The Must-Have App for Exploring Outdoors
Every day we are surrounded by nature, and thanks to iNaturalist every day can be a field trip. The iNaturalist app is like having many field guides, a field journal and a biologist with you to help you identify what you find. Get close to nature and be the eyes of scientists all over the world to help with research performed by people like you and me known as citizen science.
Citizen Science is a term for projects that are conducted by volunteer non-scientists as a way to contribute to scientific data and research. The volunteers photograph and document location of the specimen, and upload it to a shared database. For example, a scientist might be studying the distribution of a particular bird or endangered mammal. By using citizen science collected data, then researchers have the ability to search a much wider range than would otherwise be available, leading to faster research results. Anyone can do citizen science, and your uploads will be approved or corrected for accuracy.
iNaturalist is the most popular citizen science database worldwide with over 2 million users working on over 50,000 projects. It’s an awesome way to get kids outdoors, learn about their environment and who lives there, and this leads to more interest in conservation.
Four easy steps to identifying a species in iNaturalist.
First, just download the free iNaturalist app to your phone and create a login. You have the choice to use your GPS data that will drop a pin where you observe the organism. While you have the option to turn this off for privacy, the data is not as usable if researchers do not know the location.
To make an observation:
When you find something to observe, click the “Observe” camera button, and it will go to your camera to take a photo. Be sure it is in focus and close up, showing as much detail as possible. You can add a few more photos at different angles to help with identification. Then choose “What did you see?” and it will give recommendations based on prior observations of organisms in your area. You can click the Information button beside each recommended organism to see additional photos and information. Select the organism, add any notes, be sure location is listed, geoprivacy will be set to open, and click Share. You can click Cancel at any time to back out of it to start again. Scientists will approve it or correct it for it to be considered research grade. You will get a notification when your observation has been approved, corrected, or commented on.
A colored location pin will drop where you made the observation. Plants pins will appear as green, birds/reptiles/amphibians/fish/mammals are blue, mollusks/spiders/insects appear red and fungi are pink.
You can join nearby projects such as at a local wildlife sanctuary or a City Nature Challenge. Just search to see what projects have been created to see what you might be interested in joining. For newbies, skip this part until you are more comfortable with the app.
To walk around to see what others have observed in your area:
In the iNaturalist app, click the “Explore” button, and you will see your location and nearby pins should appear if there have been observations in your area. Click on each colored pin to see what organism was found and identified. Move the map around and explore other parts of Texas or even other parts of the world. You can view wild koalas in Australia!
To see your observations:
The awesome part of iNaturalist is having a digital field journal of your observations with you at all times. Just click on “Me” and it will show you a list of your total observations.
When I first tried it out, I was worried about uploading information that was wrong because that would be completely against helping the scientists! So at first, I carried around my Wildflowers of Texas field guide as a double-check, and now I feel comfortable with getting it narrowed down pretty well.
Dos and don’ts of iNaturalist-
- Do take interesting photos that show something that stands out. Remember that scientists are looking for good quality observations and try to avoid the random leaf, grass, tree bark that isn’t very helpful and clogs up the database.
- Only share photos that you have personally taken.
- Take photos that are close-up and clear of the organism.
- Take multiple photos from different angles of all parts such as the top of the flower and also the stem.
- Choose wild organisms since the application is not for documenting caged animals at a zoo, hamsters at home, or imported landscape ornamental plants. If you choose to document non-wild organisms, be sure to choose captive/cultivated before you share the observation, but don’t expect scientists to approve or comment on it.
- Immediately delete observations that are not ones you want to keep.
- Do not photograph people’s faces.
Seek is the kid-friendly app by iNaturalist
iNaturalist made a kid-friendly and privacy-focused app called Seek by iNaturalist. Kids can explore different species and earn badges for finding different species.
The kid-friendly Seek app allows kids to take photos with a camera phone of plants, animals, bugs, birds and fungus to identify them. Learn about the plants and animals that have been already identified by others with Species Nearby. Earn badges and raise levels by identifying different types of plants and animals or participating in Seek challenges. To receive a badge, take photos of birds, amphibians, reptile, mammal, fish, mollusk, insect, arachnid, fungus, plant. You will gain levels for the more observations posted.
If you are new to identifying the organisms in nature, then you may want to start with the Seek app. Your observations are not shared with anyone and your location pin is not given. The Seek app is a good start for kids without needing parent help, however avid users will quickly outgrow it.
iNaturalist and Seek are both fun and engaging ways to get parents and kids interested in nature and exploring the outdoors. We hope to see you outside!
