Cell Phone Cricket Census in NYC

If you are in New York on September 11 and you have a cell phone and a good pair of ears, you can help with the first-ever comprehensive cricket census of New York City.

Biologists from the US Geological Survey are asking citizen scientists from the Big Apple to help them track the city’s cricket and katydid population. Participants in the NYC Cricket Crawl will go out between dusk and midnight to record cricket calls for one minute, and then immediately send their results and location to the scientists by cell phone.

The researchers are hoping to find evidence that the Common True Katydid, once plentiful in New York City but now rare, is still thriving in some regions of the city.

Scientists came up with the idea after reading a brief report on the mysterious disappearance of the common katydid on Staten Island, written in 1920. Although nearly 90 years have passed since the report, no one has solved the mystery of the missing katydid.

You don’t need any special equipment to become a Cricket Crawler, and there are two options for submitting your data: Either ID your own cricket songs and call or text in the results, or if you have access to a phone or digital camera with video, you can record what you hear and send the file directly to the scientists. Real-time cricket census data and interactive maps will be available as the night continues.

Original article here.