You may recall that the Environmental Committee used to publish a wildlife map showing where bobcats and other wildlife were spotted throughout Seabrook Island, but it has fallen into disuse. It was driven by reports submitted by Seabrookers when they saw some unusual wildlife, for example, otters or roseate spoonbills, or wildlife doing unusual things.
The annual survey confirmed that Seabrookers are avidly interested in wildlife and, as a result, the Environmental Committee is launching a new interactive Wildlife Sighting Report Form and Map. This new site is more ‘high tech’ requiring very little hands-on intervention for mapping our wildlife sightings and it’s fun. This is what it looks like:
With this new site you can click here to go to a page where you can choose to report a sighting or to view the map which contains all the data from the reports. When you submit a report of a wildlife sighting, it will populate the map with an icon of the animal you’re reporting. You will be asked to move the animal icon to the spot where the animal was seen on Seabrook Island. You are also asked to comment on your observations, reporting the unusual activity or the overall health and size of the animal, adult or juvenile. If reporting a bird such as the roseate spoonbill, please include the species of bird in the narrative description.
The real-time Wildlife Sightings Map displays all the animal sightings that have been reported. The map has both a map and satellite views of Seabrook Island. ‘Clicking’ on the animal icon will bring up the narrative comments by the submitter. As reports come in on wildlife sightings, more functionality may be added to this site.
We hope you will enjoy seeing your wildlife sightings and learning of those of your neighbors on our new interactive Wildlife Sighting Report Form and Map. Our thanks go to Philip Miller for his work on creating this new website.
-Submitted by the SIPOA Environmental Committee