It is still the earliest observation of that new taxon, right? If new observations/data is added, the earliest observation by date is the one rewarded.
It would be an achievement that can be ‘lost’ if someone else submits an earlier record, but it is not the only achievement in the list created that can be lost. Any ‘unicorn’ or ‘diamond’ observation can be lost once there are enough observations.
Here’s another one. ‘Back Catalogue’ - Have an observation where there are at least 5 (or 10) years between observation and submission. I know I am guilty of going through my old photos and facebook albums.
That’s a cool one, but I am not retrieving all the observations anymore (because it takes too much time), so this is not possible to do at the moment.
I can’t even imagine the effort behind the work that you do. Thanks for injecting more fun into an already addicting hobby!
I will take a look at your suggestions @pisum. One problem that I faced about using /v1/observations/taxonomy is that it’s hard to get species count, because iNaturalist uses a “Leaf Count” algorithm to calculate the number of species. I don’t know how to replicate that. That’s why I am getting multiple pages of v1/observations/species_count
Ideas for more achievements:
First Observer: Be the first person to add an observation of a species to iNaturalist. (Date added, not date observed, and the observation must be RG.)
First Identifier: Be the first person to correctly identify a species on iNaturalist. (Date the ID was made, not date of the observation. Must be a RG observation, ID must not be the result of a taxon swap, ID must either match the observation’s current ID or have been replaced by a taxon swap. Tricky to get right when replaced by a taxon swap.)
Blast From the Past: Have the oldest (verifiable) observation of a species on iNaturalist. (Date observed is the only relevant thing here. If someone later adds an even older observation, you will lose this achievement. RG observations only.)
From the Archives: Add an observation from before you joined iNaturalist. (RG observations only.)
Sepia Toned: Add an observation from before iNaturalist existed. (Date observed is earlier than March 2008(?), RG observations only.)
Edit: changed “Old Timer” to “Sepia Toned”. Figured it’s better to imply the photo is old than imply the observer is old.
Edit the second: looks like “From the Archives” and “Old Timer” were implemented while I wasn’t looking!
take a look at what this does: https://jumear.github.io/stirfry/iNat_observations_taxonomy?user_id=glauberramos&options=leaf,species.
it’s not done in that page, but you should also be able to determine the ancestry chain for each taxon if you loop through the taxa in the natural order of taxa returned from the original response. that will allow you to get your taxon-specific badges (ex. bees, butterflies, etc.)
Nice and useful, thanks !
One possible bug (or not): I know I have at least observed one species that is classified “Critically Endangered”:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/250143683
But that counter still says 0…
I think this is happening because I am getting the data for threatened globally, but in this case, the species is critically endangered locally. I will see if I can fix this.
I think the global rating is the most meaningful one. National, provincial, state, etc. ratings are often weird - e.g. the species range just barely crosses a border, so it’s “least concern” on one side but “endangered” on the other because the population inside the political border is tiny. Standardized rating systems are supposed to prevent this, but with each species being evaluated separately and each local government doing independent evaluations, the local ratings often… diverge from reality, let’s say.
Random brainstorm for you. Take all these with a grain of salt.
Further existing milestone suggestions:
Record 50,000 observations – there are enough users far beyond this point and it’s a reasonable goal to aim for.
Record 100 observations with sound – encouragement of submitting audio observations is great.
Observe 100 species with less than 100 total observations – this is a reasonable extension.
Observe 50 species with less than 10 total observations – some people I’m checking have over 500-1,000 species with <10 obs, so it seems fair. Keeping it low so it is reasonable for all geographic areas.
60-day observation streak – a natural extension of the existing goal, but not so insane no one can reach it easily
Observe 500 total status species – a combination goal of vulnerable, threatened, near threatened, endangered, and critically endangered species.
New suggestions:
Participate in a City Nature Challenge (would use date ranges, and maybe locations, not sure how you’d do it. Project participation?)
Participate in 3 City Nature Challenges
100 Comments on observations.
Observe 25 fern species (and if you take this and the following, change 100 plants to 150 plant species).
Observe 25 bryophyte species.
Changes to existing values:
Observe 100 animal species → Observe 500 or 1000 animal species (this already includes several existing 100 species achievements and so just 100 feels too low a milestone).
Observe 25 snake species → Observe 20 snake species, 25 is a very high requirement for many parts of the world.
Observe 100 insect species → Observe 150 or 200 insect species (already includes 100 for Lepidoptera, and this is one of the two highest diversity groups for observation).
Observe 25 raptor species → Observe 15 or 20 raptor species (25 is a quarter of the 100 bird goal, and not all regions have much raptor diversity, so it doesn’t seem fair).
Then again, to a place that struggles with the European rabbit as a pest, the idea of it being classed as endangered is laughable (yes, I only just discovered that, and I’m still trying to get my head around the idea!). So maybe ‘bigger picture’ local makes more sense than global, even if ‘local local’ is over-fussy.
I found escaped Brugmansia in the Azores, so I checked off the EW box! Escapees and introduced small populations are how you get them(or observing them before they go extinct).
@glauber735 I have a lot of achievement recommendations for you. I don’t know if some have already been shared but they might have been. Your API website is my favorite by the way(I have it bookmarked!)
Observations:
Champion Observer- Record 50,000 observations
World Champion Observer- Record 100,000 observations
Quality Champion- Have 50,000 RG observations
25 and 50 year veteran
Achievements for 10/100/1000 sound observations
Conservation:
Invasive Master- Observe 1000 introduced species
Endemic Master- Observe 1000 endemic species
Seeing Ghosts- Observe an Extinct species(there are observations on Inat like this).
Rarity:
First Observer- Be the first observer of a species on Inat
Time and Dedication:
Leap Day- Make 29 observations on February 29th
Calendar Wizard- Have a RG observation in every day of the year.
Bioblitz!- Make 200 observations/100 species in a single day
Identifications:
Champion Identifier- Make 100,000 identifications
World Champion Identifier- Make 1M identifications
Taxonomy:
Kingdom Spotter- Make an observation from all 8 kingdoms
One Big Family- Observe 1,000 unique families of life
I added more achievements, now there are a total of 99 achievements! Thanks for the suggestions @yayemaster, @silversea_starsong, @JeremyHussell and everyone else that suggested.
There are a couple of nice ideas that will need to load all the observations from an user or do lot’s of calls to the api, like: get X species in a single day, observe in X countries or be the first observer of a species. This will have to be done later, or in a separated step where I slowly load all the observations.
Could add X number of observations to traditional projects be a good achievement?
Great. I’m at 63/99, and I have no longer completed any of the achievement categories. I need to get outside more!
I got “City Nature Challenger” even though I haven’t participated in CNC.
World Traveller should probably be “Observe in 6 continents”. Antarctica is just too hard to visit, and anyone who does can skip one of the others, and possibly get another achievement or something.
Globe Trotter’s little map is awesome. Just wanted to say.
Biodiversity Explorer: “iconic taxons” isn’t a great description, since Animalia and Chromista don’t have icons on iNaturalist, Animalia is a superset of most of the icons, and the “Unknown” icon (better described as “Other”, including e.g. bacteria and viruses) is missing.
Possibly give an achievement for observing species which aren’t in one of the iconic taxa. (It seems easy to calculate Total - Iconic.) Maybe call it “Esoteric Expert”. Same for Animalia which aren’t in the Iconic Taxa, “Arcane Animal Adherent”.
Name change please? Looking at the oldest records, a lot of them are submitted by young people.
I would be very happy to see First Identifier and First Observer implemented, even if it’s in a second loading step which takes a long time, or even if it’s in a separate tool. I know I’ve been first identifier for some species, but I’ve lost track of which ones…
If you have any observations on the same days of one of the cities that are participating, you are automatically a participant without the need to join anything.