Google Earth has lots of pros. Even if you know spots near to your home, you can very efficiently search for suitable areas in the surroundings of these spots and save lots of time exploring. Especially in city areas and also areas with heavy agriculture, it is very useful to locate these areas. Otherwise, one would be wandering around for hours to get to the next suitable one.

A drawback of this tool is that many older books provide quite detailed drawings of the habitats which one may easily find with just a bit of patience. This is good for the "good" people, but also for the ones with questionable interests. I think we had similar discussion when it came to the details in field reports.

Regards,
Micha 

My computer has for some reason issues with Google Earth, so i`ve used Wikimapia.
I always check it and print out stuff before i go on a herptrip, and it makes all the difference
It`s fast, free and user friendly. I owe it most of my recent lifers so i highly recommend it.
Also, it`s cool that one can edit locations and share knowledge of great sites with other herpers, birders or mammal watchers.

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=44.4318186&lon=26.244278&z=12&l=0&m=b&show=/120768/Cernica-Forest

Happy herping,
Vlad
 

Hi Michael, last year I used it to look for suitable habitats for the 4 species of reptiles we have in East Yorkshire, this year I will concentrate on the 5 species of amphibians. it’s a great way to get you out and I get a big buzz when I find sites that are new to me.

Vlad, Wikimapia.org is a new one for me and its one I will certainly use, thanks for telling us about it.

Regarding those with illegal or wrong intent, I would of thought the most productive source of information for illegal collectors of rare and not so rare species would be that put out by conservation groups.
There’s countless websites on the net giving out detailed information on locations “maps” and estimated numbers of common rare and endangered species.
Unfortunately in order to protect an animal you have to raise government and public awareness in order to justify public and private spending.
I think we would all agree that the Internet is a fantastic source of information but it isn’t without its negative points.


Cheers,
Tony
 

Coincidence or not, I've been using some free time to extend my "making of..." page =>
http://www.hylawerkgroep.be/jeroen/index.php?id=40 

@Tony
The problem is that some people were not aware that such a thing as Google Earth will exist someday. So, if you read "The investigated habitat is located in the Black Forest." and on the drawn map, there is nothing but two rivers and some forest included - who should be able to locate that, say 1968? In 1968, one could consider this information safe. However, Google Earth allows you to cruise through the landscape, look along all rivers, check the shapes of the forest and, maybe it'll take 2h, at some point, you may find the desired spot. Same holds true for areas, where suitable habitats are rare. Even mentioning a city that is nearby can reveal too much.
Ok, so to make the point, I love Google Earth and the related tools because it makes life a lot easier. We should just be aware about the degree of detail that we mention in reports and I thought this specific thread about the tools was/is a good place to raise that point.

Regards,
Micha 

@Jeroen: yep - the overlay trick with semi-transparent maps - that's what I'm practicing, too ;-)
Using still a geko201 I have to print google-earth pictures of the relevant areas. 

Michael, you have raised what is an important issue and we should talk about it.
But we have to get things in the right perspective.
There’s lots of miss information put out by some conservationist, animal activist and even those that have an invested interest in captive breeding, they would have us believe that the wholesale collecting of European reptiles and amphibians still goes on but I haven’t seen any good evidence my self to suggest it does.
Some private individuals do collect in the wild but I would of thought they don’t have any more impact than natural predation,
Bloody cars and loss of habitat have a bigger impact!!
That said, it does depend on what species they collect such as “critically endangered”
I don’t give out information about sites I visit in the UK myself but for a different reason, I don’t wont novice’s handling them.




Cheers,
Tony
 

Ok, GoogleEarth might be a good help to find locations or go to places you have got from a friend.
But maybe you will pass another, maybe much better, place on the way.
So, I mostly try to find spots by myself. In this way I also can learn a lot of the animals ecology, what habitat typres they prefer and other things.
An example: In most reports and guide/books you read, Vipera s. seoanei and Lacerta schreiberi prefer humid habitats, close to creeks, etc. So where do you search for these species?
Would you stop on your way at a habitat like this, looking for the two species?

And this was our best place in NW Spain, we found it: >30 Lacerta schreiberi and >20 Vipera s. seoanei, bilineata and normal type about 50:50, only on this part, shown on the images

Mario 

Hi Mario I don’t think you can beat having a good eye for what is and isn’t good habitats, that’s something you develop over the years with experience.
Google Earth would probably be more affective at finding suitable habitat for amphibians because water is easy to see.
The area were I live is heavily farmed and suitable habitats for reptiles are easily seen too, but i don’t think it’s going to be that easy on Lesvos.


Cheers,
Tony
 

Sorry, browser problem - double post. 

You raise a very good point Mario. I am sometimes scared to death when I find animals or even whole populations at places, where I would (from all I know from literature and own observations) have sworn that a species would NEVER EVER be located at that point.
None the less, Google Earth is a good starting point to get an overview of a location. Where are streets, where are cities, where is agriculture, where is dense forest, where can one park the car and see different habitats without having to move frequently (and thus lose time) and so on. Of course, the better I know an area, the more I explore the "in between" areas and in many cases, Earth maps may be 4-5 years old, such that habitats have changed dramatically. In the Nuremberg area, I was visiting places that still show meadows on the maps but are overgrown by forest in the meantime that is way too dense for reptiles.

To make the point - would you mind showing some bilinear pics? ;)

Regards,
Micha 

Sorry Micha, thats not possible!
Before about 3 years I bought a new HP scanner with slide (light through) scan fuction. Last winter I bought a new computer with preinstalled Windows Vista. And there is no software update available from HP for the scanner, working with Vista. Only the standard functions I may use. So no slide scanning.
But you may have a look here:
http://vipersgarden.at/Species/SpeciesFrameset-1.htm
=> Viperidae => Vipera s. seoanei
There are some pics from bilineata morphs from a locality nearby.

Mario 

Nice!! I have used it my self :D But somethimes the habitat on GE look way more different than it is.. for exampel it looks like there are no plants..but ther is many.. but u can ofc use GE to see habitats :D 

Well, you have to get to know how different structures look like in GE. If you have already been able to visit a certain habitat, then things are a lot easier. I once visited a nice large meadow near a Viper habitat in Nuremberg... well, the nice green meadow was actually a lake with some sort of water lillies. ;) 

Of course, Mario, trying out unexpected, good looking spots, should also an important part of the job! However, it depends: if you would like to see some rarer species, you can explore suitable habitats for years without finding a single animal... Over the years, we have also become quite good at "predicting" species for a search spot, if I may say so, but sometimes you can be surprised by finding unexpected species, which is great! However, the opposite happens more often: not finding a species in a seemingly excellent habitat ;-).

P.S.: I -for one- would definitely expect seoanei in that type of habitat 

some more helpful maps:

http://maps.geocaching.de/gm/
only for the german, this map shows all the nature reserves

http://www.gpsies.com
here (certainly there are other sources) you can switch between the different maps. there are some extreme differences. the latest map is not always the best. a deciduous forest in winter, for example is not very helpful

http://www.bing.com/maps/
this map offers (only in the surroundings of many larger cities) real pictures in birds view. they have a nice resolution :-D
 

I have used it a few times when I am visiting other countries to highlight water features and nearby roads etc. This was very useful in Crete last year and led to us finding a few Balkan whips, a Dice snake and 2 Leopard snakes in a couple of hours. I wouldn't have stopped there otherwise. 

Jeroen said: "P.S.: I -for one- would definitely expect seoanei in that type of habitat"

Well, you've been to the Chalet, so you sure would expect them in this type of habitat. ;) Having been to the "dryer" places at first, I was surprised to find them in *soaking* wet habitats in the lowland afterwards.

Overall, I think we can agree that these Maps offer good possibilities to screen places you have not been for spots that seem to include suitable habitats as well as get quite decent info on how to properly reach these places.

Regards