I’m currently sitting at 847 species observed. I’d love to eventually reach 1,000! How many species have you guys observed? Any tips for finding more? :)
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I have observed 5,416 species. To find more species, first off, go to new places, like for example do iNat when you are on vacation somewhere other than your neighborhood. Secondly try to be interested in absolutely every kind of organism.
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I’m at 825 when looking at the observer tab and 1,058 on the species tab (which i think just counts organisms just ID’ed as a family and so on) but I have 602 photos to go through so I doubt that these numbers will be very accurate for long. I guess just exploring is what I do, you’ll find something new no matter how many times you go somewhere (in my experience at least). All but maybe 20 of mine are from within 30 miles of my home.
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I’m up to 3,915 taxa observed, and hoping to reach the 4,000 mark before 2024 rolls around. Looks like 3,501 of those are to species level. I think immersing yourself in new environments is the best way to add to your life list. You may not have to travel far, but exploring a grassland, a wetland, and a pine forest, will all yield different organisms from one-another.
I also find that when out exploring, I more readily take notice the things I am familiar with rather than those with which I am not. Consciously trying to avoid the implicit bias of my eye gravitating towards the familiar organisms has helped me to expand my learning in nature. This propensity to notice the familiar is especially true for me with plants, so I’m always reminding myself to be on the lookout for new forms and shapes in the foliage. I tend to fall into patterns of observation in nature, and taking note of those patterns and actively breaking away from them can lead to some terrific new discoveries.
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723 for the Cape Peninsula. Uploaded 4 more from today. One hopeful mushroom, carefully tipped over for the gills and stalk …
And 4 800 unobserved!
757 for the Western Cape
Then trickling thru uploading archived photos for the world - gives me 762. With lots more, but those old photos are hard work to process for iNat.
But botaneek has 9 784, so I will just run my marathon against myself.
579 for RG
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I’m at 2146, but for this year I’m trying to get 1000 RG species. Somebody has challenged me and though I said I won’t do it, I am looking at my current numbers. There I’m at 748.
I go out every day anyway (because I have to keep up my streak), so might as well… I’m still not much of a plant person, so only take photos of something really conspicuous and usually flowering. It won’t help if it gets stuck at plants.
Of course, it’s great if you can travel, but it’s also possible to find different habitats in your vicinity.
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right now i’m at exactly 69 species… which i guess isn’t too bad for just joining in mid may.
if you want to observe more species, dedicate more time to just observing more species. go out in nature. visit parks, reserves, and walking trails, and even zoos if you’re able to. don’t just focus on plants or animals. always bring a camera with you.
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1.507 species here ! But as you say its strange that the SPECIES tab shows also subfamily and so on. It should only show real species (and maybe subspecies).
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My first goal was 1,000 species, which I reached! My current goal is 2,000, which I’m currently sitting at roughly 1,780 species. I’m probably going to do a couple mothing nights next month, then do a few more bioblitzes in the fall and winter when it’s not so hot. Hopefully I can get to 2k by 2024.
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I’ve probably observed over 1,000 species with just my cellphone camera. Most people have a camera on them all the time!
I’m almost at 1500 taxa, but of that only around 900 research grade species.
Most of this comes from visiting parks in California.
I find taking photos that will be used with iNaturalist gets us to slow down and observe what is around us more carefully, instead of just rushing from point A to point B. Although sometimes I’m hiking with a bunch of teenagers in which case all you can do is rush from point A to point B or they leave you behind.
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Start taking pictures of every bug, plant, fungus, bird, etc. that you can. Honestly, just adding an extra taxon branch to your watch list, like “Insects” will dramatically increase your species count. Don’t worry if you can’t identify them to species. Just go as far as you can and eventually people will work it as fine as it can go, which will increase your species count. Also, going to new places, or using different tech (telephoto lens or microphone for birding, rather than cell phone all the time.)
Also, remember that in different places, the “species” count means different things. I don’t remember it all now, but on the app and web, one place only counts species ID, and the other place says “species” but means taxon. As in, any unique taxon (insecta, hymenoptera, genus, species) are all counted, which is an unfortunate misnomer.
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The Species tab on Explore counts “leaves”, which is explained here.
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That’s a great start! :)
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One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to reach 1,000 species. That clicked over this week - my profile currently says 1,006. However I just tried Susanne’s search and found I had only 685 RG species, so getting to 1,000 RG might be a goal for next year.
Added: All mine have been within about 100km of my house, and most within a much smaller radius. I have not been away on a holiday since I started using iNat actively at the beginning of the pandemic.
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I have 716 species.
I recently started paying more attention to using the dynamic life list to review plants I haven’t observed in my county. It’s helped me
- have awareness of common things I never posted.
- “see” plants I had been overlooking.
- target some habitats for additional exploration.
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1645 with about half local to where I am.
In terms of finding more, the dynamic life list is helpful.
https://www.inaturalist.org/lifelists/Mercedes-Fletcher?details_view=unobservedSpecies&place_id=31
Will take you to the species you havent observed in OH. Ranked by most observed. So you can start by looking for those. You can bring up the species page for each of them, to get a feel for where they are being observed.
Edit: you can also make the place selection a lot more local, to see what you are missing in a more personal space. Or for any place you are planning on visiting.
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Thank you, that’s interesting! I tried it for myself and found there are 235 species seen here that I don’t have observations of (although some I have but my observations haven’t been IDed to species).
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Most of my bird and mammal lists are not in iNat and neither are the majority of plants from my first 25 years of life. Further, the way genus level observations are counted tends to reduce the true number of species in our iNat lists, if you can’t identify every different one to species. So, my guess for number of species I’ve knowingly observed (ignoring UFIs - unidentified flying insects) is 5,000.
If you want the total from my iNat profile - 2,881
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Yeah, pretty good way to see things you might not be seeing. Yeah species level is a bit tricky.
My observer count for my local ecozone is 715 species, dynamic list says 520 to go, and the species tab count says 1,656 species for the area. Which leaves 421 species outside of that, which I assume dont have species level ids.
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