Most definitely, and in ways that I never expected. Besides the “common” learning of names of the flora and fauna in my area, I’ve learned (continue to learn) the following:
Recognizing the sheer magnitude of the biodiversity in my area
Learning the characteristics between similar species in order to differentiate/ID
Developing a deeper understanding of the life cycles of certain organisms
Developing a great appreciation for the various connections between species
And these are things just off the top of my head!
1 Like
Mount Stupid awaits on the next hike
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/tomatoes-berries-fruits-and-vegetables-discuss/33578
and
https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/was-i-blind-fixing-old-ids/42264
1 Like
I used to think I knew a lot about the natural world. I grew up with a father who nurtured a love for mammals, birds, fish and edible plants. After I found iNat I discovered that I knew almost nothing about insects and other arthropods. Thanks to iNat and all the patient identifiers, I love what I am learning. Insects are so underrated.
6 Likes
Today I learnt https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133891264
2 Likes
Projects that aid in identification and provide ID references are the best way to learn.
1 Like
I am very happy to see that iNatters can learn from the project journal.
1 Like
Another thing I have learned (in addition to how much I don’t know about the taxa that I thought I was most familiar with) is how many of my familiar well-loved species are non-native.
Most of my wildflower reference books point out whether a species is native, and I haven’t always paid attention to that. But there is nothing quite like that alarming “arrived by anthropogenic means” bright pink exclamation symbol on iNat, to make you realize how prevalent non-natives are.
I knew that Common Dandelions are not native (to N. America), but Queen Anne’s Lace? Red Clover? Oxeye Daisy? Wow!
9 Likes
@tiwane had the same experience!
At 17 minutes 30 seconds of this podcast:
Now that I’m on iNaturalist, when I go back to Hawaii, I’m like, “Oh! Everything I grew up with, and everything I saw, is non-native!” 
4 Likes
Absolutely iNat has broadened it - I learnt what I could of birds in the field, from others, and in books, as and when I came across them, and later repeated the same for snakes. Now I can so quickly access information about plants and invertebrates and I have really taken a more depth interest in arthropods now.
IDing unknowns and ‘recruiting’ observations for various traditional projects has shown me some wonderful species on other countinents that I would never have otherwise heard of.
The explore function has also been useful for both prospecting sites to visit and species to look for on a trip, but also identifying under sampled areas to go and look in.
Now just to save funds to go and really hear a screaming piha, and see blunt headed tree snakes and the big longhorns…
5 Likes
Yes it did.
I can now ID or mis-ID a lot more living things in different kingdoms.
Putting a name tag on a plant or mushroom or animal is very satisfying for the inner collector and organiser but sometimes I feel I don’t know anything about them but the name and the names of their features.
I got some field guides that explain the basics. It is hard to get anything more than that especially because I don’t know what to look for.
What i really gained from iNat is better understanding what to look for and some clues to where to find them.
5 Likes
Great question!
Yes, to both options. Deepened and broadened.
Ten to thirty years ago I was considered somewhat of a naturalist. People often approached me for species identifications of plants and animals. I had, and still have an updated collection of field guides, thinking they would keep me at the cutting edge.
When I joined iSpot about 10 years ago and then migrated to iNat I was thoroughly humbled. For the first time, my assertions were open to being checked by experts and specialists. Now I’m far the richer for it. My knowledge of what I don’t know has surpassed what I think I know, and my reliance on field guides has become less important.
I have iNat mentors, too many to name here, who have not only deepened and broadened my understanding of taxonomy and the great diversity we deal with, but they have prompted me to consult source literature, an exercise that was expensive and cumbersome before the rise of the internet.
14 Likes
Agreed. Those who are too young to remember the pre-internet days probably don’t know what efforts it took to find info, which typically involved many hours in a science library digging through paper journals and books. INat and other internet resources have made it relatively easy to do research on organisms.
6 Likes
Yes, I remember those days. But alas, it is now also easier to do bad research, if one doesn’t have access to scientific databases, or know how to distinguish legitimate scholarly sources from easily-accessible and self-perpetuating misinformation.
That kind of skill is certainly not taught universally.
Plus, the ease with which we have become accustomed to finding “everything” with a quick online search has probably made those of us who are amateur naturalists less likely to do a deep dive to seek out more scholarly sources, and more likely to count on the rest of the iNat community to fill in our gaps of knowledge by IDing the OBs that stymie us.
Of course, that’s part of the whole point of the community.
4 Likes
Yes, when I say pre-internet I’m also thinking of pre-email or online messaging which makes communication so much faster and easier. I recall the days when if you wanted to consult a taxon specialist long-distance your options were to write a letter and mail it or try to phone them. Wasn’t exactly easy or fast.
4 Likes
An illustration of a case of “self-perpetuating misinformation”: Confusing Sennas.
Observations stuck at the rank Genus, still needing more IDs:
- Senna × floribunda (taxon page) observations needing more IDs.
- Senna septemtrionalis (taxon page) observations needing more IDs.
1 Like
Since using iNat, my knwoledge advanced with regard to:
- species in my close environment (including very common species),
- plant taxonomy (learning a few families, a few tribes, …),
- species in the places I visited (in particular with regards to many photos taken before I heard about iNat),
- with an overall iNat amplification effect (iNat motivates to make more observations),
- specialization in the genus Senna, after several months spent to identify this observation (still not R.G., despite there is no doubt possible) and after helping @etantrah review Senna observations in North Carolina in search for new species possibly coming from Florida or other nearby States.
3 Likes
I was a ‘paper’ librarian at the University of Cape Town’s Engineering and Science library. So last century of us …
2 Likes
If only. It seems like I can hardly find anything with a quick online search. Search engines have been optimized for the neurotypical majority who cannot speak literally; therefore, they read unintended meanings into my literal search strings.
1 Like
Very much so.
I love nature with all my heart. Always have been, since my granddad raised me that way.
When I was still in school, I used to do my internship at an Arboretum closest to me. (Where I now work btw) And the head gardener gave me plant babies of Woodwardia … so I could grow them. (They’re now big and healthy plants) But that small interaction catapulted me into the fern world.
I’m a very obsessive person, and so when something interests me, I give it my full 110%. So I started looking everything up online about ferns, frantically learning about everything there is to learn about them. Since I knew quite literally nothing. And that’s how I stumbled upon iNat. Ever since using the platform, I learned even more about them, and just how many different ones there are, and different locations in the world having an insane amount of ferns. It all blew my mind.
I used to go on trips in my local forests and take pictures of quite literally every single fern I saw. Even if I had seen that exact same species a hundred times before. And I uploaded them all, and I got alot of them dead wrong. And some very helpful individuals helped me learn the subtle differences, and most importantly, the atypical forms. After some time I got really good at it myself, I had perfected my local ferns, and so I moved on to North America. That’s where my addiction took over. I identified thousands of ferns in a very very short timespan, quickly rising the leaderboards in an unhealthy amount of time. I got burnt out. And I quit iNat for a while.
I think about half a year or so later I came back, and wanted to do something new. That’s when I found dragonflies. And that’s also when I had my new camera and actually started to get pretty decent at taking pictures. And so naturally dragonflies became my next target. Taking thousands of pictures. But knowing quite literally nothing about them.
My first dragonfly season (2023) I wasn’t abled to ID much at all. If anything. So I went on a mission to try and learn them all (of Europe). Asking all of the most knowledgeable IDers questions, looking up a whole lot. Writing pages upon pages full of the information I had learned. And here I am now. The 2024 season, and I’m amongst the most important Identifiers of damselflies. Sure, I still have stuff to learn, I still often ask questions. And still don’t know them all. But I’ve come from knowing nothing, to confidently being abled to ID about 90% of the European scene. And I’m very grateful for the platform, and for the wonderful people that have helped me along the way.
Much love to all 
5 Likes
My first iNat observation was in April of 2013 (great horned owl). I’d been birding before that, and had been learning bird and wildlife photography for a few years by then, I was already interested in exploring nature but iNaturalist has been an amazing tool for learning along the way. I’m in Austin, I used to think that since it was so hot here it was basically barren, though thanks to exploring with iNat I have IDed over 1000 distinct species in Austin. At this point I’ve got a pollinator garden running as an iNat project. I’m up to >500 species at the house now. Lots of that’s also moths, thanks to iNat I’ve started mothing, I’m a fan of all of Lepidoptera (love racking up butterfly observations during the spring/fall here), but I am a big fan of moths now. It’s great since it makes it easy to find various species of insects by just walking to the yard during the day or porch lamps at night, and new things still show up regularly.
This spring I went to Provence, France and Istanbul, Turkey and made iNat observations all along the way, found a ton of cool insects, interesting plants, amazing birds, at al. We went to the Camargue wetlands so we saw the flamingoes and other birds, and I found a lot of interesting plants and insects there as well as arachnids. I was able to spot and id all kinds of species, it was awesome find a bunch of Lepidoptera in S. France, and a lot of that was due to iNat use. Wildlife photo album here.
Wherever I go I take iNat observations, I travel a fair amount (not as much as I’d like), and now I like to go to explore places with nice habitat where I’ll find interesting birds and wildlife, and if there’s a lot of bugs, even better. My iNat observation map’s got a lot of dots on it. In offline time I use the iNat Life List to group various species I’ve seen all around the globe taxonomically which helps me draw more connections about plant/bird/insect species and their relationships.
At this point I’ve memorized a lot of plant, bird, and insect taxonomy, and while perhaps I might have done the bird taxonomy without iNat, I’m sure my plant and bird taxonomy knowledge is filled in based on iNat use.
This year I’m working on increasing my Odonata observations and learning more about them.
7 Likes