iNaturalist observations of relocated snakes: observation from catch site or release site?

General
1

Hello! I’m wondering what is best practice for posting observations to iNaturalist for relocated snakes?

I’m never sure whether I should be posting from where the snake is caught (a record of where it was naturally found), or from where it’s released (a record of where it is now known to be).

Thanks in advance!

(For reference, I’m a permit-carrying snake catcher in Tasmania, Australia.)

2 Likes
2

i would observe at the capture site and then again at the release site, noting the situation in each case in the observation notes.

3 Likes
3

Thank you, that might work.

My concern was that this might pollute the data a bit, with their being no official way to indicate the situation? For example, someone who’s wanting to pull a dataset of the observations of a particular snake species in my state and doesn’t note the observation notes will double-count for all my observations of relocated snakes, making it look like there are twice as many snakes in the area as there actually are. Given that one of the things I’m concerned about is declining populations, I don’t want to contribute to any misreporting that hides it. Does that make sense?

1 Like
4

you could mark the observation at the new location as captive. that makes the observation casual grade. then if someone else finds it in the same area in the future, that subsequent observation will be verifiable.

that said, iNatuarlist isn’t the best data source for determining abundance in an area. i think most researchers will recognize this, and more observations won’t contribute to “misreporting”.

4 Likes
5

Depend on the situation for me.

If I know the catch site then that’s the location to use.

I often am doing releases of captive snakes though, and we don’t have information about the capture site, so in those cases I mark the release site and add a note that this is a release.

4 Likes
6

iNaturalist is a very bad place to try to get population numbers. There are just too many complications, mostly involving the probability that observers will post a particular species if it is present. (Will they see it? Will they photo it? Will they post it?) So I think double counting isn’t really a problem.

If you want to post just one, the original location is probably best.

1 Like
7

I think the most important thing to do is to write a note on the observation that clearly describes the situation.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if the snake was found in or around someone’s house, you could be making their address public without their knowledge.

4 Likes
8

If this is a problem, set the geoprivacy to “obscured.” Please, please do not set it to “private” which will hide all information about location, even what continent it is on.

9

Thanks everyone for the responses, I really appreciate it!

I realised after posting that perhaps this is a fictitious scenario anyway, as I rarely have a chance to take a photo before capturing the snake, as the focus is on locating it and safely containing it. But then I usually try and get a photo on release, partly so I can get an approximate length with ImageJ later.

But it seems most importantly, whatever I do, I should be sure to mention it in the observation notes!

Thanks again!

3 Likes