Friday, April 28, 2006

Iraq Fauna Wiki and Fly Fishing in Iraq

I thought I'd elaborate a bit more on the new site I recently set up called Iraq Fauna. Its a wiki format, so like wikipedia where anyone can edit the entries this new site is meant to develop as an aggregation of information and ideas about animal life and the environment in Iraq. Please email me if you have any trouble using the site. To edit a page all you need to do is press the edit button and start typing. Don't worry about screwing anything up, all previous versions are saved and can be recovered.

I'd like to emphasize the collaborative part of this, and invite everyone to contribute to the extent they can, even if it is reformatting the text on a page. I think, relatively rapidly we can build a site that can be a valuable resource. For those who have been in Iraq or are currently in the country please add your observations and photos. I'll be adding all my wildlife and habitat photos to the gallery.

I've set up the skeleton of the site and I'm currently working on. I also have put up a list for the Birds of Iraq, which is a starting point for developing a definitive list based on well documented sightings and specimen records. I'm hoping to have a significant amount of Arabic language content and welcome anyone who wants to start working on it. I'll be adding Arabic names on the Checklist of the Birds of Iraq page.

On another note I found a
great website written by Joel, a US Navy officer, devoted to fishing in the lakes around the Camp Victory Complex near Baghdad International Airport. This guy even started a Fly Fishing Course for military personnel! Also some nice fish pictures.

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