I spoke at an elasmobranch conference in Italy a few years ago, it focused on conservation in the Mediterranean. That doesn’t make me an expert, by any means, but one of my main takeaways was that lots of bespoke data collection apps were hampering progress because data were siloed in a bunch of different small repositories and thus not easily accessible. Almost no one there had heard of GBIF, which was interesting.
I think using a more global database that contributes to GBIF, like iNat or eBird, is a good thing, but also shouldn’t necessarily preclude you from also posting to a local site as well, if you have the time to do so.
Funny thing is that I actually only stumpled across iNat at some point, because I knew that there is a local nature observations site in Germany. I liked the concept, but somehow I always found it much too complicated to get into it, even trying several times.
It was when I moved away from Germany that I thought “Hey, let´s have a look if something like this exists in my new locality” and that it when I started using iNat and got stuck with it. I only use that site no matter whether I am back in Germany or somehwere else. It´s easy, I know how it works and I have all my observations and stats in one place.
I have had iNaturalist recommended to me by a Nature professional in the Netherlands, where I live. I see no reason to use an alternative to iNaturalist.
While it’s more likely for me to get an identification for non-vertebrate observations on iNat, there’s a much stronger likelihood of someone related to conservation-related programs or invasive species tracking seeing my observation if I post it to Naturing – our local (South Korean) equivalent that doesn’t share information with GBIF – which is why I often post to both sites when I have the time.
I used observations.be for some time, but eventually switched to iNaturalist and Seek because of their broader scope. Observations.be focuses on a defined geographic area, which limits its reach, whereas iNaturalist is used worldwide, allowing for greater diversity of observations and faster species identification.
While identifications on observations.be are validated by professionals, it can take several months, or even years, for observations to be validated.
I also noticed that with plants, validators often question the accuracy of the information provided (despite the provision of many proofs), especially when the observation is made in an unusual location for that species. This approach can be a bit frustrating for observers who simply want to report an unusual observation.
Finally, I encountered technical issues with the app, including frequent crashes requiring the app to be restarted in order to work again.
Overall, I found iNaturalist and Seek more satisfying for my nature observation needs. However, everyone has their own preferences and needs, and it’s important to choose the platform that best suits your own needs.
Not necessary abroad, but Ireland has the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC), which logs species much like iNat and is quite a nice tool for checking for taxons’ range. However, it has a lot of features which iNat has way better. It’s especially a hassle to upload multiple observations. I do contribute to it when people suggest I log a certain observation on it, but I don’t really use it outside that.
As mentioned multiple times, iNat’s just more convenient. Everythings concentrated in one place regardless of country and just really easy to use when used to it.
Often by searching broadly for species I am interested in (Often harvestmen, but other things as well). I look at the sat map to see how bushy a place is, how not built up etc.
This year I am planning my first trip to South America, still havent chosen the country. But for example one place which is sitting highly on the current consideration is Vaupes Colombia. Seems popular for birds. But currently only 19 arachnid obs total. So seems like a good place that will have plenty to see, but also plenty of potential first obs for the area.
I’m in Salzburg right now which uses observation.org as their local app (they even took part in the CNC but only count observation.org observations and ignore my inaturalist ones). I was going to use their local app and tried it a year ago and again a few days ago, but was put off by how slow it is. Sometimes it seems to load for several minutes (and often time out eventually) for something that’s instant in inat.
They also have almost no discoverability, you can only see recent observations in the app and while they do export to gbif most things (or all I’m interested in which is rare plants) have a 20km radius so can’t really use it to look for places to visit. Guess I’m just spoiled by inat which I often use exclusively to plan botanical trips.
One nice side effect of being one of just a few local inat users is getting many state firsts though
What I tend to look at before going to a site in France are the ZNIEFF inventory syntheses, the PDF files contain a table with the species, like in this example from my area. It has limitations and I mostly still prefer using iNat when I can (unfortunately not that often, as part of what makes me upload here is that we don’t have that many observers here), but it’s still very useful.
Naturing is only available in Korean but if the language isn’t an issue it’s possible for anyone to sign up for an account and use the search functionality. I’ve had some of my Naturing photos cited in a research paper on beewolves (Philanthus) and users have set up Missions (like iNaturalist projects) to track things like cicada appearance, dead birds, etc.
The major downside to using Naturing for research is that the only supported taxonomic level is the species rank.
Positives though are that it draws information from Kakao - a Korean equivalent to Google - and observations include weather, temperature, precipitation, humidity, and wind speed. (Elevation occasionally, too.)
Additionally, there are icons for taxa plus icons for ecosystem so one could search by freshwater fish, saltwater mollusks, etc. (Algae get their own taxonomic icon as well.) It also filters names by taxonomic icon so there is no possibility of selecting a plant name for an animal and vice versa.
If you have the android app, I use it for quick observations, cause iNat is to slow and complicated for it. But this app needs proper configuration.
Can you add 60 sightings in 60 seconds in the iNat app?
When I need this I switch to the app Obsmapp.
and Obsmapp does not need an internet connection.
Adding e.g. the world list of plants will make the app slow or will crash it. You have to select or create your own country list…
But for iNaturalist it is the same, I spent three years to make iNaturalist work for the low countries…
I have been using observation.org and Dutch mother site waarneming.nl for years now. It is the most complete set of data from I think The Netherlands and Belgium to date. Inaturalist is a nice second, only discovered by more people in recent years.
Their Android app Obsmapp can be a pain when the settings are not correct, otherwise, it works a real, real treat I must say. And it works everywhere on the planet, provided your GPS functions.
Even in my favourite ‘abroad’ Japan I always use Obsmapp first. This observation.org-app is unsurpassed for now as far as speed is concerned. Not strange as it is purely text based.
Inaturalist is a beautiful site with lots of helpful users. I upload records to Inaturalist in the quiet of my home with the best photos I have available and do my best to contribute as layman reviewer of Japanese records. Which itself is one of the best ways of learning about a country’s birds and insects.
I also use ebird (for foreign records) but I can’t get over how overly complicated it seems to be compared to inat and observation.org.
A sidenote: I don’t understand why a certain hostility enters this forum when talking about other sites. We all are humans with various needs at different times: give us all some leeway please.
Traveling abroad is less than an hour’s drive away. Yet to visit my son in the Maritimes, it’s a 2 hour flight.
We haven’t travelled anywhere abroad in over 6 years (Finger Lakes, upstate NY). Was iNat even around then?
I have a total of 2 observations from ‘abroad’ from a trip to Cuba in 2011 (25th anniversary gift to ourselves).
My boomer-gen older siblings have all travelled abroad a lot. The rest of us, not really.
But one of the ‘nice’ things about climate change (and international trade) is that if you’re patient, many of those foreign species will travel north to visit (or invade) your own part of the world.
This is especially true with insects and small invertebrates. Oh, and plants, of course. I can scarcely recognize (or find) many of the old wild habitats from my childhood. But there are plenty of interesting newcomers arriving every year.
This year I expect to see my first Spotted lanternfly on one of my trail outings.
I checked iNat recently and the only one so far in Canada was found dead in a lettuce bought at a grocery store in North Ontario. But there was a sighting in upstate New York last season so it looks pretty inevitable that they will be here this year.
Your post did make me realize that I’ve been in Korea long enough now that trips to the United States to visit family feel like ‘traveling abroad’ rather than ‘visiting home’. It hasn’t been a regular occurrence recently - almost four years since my last trip - but I now have ‘making iNat observations’ on my list of things to do when I’m in the USA.
Substitute “Germany” for “Korea” and I could have written this. I’ve been putting off visiting because I hate the long flights and find it so disorienting to return to where I grew up, but maybe I need to use wildlife observation for iNat as additional motivation to make the journey.
