I think that iNat can be used to study abundance, with a ton of caveats and a lot of analysis. For instance, I’ve noticed that abundance of Mecaphesa species and pollinators seems somewhat correlated with the stopping grounds of certain users who are inclined to photograph them. But other organisms, such as Misumena vatia and monarchs, may be less correlated with individual users, and thus the abundance data may be more useful (with a boatload of other caveats).
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I mean, we’re all iNatting with each other anyway.
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I’m not!
I like to bird with one or more other people because they provide extra eyes to spot things and not just birds. I really like being out with botanists as their search image and knowledge is very different than mine. Diversity of participants increases the diversity in what you will see. It doesn’t matter to me if we photo the same things.
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On the rare occasion I am with someone else anything that is seen is fare game for whomever is with me.
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I’ve never hiked with another iNatter, but I have had non-iNat companions spot interesting stuff that I missed!
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Twice during a Bioblitz, there was a team plant and a team insect and a team go at your own pace identify whatever you want. It was great! Once during a nature fest which was more laid back and people could identify whatever they wanted.
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I have to repeat this all the time. I have seen so many people not understanding it and saying ‘‘this must be very common /rare because it’s observed many times / few times on iNaturalist’’ - not always the case.
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Some of the least common things in my area are some of the most common things! People don’t record them because there’s so many and they’re uninteresting. Like yeah, there’s sparrows here, and there, and there, so why record it? But if you see a fantail, that’s neat, and it gets recorded.
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When I’m out with new iNatters who aren’t as experienced yet, I try to help them make observations and may refrain from making my own of the same organisms. When I’m with people who know what they’re doing, it gets a bit more competitive and we don’t care as much if everyone observes the same cool critter.
I like to do that to my students on field trips whenever I spot a rattlesnake plantain - with a bit of a pause between rattlesnake and plantain. It definitely gets their attention! But then they’re somewhat disappointed it’s just a plant.
Ah yes, observation envy is a thing. With plants, I will sometimes head out and try to find it so I can get my own observation, but chance encounters with animals are not as easily replicated.
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11 posts were split to a new topic: Thoughts on rattlesnake plantain
Improvise an arena and figth for supremacy.
Jokes aside, I do a lot of iNatting with other users and with my students, and we have 2 main rules:
1 - First observer gets the record, although anyone can take pictures;
2 - First observer can pass and allow other person to make the record, usually based on the basis that the other has a better equipament, wants to have this record, the organism falls within his area of expertise, or the first observer has already found another organism of the same species or genera in this iNatting session.
It usually works pretty well, although in the past I had some problems with overly competitive people that tend to get very agressive and upset if they don’t get all the records. In cases like this, I simply stopped inviting them to go iNatting.
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Why rules? If multiple people get their own photos, they should be able to post them if they want. The only rule I have is that the other iNatters can’t get a better photo than mine. ;-)
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To avoid creating multiple observations of the same organism and artificially inflating sighthings for a period. This can be quite annoying to handle when you are using iNat data in ecological studies. Since we go iNatting focusing both in having a great time and generating scientific data, we usually take these precautions.
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it would be great if we could create the option to ‘quest’ together and share a species daily list between two people, like if my friend could tag me in their observations when we are together. I think eBird lets you do this. Maybe not a priority for iNat devs but i’d really love it.
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exactly.
observation means 1 user observes 1 organism
50 observations can mean 1 user observed 50 organisms or 50 users observed 1 organism
To assume that number of observations relates to abundance of the organism rather than abundance of the observers seeing the organism is just poor study design, and no one using iNat’s data scientifically should ever make this assumption.
iNat documents how commonly observed a species is, not how common the species is. If 100 people observe a bird, that bird was 100 times more observed than a bird only observed by 1 person, and it will show up 100 times more on iNat. This isn’t a bug or a problem or a pitfall to be avoided- it’s exactly what iNat was meant for. If someone wants to try to extrapolate actual species abundances from iNat’s dataset, they’re going to need to do some serious “massaging” of the data to get anything useful, because that’s simply not what iNat’s format is intended to record.
So yeah, observe away. If all 50 people in your party observe the same tree, great. The mission is to maximize how many people are engaging with nature, not to rigorously build a dataset of species abundances.
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Sharing a find is relatively easy with plants. What about spiders, or skinks or small mammals or… That’s where first-in-best-dressed matters, at least a little more. And patience. Great photos often arise from great patience. I’m not good at those!
When I lead an excursion for other people, I often make a small pre-excursion to know “what is around”, then I already know which organisms can be seen and have some of the stories and ecological facts connected to them a bit more present - and then let the others find them or will introduce the species to the others, but can stay in the background when they have a closer look. In the case that multiple people want to make an observation, I would not oppose, but just keep in mind:
- the observation should not be copied (using the same photo), but a “true” individual observation
- optionally, there can be (as a comment/ description) a link to one of the other observation of the same individual
→ an individual observation can be a great thing, since this is the individual, personal encounter with the organism.
→ each individual observation contributes to a learning process
learning process
- I myself usually make my observations not with the phone but with a camera, so that I (1) see the organism in the field, appreciate its beauty, and try to identify it (2) I take a photo of features that might be good for identification and/or that are interesting on this individual/life stage and usually note down something in a small paper-notebook (3) some time later I will upload the organism, look a bit more into identification, possibly regret to not have taken into account all the important detailed features [of course I will also have a look at the observation compared to old observations of the same organism and related species lateron, to learn more about it, any possibly link a friend in the process]
and repetition is key for learning and hence I also recommend that to others and appreciate when people make their own observations, even if they are from the same individual - but (as mentioned above) ideally mention the other observation and/or the excursion/ workshop. At the same time I respect it when people have their own “rules” during their own excursions [I would still like to go on an excursion with you edgar_crispino if I get a chance ;) ]
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I tide pool with a crew pretty normally, not least of all because it’s important for safety. We don’t really talk about who posts what on iNaturalist. We just give credit to whoever found it in the post and I will say also posted by…if I know it is. As far as Instagram goes, we do try not to post each others’ finds first out of courtesy. For the marine biology stuff, it’s pretty common for a college class to have a bunch or students post the same thing, so it’s normal.
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My dream is to meet someone that likes inat like i do so we choose a trail to record literally every specie of it kkk. Doing it alone is boring.