Imagine if you could swap homes with another iNatter out there, for say, a month.
Where, when (and possibly who) would be your choices based mostly on observational opportunistic envy? (Please confess the details of your envy.)
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@birdchuvashia when he visits tundra in summer, @olga2019kuryakova to observe everything found on Kamchatka in late spring-early summer ā it fits my prepared list of species of the region, everything is different there. I donāt know a specific user, but visiting east tundra e.g. on Chukotka would be cool (itās in that list too).
What about yourself?
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I can only pick one? I just want to go anywhere I havenāt been before, preferable with as different ecosystems from the eastern U.S. as possible. If I had to narrow it down, Iād like to go to an island with lots of endemic species that I couldnāt get anywhere else - Madagascar, New Zealand, even Hawaiāi.
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Good idea! Would be cool to be able to share with visitors best places to iNat locally knowing they would appreciate the spaces.
It would be a terrible deal for them, but I would particularly love to swap some time in biodiverse-poor Iceland for some time in biodiverse-rich Brazil :)
I would also happily settle for some time pretty much anywhere new though. Iām not so picky.
If anyone wants to swap some time in an apartment in Iceland for wherever they live, let me know!
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Iād have to to go with @/pl_stenger. His home country of New Caledonia! God, the species there are just wonderful. The sea kraits, the Liocheles scorpions, the leaf insects! I think Iād need more than just a month there! Even just the plants! The drosera, the nepenthes, god Iād need so much time there. Trolicaphyllium is just by far my favorite genus of any animal. Theyāre so shaped I love them.
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Malaysia - nicknamed as āland of gummy wormsā in my head because of huge diversity of Bipaliinae. Lot of undescribed species. Check it out, numerous colourful worms already in https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=7155&taxon_id=475828
And sea [Iām poor inlander, we donāt have this salty fancy thing here], marine flatworms, acoels, nemerteans and completely different behavior of environment in general.
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There would be so many regions I would love to explore wildlife atā¦ other south or middle american countries, northern european countries (would love iceland as well! so come swap with me @sbushes for a month in Colombia :-)) , Africa, Australia, Asiaā¦ but if I would have to choose now, I would probably chose a destination I think I will most probably not see in reality in the next 10+ yearsā¦ so probably Australia or New Zealand
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I would probably go to New Zealand. It has a rich diversity of landscapes (forests, mountains, tropical zone etc) while still being an island ecosystem. Iām guessing that this would be the best biodiversity bang for the buck. Plus, Iād at least be able to speak to the locals (I so admire multi-lingual minds, but mine has never been one of those).
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I would really love to return to the Western Cape someday.
We worked out there for an unrelated project around 2016 when both my partner and I first caught the āCape bugā.
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There are so many places Iād love to visit - but I think that rather than trading places, I would like to meet up with those iNatters and have them show me their favorite spots, and then do the same when they visit my area!
Actually it would be pretty cool to have a list of inat people in various areas who are open to meeting visiting inatters and showing them around.
One of my dreams to visit Iceland - So many cool birds! All the mosses and lichens and fungi!
My partner and I were just beginning to plan a visit when covid happened, and now who knows how long it will be before we feel safe crowding into airports and planes. For the moment we are resigning ourselves to only going where we can drive to.
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Iād love to check out Central or South America! I got to see only a fraction of their flora and fauna long before I joined iNat, when I was very young. It would be amazing to go back and fully document the immensity of biodiversity there from totally new clades compared to where I am now.
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It is becoming more affordable and accessible to see nature here all the time , and many places, especially very threatened ecosystems like those of the Andean sierra, are largely underrepresented in terms of observations on iNaturalist.
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Iād like to visit South Africa, or really any Mediterranean climate, to see all our cultivated and invasive plants in their native habitats. (Iām in California.) It seems so crazy that Cape Honeysuckle, for example, exists in the wild.
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I would go anywhere - in fact I was house-sitting for two months in March/ April in Southern France. That was the first trip after two years of Covid restrictions. I didnāt have a car, so my radius was rather limited, but it was great! More than 150 identified animal species - I am still working on the photobook.
Of course the Tropics would be marvellous, but I am also thinking: what could you find in a big city? So Iād swap with @susanhewitt and check out New York City! :-)
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And for sure I could give you a bunch of tips as to the best places to go in NYC. And many of them you can get to using public transportation, easy and cheap too.
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I would be happy to swap with someone who lives on a beach that has good shelling, almost anywhere in the world, although certainly the tropics usually do have prettier shells and more species of shells.
Oh, I have to stop dreaming!
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No, go ahead and dream ā itās free entertainment!
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Want to go to Russiaās East for wild cats and winter animals and wilderness.
Have seen very cool Lepidoptera observed in India.
Everyone speaks so highly of New Zealand that we are intrigued.
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