Postings of international renown

General
1

What’s the policy or opinion of posting individual organisms that have made the news… but do not get posted to iNat?

examples:

  1. https://www.livescience.com/animals/land-mammals/spotted-hyena-found-in-egypt-for-1st-time-in-5-000-years-then-trackers-killed-it-with-a-pickup-truck

  2. https://www.iflscience.com/galapagos-rail-returns-to-floreana-island-after-200-years-or-was-it-hiding-there-all-along-78257

  3. https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2024/01/05/arizona-trail-camera-captures-8th-jaguar-seen-1996/72120413007/

If the poster is not the observer, but seems some of these should be recognized by iNat?

Thoughts?

2 Likes
2

you shouldn’t do that. it’s not your observation, and iNat isn’t designed to be a data aggregator. (iNat pushes its data to GBIF for aggregation with other sources.)

in iNat you can modify place checklists to include a particular species, and curators can add range definitions, but you shouldn’t add fake observations.

17 Likes
3

Did you see it? Were you there?
If not - then it is not your obs.
And their picture? Will not be copyright to you - but it would present as yours if you make an obs using it.

1 Like
4

I totally understand the desire to do this, but as others have said that’s not what iNaturalist is for. I’ve had to take down observations of the Mike Pence Fly and the Queen Elizabeth Spider, among others.

6 Likes