On iNat, are there instances where the American species (Including partially American, like the Barn owl and Western Honeybee) have less observations than their Eurasian, African, Australian or Oceanian counterparts? Exclude South America, since they are kinda a jumble up, and are equally dominant a…

I’m confused. Honeybees are Eurasian - they were introduced to the US by humans. Me observing a bee in the UK doesn’t mean I’m contributing to America centrism.

Most of honeybee obs are not from its native range I’d guess, each species in top of observed ones are from US, those that originated in Eurasia or originally live here and there, they all are in top because of US observations.

In the data we obviously have a bias and I think more or less everyone is aware of that. As far as attitudes are concerned I have often encountered pretty annoying US-centrism in online communities. Some people from the US seem to believe anyone with internet access communicating in English has to …

There’re some topics that are worded the certain way that the theme wouldn’t be understandable for someone from another part of the world, because they’re referring to more or less common knowledge for e.g. US citizens who are into nature, and not known for others. e.g. topics about cicadas this yea…

Sure, some people (rightly) assume that many of the forum participants will be in the US and they might not always explain things in a way understandable for anyone. But for me that is very harmless. What I’d be annoyed about is for example if someone asks for advice and gets a reply that wouldn’t w…

I’d say it’s totally okay too, even though it’s funny to read comments about contacting wildlife rescue as if it really was a thing that actually existed out of first world countries. I never seen anyone being aggressive about such things or pushing it and that’s what matters. Sorry for bothering yo…

A couple of things here. iNat observations depend on at least three things. That people have the time to observe nature, that they have the means to take photos, and they also have the means to upload those observations to the website. For many people, these are not easily obtainable. It may take mo…

I’ve noticed on the Forum we tend not to be very specific – or even general – about where we live when we post responses. I agree that someone in the U.S. (like me) might respond to a question with a U.S.-centric answer, but if they (we) do that, we should identify where we are on the planet. Same…

[image] cmcheatle: Sedge Darner (Aeshna subarctica) Subarctic Darner ( Aeshna juncea) Is this an actual case of the common names being the exact reverse of the scientific names, or did you get them mixed up? [image] richyfourtytwo: Some people from the US seem to believe anyone with int…

[image] richyfourtytwo: Some people from the US seem to believe anyone with internet access communicating in English has to be a US citizen. I sometimes feel so (provided there is no evidence to prove otherwise)… When I check the observations, I correct myself. I thought @marina_gorbunova was…

Instances where America-centrism is busted on iNat?

General

jnstuart October 15, 2021, 11:45pm 36

Yes, there are still many areas of the US that are just not very accessible so lots of places yet to explore. Or there are just not many iNatters visiting them.

Topic		Replies	Views
Maybe User Population Too US Based? General	62	2624	June 10, 2025
Mapping distributions of iNatters via common species General	26	1870	April 29, 2024
Not an unbiased dataset General	36	4063	October 4, 2020
Top Observed Species on iNaturalist: Which ones have you not seen? Nature Talk	93	5619	March 15, 2022
Biases in iNat data General	88	8529	July 15, 2021

Instances where America-centrism is busted on iNat?

Related topics