Species Project: Basic Information Search & Approved Webpages

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My species topic: Taiwanese Humpback Dolphin. Please use this selected species for this paper

In this assignment, you will do a search for basic information about your species covering the topics below (at minimum). To find this information, you are asked to only used the list of approved websites below OR any resources available on the UW Library Website (such as e-books, journals etc). You will then write up a 500 word summary of what you find, which includes a reference from for each sentence, citing at least five webpages. If it is helpful to you to see an example of what this summary looks like, please see the attached Word document. 

Key points about your species to cover:

  • A general description (i.e., what it looks like, how it differs from other similar species)
  • Distribution (where it is found, migration patterns if applicable, etc.)
  • Habitat (what kind of places it tends to live)
  • Information about its life history, to the extent that it is known (e.g., lifespan, number of offspring, if it shifts ranges during its life)
  • Foraging ecology (e.g., what it eats, how it eats)
  • DO NOT discuss threats, management, conservation or endangered status of your species (you will do this in the next assignment)

Approved webpages:

Finding this basic information about marine species can be challenging without using webpages, however, many webpages have inaccurate information. As such, I ask that you only use these webpages as I know they are reputable!  If you find another source you think is reputable that you would like to use, however, please feel free to email me for approval!

General webpages

  • Any sources on our UWB Library Resource PageLinks to an external site.!
  • Any US government agency website (examples of potentially useful sites below). Other agencies are okay but the website MUST end in .gov. This includes state websites; these should also end in .gov. If you are looking at websites for countries beyond the US, that is okay, but be sure it is an official government website – I will check when I grade your project! Some government websites that will be especially useful: 
    • NOAA Fisheries (Links to an external site.)
    • US Geological Survey (Links to an external site.)
    • Fish and Wildlife Service (Links to an external site.)
    • US Marine Mammal Commission (Links to an external site.)
  • International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List (Links to an external site.)
  • Smithsonian Institution Websites (ends in si.edu)
  • Animal Diversity Web (Links to an external site.)
  • Encyclopedia of Earth (Links to an external site.)
  • Encyclopedia of Life (Links to an external site.)
  • Grizmek’s Animal Life Encyclopedia (Links to an external site.)
  • iNaturalist (Links to an external site.)
  • NatureServe Explorer (Links to an external site.)

Taxa specific websites:

  • Seabirds:
    • BirdLife International (Links to an external site.) 
    • National Audubon Society (Links to an external site.)
    • Birds of North America (Links to an external site.)
  • Marine Mammals (Dolphins, whales, seals, sea lions, otters, manatees, polar bears)
    • NOAA Fisheries (Links to an external site.)
  • Sea Turtles
    • NOAA Fisheries (Links to an external site.)
    • Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (Links to an external site.)
  • Sharks
    • NOAA Fisheries (Links to an external site.)
    • Florida Museum of Natural History (Links to an external site.)
    • FishBase (Links to an external site.)
  • Other Fish
    • NOAA Fisheries (Links to an external site.)
    • FishBase (Links to an external site.)

Writing your summary:

You will write up a 500 word summary of what you find, which includes a reference for each sentence. You should cite at least five webpages. Since webpages are long, and often without a defined author, you may include citations any way that is easy for you. You can:

  • Use footnotes to say what webpage it is from
  • Number the citations and list them in the proper order at the end of your summary
  • Refer to each page by the agency or source and the year if it is dated, or just 2020 if it is not dated, for example (NOAA 2020). You will need to be sure to differentiate between different webpages if you use more than one from the same agency, for example using: (NOAA 2020a) and (NOAA 2020b).

At the end of your summary be sure to include a list of all of the references you cited in the text (in other words, a bibliography) that allows me to link the in text references to this list.

If it is helpful to you to see an example of what this summary looks like, please see the attached Word document.

Example Basic Info Summary_Hawksbill Sea Turtle_FINAL.docxActions 

Reminders

Some critical things to remember:

  • Use your own words (a plagiarism checker will be used for each assignment)
  • Do not use quotes – again always your own words; you will lose 10 points for every line of quotes in your paper
  • Have a reference for every sentence
  • Be sure you link between in-text references and ref list in a way that I can discern (numbers, last names, etc)
  • Use appropriate refs (approved websites, scholarly articles or books) 
  • In your reference list, be sure to give an entire reference, not just a web link
  • DO NOT discuss threats, management, conservation, or endangered status in this paper (that is the next assignment); you will lose 10 points if you do!

Solution

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