get afraid of the name! This licence indicates that the data can be used, meaning that it can be modified and shared, but that credit must be given to the authors when it is used.

The dataset will be deposited on the online data repository Zenodo. An online data repository is like an online library for data. It allows datasets to have a licence and metadata indicating the author and relevant information to make it easier to find the data.

📷 Pictures and videos

If you consent to it, your picture and videos will be made open access under the same Creative Commons licence CC BY 4.0 as the final dataset. This licence allows people to modify and share your media, but they must credit you. Let us know if you would like a more restrictive licence. Your media will be stored on Zenodo along with the final dataset. Although we will deposit the video for you, the metadata associated with your media will indicate that you are the author.

We will also encourage you to share your videos on any video platform (Youtube, Vimeo, etc) so that everyone can see the beauty and intelligence of a fish using a tool!

Background picture by Joseph Gracia