I have noticed that Amnirana galamensis isn’t on the Tanzania checklist for amphibians (https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/7485-Tanzania-Check-List?iconic_taxon=20978), although there are 5 observations of this species in Tanzania, 4 of them RG (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=-0.9843968413481883&nelng=40.63980004969153&place_id=any&swlat=-11.76125392757591&swlng=29.33999997140636&taxon_id=476349)
This makes me wonder, how are the country checklists formed? Shouldn’t they include all the species that have been observed in a specific area? On the other hand, the checklist includes many species which have no observations in this area or on inat whatsoever.
A more general question: are inat checklist a reliable source to trust when I plan my trips and which animals I’d like to find? :)
You may have accidentally turned on some filter in your search as it is there
https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/7485-Tanzania-Check-List?q=&view=photo&taxon=134259&iconic_taxon=20978&observed=any&threatened=any&establishment_means=any&occurrence_status=not_absent&rank=species&taxonomic_status=active
To answer the more general question, checklists are populated thru 2 means, either automatically when observations are added (please note there are some exceptions too long to list here regarding adding obscured records), or they can be manually populated.
In terms of if they are reliable as a guide of what to see, they can be that, but it also depends on the robustness of observations and manual additions.
Keep in mind, checklists are also not temporal in any way, so seasonality plays a role too. Querying actual observations will be a better view of timing, abundance etc
Some places have had very robust efforts to manually populate species lists in the checklists. Other places have had no effort at all.
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.