Free beta: Fauna Poster — printable wildlife posters from iNaturalist CSV exports

Third-party Tools and Apps using iNat API
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Hi everyone,

I started using trail cameras in 2021. Since then, this has become my main weekend hobby. I use my free time to document local wildlife.

I also have an iNaturalist project where I organize many of my records:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/fauna-silvestre-de-araraquara-sp-brasil

I originally built this tool for myself, because I wanted a better way to understand the metrics of my own iNaturalist records and turn them into printable wildlife posters. The tool reads an iNaturalist CSV export, lets you choose a species, and then generates charts and a PDF poster with information such as total observations, records by year and month, activity by hour, day/night activity, observer contribution, and a short summary.

I am sharing it here as a free beta because I would really appreciate feedback from other iNaturalist users. I would like to know whether the layout is clear, whether the English labels make sense, whether the charts are useful, and what other metrics could be helpful for people who use iNaturalist data.

https://fauna-poster.pages.dev/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KqpiJsnXRJWphDNFceG_xyHG8Lbgc3VM/view?usp=drive_linkhttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1KqpiJsnXRJWphDNFceG_xyHG8Lbgc3VM/view?usp=drive_link

To be transparent, I am also trying to understand whether this kind of tool could eventually help me support my field project in a modest way. Equipment is very expensive for me in Brazil, especially after import taxes on international purchases increased a lot under the current Lula administration. For example, a trail camera listed for about US$170 in the United States, plus around US$50 shipping, would cost about US$220 before taxes. After import taxes in Brazil, the final cost can be around US$429. That is almost double the camera plus shipping cost, and about 2.5 times the original camera price.

So my idea is not to make this first release feel commercial. For now, I would simply like to share the tool, receive feedback, and improve it. In the future, I may consider an optional support model or an institutional version with custom logos, colors, saved templates, and support, but the basic idea is to keep the tool useful for the community.

The tool is independent and is not officially affiliated with iNaturalist.

Any feedback would be very welcome.

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First, sorry for the tariff strife. Second, it looks like you’re making cool stuff. I do not know a lot about business or design or marketing. But two opportunities you have to work with are (a) constantly renewing data (b) with cool images of often hard-to-find animals. This means that you could have a program that puts the charts and images together, and thanks an individual donor for a recurring donation – this would be something that could be near unique, and I think the raw images will have a draw. Good luck!

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If you make this a commercial product, will you pay the people who made the observations and identifications?

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That is a very important question, and I appreciate you bringing it up.

My intention is not to sell other people’s observations, photos, or identifications. The tool itself does not come with iNaturalist data inside it. It is basically an empty poster generator: the user exports a CSV from iNaturalist and chooses which images to place in the poster.

Since I originally built it for my own use, my first idea was that each observer would use their own iNaturalist records and their own photos. The photos shown in my examples are all from my own trail cameras.

I should also clarify that I do not even know whether I would actually make a paid version. At this point, it is only a possibility I mentioned because I am trying to understand whether this could help support my field project in some way. I also do not know if anyone would be willing to pay for something like this. For my own use, I found it very interesting because it helps me answer questions that I would not know from memory, such as how many puma records I have accumulated over the years through this hobby.

If someone uses observations or photos made by other people, then they need to respect the license attached to that content and give proper attribution when required. I understand that iNaturalist content can have different licenses for observation data and photos, and that non-commercial licenses should not be used for commercial purposes without permission.

So if I ever develop a paid version, the paid part would be the software, customization, institutional themes, saved templates, or support not the sale of other people’s iNaturalist data or images. I would also want to make the licensing/attribution responsibilities clear inside the tool, so users understand that they should use their own content or properly licensed content.

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Yes, I understand your points (a) and (b), and I think that is a very interesting way to look at it.

Point (a), the constantly renewing data, makes a lot of sense because wildlife records are not static. Every new CSV export can bring new observations, new months, new years, new species, and new activity patterns. Point (b), the images of often hard-to-find animals, is also very important because real trail camera images can make the data much more attractive and meaningful to people.

That combination is exactly what made the tool useful for me. It is not just a static poster; it can become a way to tell the ongoing story of a local wildlife monitoring project over time.

However, I want to be very clear about one important point: I would not be selling iNaturalist data. Because observations and photos on iNaturalist have their own licenses and attribution requirements, the responsibility would be on the user who generates the poster to use their own records, their own images, or content that they have permission to use.

The tool itself would only be a generator. The user would export a CSV, choose the species, select the images, and generate the poster. In that sense, the value of the tool is in organizing the data visually, creating charts, laying out the poster, and helping people communicate their own observations more clearly.

I really like your conclusion, though: the combination of renewing data, real wildlife images, and a personalized acknowledgment for supporters could be a meaningful way for small independent field projects to share progress and possibly receive support, without selling or repackaging other people’s iNaturalist data.

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@wy_bio
Thank you very much for your feedback and for raising this important point.

I agree that the use of iNaturalist data and images needs to be treated carefully, especially because observations and photos can have different licenses and attribution requirements.

Because of your comment, I updated the tool and added some usage responsibility notices. The tool now makes it clearer that users should generate posters with their own data and images, or only use third-party content when they have the proper permission/license.

Thanks again for helping me think about this more clearly.

Your feedback made the project better.

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Hi @polones! This is a really nice project. One suggestion that could make the tool much easier to use would be to connect it directly to the iNaturalist API (https://api.inaturalist.org/v2/docs/), instead of requiring users to download and upload a CSV first.

For example, users could simply enter their iNaturalist username, a project URL, a taxon, a place, or a date range, and Fauna Poster could retrieve the matching observations automatically. This would remove several steps and would also allow the poster to use the most up-to-date information every time it is generated.

The API could provide most of the information you are already extracting from the CSV, including observation dates, taxa, observers, locations, quality grades, photos, photo licenses, and attribution details. You could also add filters for things like research-grade observations, captive/cultivated records, specific projects, users, places, and time periods.

A possible workflow could be:

  1. The user selects a username, project, species, or location.

  2. The app shows how many matching observations were found.

  3. The user applies filters and selects the photos they want.

  4. The poster is generated automatically from the API results.

It might also help with the licensing concerns discussed above. The tool could automatically display the photographer’s username, the source observation, and the license for each selected image. It could even warn users when an image has an incompatible license or no reusable license, especially if the poster will be used commercially.

I would probably keep CSV upload as an optional fallback for very large datasets, custom data, or offline use, but make the API connection the default option. For a poster generator, most queries should be small enough to work well through the API, as long as the app uses pagination, caching, and reasonable request limits.

Overall, I think this would make Fauna Poster much more accessible, especially for people who are not familiar with exporting and preparing CSV files. Wishing you the best of luck with the project—it’s a great idea and I hope it continues to grow!

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+reference

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/developers

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/api+recommended+practices

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Thank you very much for the suggestion. I agree that an iNaturalist API connection could make the tool much easier to use, especially for users who are not familiar with exporting CSV files.

Technically, I think this is possible, and the idea is excellent. However, it would require a considerable amount of programming and time, because it would be a larger change than the current CSV workflow. The app would need pagination, caching, request limits, filters, and careful handling of photo licenses and attribution.

For now, I think it is better to keep the CSV upload as the stable method and consolidate this current version first before moving to a new version with API support. In the future, I could consider API import as a beta feature. I would likely start with observation data only, while keeping photo selection manual, and later study how to handle photo licenses and attribution properly.

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Good evening, Mr. Luis @luisjaquez I’ve been giving your suggestions a lot of thought and am currently implementing them via API. I’m starting with a basic version to test the workflow. Please keep an eye on the thread for future updates.

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@luisjaquez I have finally updated the project to integrate an API, which makes it much more user-friendly. Was this what you had in mind, Mr. Luis?

Click the link below.

https://bioposter.pages.dev/

1 Like
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@tiwane Good morning. I’d like to change the topic’s content, since I’ve already updated the program link and would like to emphasize that the program is geared more toward trail cameras.

https://bioposter.pages.dev/

I can’t edit the topic, I’m new here. Is this normal on the forum?

Thank you for your attention.
polones