Filtering for my species but all observations

[ajadewitt]

I’m new to iNat and filtering. Is there a way to generate a list that includes only the species I’ve observed, but gives the count of all observations for those species?

[jwidness]

The easiest way I can think of is with a tool that pisum created – https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNatAPIv1_observations_species_counts.html?user_id=ajadewitt

[vihaking277]

Maybe we can make this a feature request (and it shouldn’t be too hard since the code already exists on GitHub)?

[jwidness]

I think probably the Explore brainstorm is a reasonable place to suggest it.

[ajadewitt]

That looks close to what I want, but is there a way to filter by location? Adding &place_id= to the URL doesn’t seem to work.

[jwidness]

You’re looking for only species you’ve observed in a particular place, or you want the total number of observations to be limited to a particular place?

[ajadewitt]

Hmm, good question! My main goal, I guess, is to see the total observations within a region, for species I’ve observed myself. If it could limit to species I’ve observed within the desired region, that would be a bonus.

[jwidness]

I think you’ll have to export the list of species you want to include, and then either construct a long taxon_ids search, or do a list_id search.

To export your species list, use the Export button from your life list. If you want, you can filter by taxa you’ve seen in a particular place at this point.

Using Excel (as an example), you can then sort by rank to get just the species, and construct the search URL with a formula like ="taxon_ids="&CONCAT(TRANSPOSE(A10:A52)&",")

You can then copy the list of taxon ids into a search URL and limit it to a place of your choosing, like this one, limited to Arkansas.

To use a list_id search, you would create a new list, then batch import the species you’re interested in. However, batch import uses scientific name, not taxon id, so sometimes it will find multiple hits and you have to do some work to match them.

Once you’re happy with your list, you can add list_id=XXXXXX to your search URL to limit to just the taxa on the list.

See also this related feature request: https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/in-identify-add-filter-for-species-i-have-observed-or-species-i-have-identified/13986

[ajadewitt]

Thanks! You’ve been very helpful. I’ve got a lot to explore.