I use a social media site called Nextdoor that is designed to connect people who are in the same geographic area. There are many people on there who give away many useful items for free. While I’m on there, I almost always see one or two posts where someone has posted a photo of a plant/animal/fungus wanting to know what it is. Inevitably, the same misidentifications happen over and over.
Any spider with any red on, or predominantly black, it is identified as a black widow
Any spider that is mostly brown is identified as a brown recluse, which do not occur here in California.
Any blurry or dark photo of a cat is identified as a mountain lion or a bobcat, even if the flea collar is clearly visible.
Any snake is a rattlesnake.
Any frog is identified both as a bullfrog and as red-legged frog.
Any bluish bird is identified as a blue jay, which do not occur within a thousand miles of here.
Any lizard is a newt or a skink
I could go on.
The misidentifiers are often quite confident and eager to argue. So I have two questions for you.
What common misidentifications do you see from non-naturalists in your area?
What motivates people to state and defend identifications when they really have zero idea?
I ask this second question because I think having insight into why these people do this would help me be less annoyed with them. Thank you!
Where I’m from, for the majority of people any snake in the water is a moccasin, any snake on land is just “a snake” and automatically assumed to be venomous, and all are to be killed on sight
Most of the non-naturalist people I know identify any long thin fish (gunnels, pricklebacks, etc) as eels, despite the fact that there are no true eels in Alaska. Also, they commonly misidentify the same fish as juvenile wolf eels, but if they actually saw juvenile wolf eels, they would realize that they don’t look anything like a high cockscomb or gunnel.
I think most of the time (at least with the people I know), they are just repeating what others have told them, without really taking time to think about whether or not what they heard was true, and then they are afraid of being wrong so they defend their argument vigorously.
I think a lot of people are just unaware of how many species of spiders, snakes, fish, etc. there actually are. They’ve only ever heard of three kinds of spiders: brown recluse, black widow and tarantula, so when they see a small, black one, they “know” it must be a widow. If it’s big and hairy, it’s a tarantula.
I generally only read the posts on Nextdoor that are giving away something I could use or have a photo of an organism. But I agree, it is not a hub of careful thinking.
You are certainly right, that is part of it. But when I then tell them it is a Johnson’s Jumping Spider and post a photo of an JJS with a link to a page about how to identify that species, the response is almost invariably, “Nope, still a Black Widow.”
So far I have not gained any additional empathy for these neighbors.
In the plant world, a lot of non-naturalists I encounter believe that “moss” is a species (that apparently includes a lot of lichens), and sometimes “fern” is considered a single species, too. At least many of them are aware that there are different species of “trees” such as firs, oaks, and apple trees.
Many people, if you challenge their “ID”, you have to remember that they are not thoughtful nature detectives who are trying to get to subspecies.
They have some role in life (father, wife, etc.), and a fragile ego, and they cling to this idea of being the authority or “the smart one” when their kids ask them a question
So when you helpfully share ID resources, in their mind, you are attacking their identity
So you are running into “identity defence” or “ego defence” that has nothing to do with actual nature ID
“Are you calling me stupid?! Are you saying I’m wrong?!”
If you work at a park or a zoo, and you can hear adults “educating” their kids or their friends about nature, it will hurt your brain
On the flip side, there are a lot of people who know a lot about nature: farmers to start with, gardeners with ornamentals and veggie patches, animal lovers, hikers, photographers.
Proper identification is probably not their primary concern.
I’ve about half furnished my house with the free stuff from there. Lots of people on there who are happy to give away the almost new furniture, housewares, etc. that was slightly the wrong color. Anyone with a truck could open their own furniture store around here.
That does sound right. I’ll think about how to how to help the question asker (e.g., the person with the lizard in their bathtub, which they think might be a rattlesnake) understand the correct ID without making everyone misIDing it feel attacked. Thank you!
A little learning is a dangerous thing ;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring :
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Surely all identifiers have this experience at some times, when they expand their sources of information for making IDs. We start out young feeling confident that we have mastered identifying which blocks fit the round slot, which the square, and which the triangle. And then we learn more and more, until we have dozens of similar slots and a disturbing awareness [depending on the taxon and the part of the world where it was found] that there are missing slots that no one has yet described. Definitely sobering.
We live close to the woods. Our and all the neighbors gardens get visits especially in spring from red foxes. Some time ago, there was an article about the sighting of a single Golden jackal in the region. Since then one of our neighbors insists on seeing Golden jackals in his garden regularly…