I would appreciate help balancing any good associated with uploading observations of endangered species with any danger it would pose to the animals (in this case, but it should apply to all taxa) in question. For the species I’m thinking of today the location is well known. This makes it both safe…

[image] russell_engelman: There really needs to be a setting in-between “Private” and “Obscured” for “Only Show To Professionals” based on this conversation. iNat can already provide precise location information on obscured observations to qualified individuals upon request. The next step would …

[image] russell_engelman: There really needs to be a setting in-between “Private” and “Obscured” for “Only Show To Professionals” This already exists, you can choose who to share with. I do caution you that academic credentials do NOT mean someone won’t poach, though. I think that stuff happe…

That’s an excellent point. In addition, the species in question here was also a major tourist attraction, which funds conservation in a country with 25 percent of their acreage devoted to national parks. But I still feel uncomfortable about the carbon footprint of travel, which I’ve not done for man…

I have the exact same concern, but I didn’t think about it when I first started posting, so I’m really glad you brought it up. I don’t know if iNat can do what you’re suggesting, but one thing I do in the meantime is obscure the location for all observations that are from the same trip as an endange…

That’s great to know, but how would we know what people to share with, and how would researchers know to ask if they were hidden? Until I understand how that would work, I support @russell_engelman ’s suggestion. If someone were working on a project needing a particular plant’s location and distribu…

My (bird) observations are often obscured to the state level when I enter specific coordinates. I assume the same thing. The location of the observation is still there, just not visible to the iNat community or public generally. Something to bear in mind is that anyone outside iNat can see our obser…

Just a general reminder that it is possible to respond to multiple other users in one post on a thread via quotes. This helps keep the thread cleaner, but Discourse will also give warnings and then slow down posts from individual users if they make too many posts in a row in a thread or otherwise do…

[image] nancylightfoot: That’s great to know, but how would we know what people to share with, and how would researchers know to ask if they were hidden? I wasn’t claiming that this was a solution for all needs (and certainly it is limiting in some ways) – merely pointing out what functionali…

[image] spiphany: As has been noted in this thread, just because someone is a researcher (or claims to be one), this doesn’t automatically guarantee that they will use the information responsibly – so some users might not be happy with a solution where any researcher can access the coordinates o…

[image] nancylightfoot: That’s great to know, but how would we know what people to share with, and how would researchers know to ask if they were hidden? Many US states and Canadian provinces have Natural Heritage Programs (or something with a similar name) that are part of the NatureServe Ne…

Is it ever ok to upload Endangered Species?

General

Topic		Replies	Views
Should more observations be obscured automatically? General	35	1138	August 18, 2024
Danger of locations on iNaturalist General	21	5742	November 25, 2019
Lightly obscure all records on iNaturalist Feature Requests geoprivacy	47	6272	October 25, 2019
Concern about disapearing species General projects	23	1188	July 21, 2023
Obscuring locations - reasons and etiquette General	23	2573	August 30, 2022

Is it ever ok to upload Endangered Species?

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