I am writing to bring a significant update on Marina Gorbunova’s (marina_gorbunova) profile to the community’s attention.
As of today, her profile description has been updated with a message stating that she passed away on January 27, 2026, after a long illness. While I do not have personal confirmation of this news, given Marina’s status as such an active member of the iNaturalist community, I felt it was important to share this here.
Marina used to share winter coats with me, knowing how I appreciated them. I had been amazed when she posted this photo of herself hand feeding a squirrel and later we had a conversation about animals who changed colors for winter, which obviously are not here. Thereafter she would post tags to me on Observations of animals she came across with such.
I am stunned and saddened to learn not only of her death but that she faced such a tremendous challenge for a great portion of her life, and I will remember Marina for her keen intelligence, her love of the natural world around her, and her spirited generosity.
This is very sad news. Marina was a passionate naturalist and iNatter who helped thousands of people on iNat. When I go through observations stuck at Arthropoda, I still come across many observations she’s identified.
She had also cut back on her activity on the forum due to some harassment she received on certain threads over being a Russian national in the context of the war in Ukraine. She changed her name on the forum after such an incident and continued to participate from time to time, but I imagine it made being on the forum much less inviting for her.
I am sad to hear she is gone. I did not know her personally, but she was an enthusiastic naturalist and we had some good conversations on the forum. I loved the pictures she shared of her favorite parks. It was a window to a beautiful place that I will most likely never get to see myself. I appreciate that she shared that with us.
I first ‘met’ this incredible iNaturalist right here on the forum, when I was just starting to develop my ‘Dunning-Kruger’ skills in the middle of the Covid story.
I couldn’t believe how steadfastly she shared her knowledge and wisdom with everyone out there, newbs and all. She could make you feel that even a way-off ID attempt was absolutely fine, as long as you kept going!
Her enthusiasm, energy, and wisdom (far beyond her years) could almost make you believe she wasn’t really ‘possible’. Like she had escaped from some over-the-top Russian adventure novel, or something.
But I bet she would be the first to correct anyone who would describe her character as ‘larger than life’. She was instead, fully immersed in the world we call the living.
She seemed to really personify so well the spirit of amateur naturalist ideals: thoughtful, adventurous, and always so encouraging.
(If there really is another world beyond, I have no doubt she will be the first to catalogue it!)
I hope we will all honor her spirit by continuing to remember and practice the kindness and generosity with all who enter here.
Thank you Marina G.
And may we all hope to achieve even a fraction of your accomplishments, while embracing all of your great energy, thoughtfulness and engaging spirit.
Even happy trails have an end. I only wish that yours had been a lot longer.
I always enjoyed her posts on this forum and when they stopped I did wonder why. She was clearly an intelligent, knowledgeable, and dedicated young naturalist. I also admired her fluency in English, not her native language. Very sad that her life was so short.
This is really sad news. She was one of the few inaturalist people whose name I actually remembered, due to all the positive forum and website interactions.
Last message we got from her was in April that she was doing “kinda okay, but not fully.”