I'd start by watching my favorite video explaining the gist of iNaturalist and how to use it, created by Dr. Joe Hanson on It's Okay to Be Smart. Or read what's below. Or both!
Have you ever caught butterflies or bugs before? Think about iNaturalist as a tool, where instead of catching something with a net and keeping it in a tank/cage, you catch it with your lens and then keep it as an observation on iNaturalist, on the web forever! It’s more friendly than actually catching a butterfly or bird, and still a lot of fun!
But wait: there’s more!
On iNaturalist, you can learn what type/species of organism you’ve observed. There’s a built-in AI (or as it's called Computer Vision) that will be able to tell you what organism you found. The AI isn't always right, and can struggle with similar species, but it usually gets pretty close. No need to spend time running through the internet to find what that plant or butterfly is called. User and beginner friendly.
But wait: there’s more!
iNaturalist isn’t just a tool; it’s a community. Other users can agree with your identifications, and add comments as well. You can find people ranging from casual birders and nature enthusiasts (like me) to Master Naturalists and academic researchers. There's even one user who has done their PhD on the systematics of the Family Polemoniaceae!
(In all seriousness, he's an incredible person, check out his profile!)
You can:
And a lot more.
Basically, it’s social media. For naturalists. Very cool.
One last thing!
By adding your observations onto iNaturalist, you are actually contributing to citizen science. These observations make up a giant database that can be used by scientists. There are research papers written thanks to this site.
And besides the research potential, there have been some incredible discoveries made on this site: The Dumbéa River pipefish and the recently discovered Gonolobus naturalistae are examples of that.
And who knows? Maybe you will be the next one to find an important discovery...
So yeah, that’s iNaturalist in a nutshell.
But there’s only so much that words can explain...
...so the best way is to jump on the bus and find out!
Cheers,
arnanthescout
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