Does the "Evidence of Presence: Track" annotation count for any animal imprint?

General
1

Can the annotation be used for, say, the imprints of an owl’s wings in the snow or claw marks on a tree?

2

Personally, I think the owl’s wings would work as a track. but I’m not sure on the claw marks. A bear clawing the tree is marking, so likely it could be.

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3

Track: “Impression in ground or snow made by an organism”, so the first yes and the second no.

See https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000191830-what-are-the-definitions-of-inaturalist-annotations-

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4

No, claw markings in a tree do not fit the definition for the annotation value.

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5

Why not? What annotation should be used then? Construction? This seems more like destruction to me.

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6

There currently isn’t an annotation that fits it, so don’t use one.

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7

There are some types of trace observations for which none of the current annotations apply and “Destruction” could be useful. These include claw markings, beaver teeth marks, woodpecker marks.

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8

what about beaver gnaw marks on a tree, it is definitely an evidence of presence that is distinct?
I don’t want to turn this into a discussion about annotations though

9

Already discussed here: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/evidence-of-presence-for-beaver-cuts-on-trees/43716

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10

If a Construction is “Something created by an animal, made with or excavated from other materials.” Couldn’t a scratch or a chew count as a small excavation?
If not, is there or could be an observation field that would be more universally applicable than to just one species? Something to cover any chews, scratches and other modifications to the environment that qualify for neither tracks nor constructions?

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11

Fair enough, I was curious myself, I really didn’t know and wanted to know.

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12

If you type “beaver” in the Observation field (in any observation), you will see a number of options for this.

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