Create an optional tag for observations called "Feral" that will add a visual sign to the observation in the identify tab

Feature Requests
1

Platform(s): Website mainly

URLs (aka web addresses) of any pages, if relevant:

Description of need:
I observe many feral species,and in most cases there are no problems. But for species that iNaturalist automatically downvotes, I then have to upvote it myself. Again, normally this is fine. But then if even just one more person comes along, ignores the observations notes, and marks it as captive, now I can’t fix it myself. I either have to hope the person will listen and remove their downvote, or hope someone else will come along and notice it’s incorrectly marked captive.

I think the main reason this happens is people on the Identify page who are trying to mark things that should be captive as such, but don’t take the time to read the observation notes to see if it’s actually feral.

So, adding some kind of visual aid when an observation has been marked Feral would help solve this problem by giving identifiers a visual cue that this one isn’t captive. Maybe add some kind of symbol, or a colored box around each tab of the observation in the Identify page.

Feature request details:
When uploading observations, alongisde the usual “Captive/cultivated” checkbox, add another checkbox labeled “Feral”. Make it so that only one of these can be clicked at a time. When this box is checked, either put a visual symbol somewhere on the observation including the Identify page, or maybe put a pop-up when someone clicks captive, saying, “The observer has marked this observation Feral. Please make sure you have reason to believe this is false before marking captive” or something like that.

Using this feature would be optional. You don’t have to click the box when you upload anything if you don’t want to, I just think it would save both a lot of observers and identifiers a lot of headaches. When I am going through marking things captive that are usually not marked correctly, I would love if the observers had a way to tell me that it’s feral without having to jump back and forth from multiple tabs (Since I’m usually filling out annotations at the same time).

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I’m guessing this is in reference to cats. It’s very common for people to mistake barncats, outdoor cats, and cats that are fed and cared for by multiple people for feral cats. A barncat near my workplace is very commonly uploaded and marked as “wild” by people who don’t know that he has a bed at the barn. That is to say, the uploader might not know better than those who annotate the observation. A “feral” tag would seem to overlap with the “wild” checkbox already, as introduced species (including domestic cats) are marked as such in areas to which they’re nonnative. Marking animals as feral might have the benefit of allowing managers to target feral populations (as opposed to barncats, etc.) for removal, though, so I see where you’re coming from.

6 Likes
3

I doubt this will ever be implemented. A “workaround” I’ve used is the field “Autochthonous” https://www.inaturalist.org/observation_fields/18052.

Organisms that are wild at a given area but are there as the result of human activities can be marked “Autochthonous: No” (the default option).

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At the same time, it is very common for people to assume that feral cats are actually captive.

3 Likes
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Have you tried this? (Not for me - I use identify and the keyboard shortcuts - whizz thru a batch to ID - annotate the batch for caterpillars first - or whatever)

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/announcing-the-universal-metadata-tool-beta/53182

2 Likes
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Same with dogs, especially in developing nations where dogs are frequently kept, but let roam around with little oversight

1 Like