I don’t think we’ve had one of these before (if we have, I apologize. please link it in the comments if so)
Feel free to post links to any projects you want to raise awareness of! They can be things you manage yourself or someone else’s project that you want more people to join and add observations to.
I’ll start off with 2 here in this post since I’ve been spending a lot of time working on them:
- https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/first-known-photographs-of-living-specimens
More info on this project can be found in the project description and this thread: (https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/things-posted-to-inaturalist-that-were-the-first-ever-observation-of-that-organism/11401)
Thanks to @thebeachcomber for getting this one up and running
- https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/wild-birds-in-cages
This is a project I started recently to track wild-caught birds that have been observed in cages by iNaturalist users. If you see any captive birds being sold that don’t appear to be captive bred or domestic, please add them to this project! I would also like to emphasize that zoo or aviary birds should not be added.
Just for fun I’ll include this one here as well. Shout outs to whoever came up with this idea
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/organisms-on-or-near-appropriate-signs
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Thanks for sharing these, and great idea for a thread! I’ve got a couple too:
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for funny observations: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/observational-comedy
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this one will only be relevant for the next few days, but if you have time on sunday, why not
join this worldwide BioBlitz: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/socially-distant-bioblitz-5-3-2020
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Personally, I’m fond of the Banana Natural Biodiversity Mapping project
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/banana-natural-biodiversity-mapping
Also, the Mangroves of the World project is excellent as it helps to consolidate a number of species in different families that all share a specific ecological niche. That project makes is a lot easier to do a quick run-through of mangroves.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/mangroves-of-the-world
There is a similar one for lichens: Lichens of the World
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lichens-of-the-world
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Microscopic Microbes! https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/microscopic-microbes
I have a bunch of observations I can’t even ID to kingdom, so I make sure to add them to this project to help anyone looking to ID microbes in the future. I also add my better microscopic observations to it, and sometimes just add other ones because I feel like it.
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I’m quite fond of @nathantaylor 's Plants Out of Season project. It’s a great resource, which will only become more useful as people add observations from more places. It can be very difficult to ID a plant, even in the field and with a guide in hand, when it’s not in season – because most guides have you looking for seasonal features such as flowers to the exclusion of everything else.
I’ve only added a few observations, but I’m still a novice botanist. I look forward to learning enough to add more!
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I’d like to give awareness to a project I found the other day. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/never-home-alone-the-wild-life-of-homes. I think this is a great idea, and it is comforting to know that you are not alone in your house, even if it is because of a spider.
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Fantastic idea!
Welcome aboard! Take a virtual trip on the Looper and see all the caterpillars with unwanted passengers.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/bus-passengers-caterpillar-parasitoids-more
Admire the living art installations of https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/arthropod
Keep your seat belts fastened. Enjoy the ride!
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Thanks for the interesting links!
I knew of the “Organisms on Appropriate Signs” project from early in my iNat experience, but it was only this week that I had occasion to join the group and offer an Observation–this Herring Gull perched on a sign at a boat launch.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/44009875
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Great idea, thank you!
I created a project as a prototype for my Master’s project around improving biodiversity via urban balconies. I know it may not be in favour of the direct objectives of iNaturalist, as it’s about cultivated plants, but the idea is to map the plants urban balcony owners grow, and to create a community promoting the cultivation of native plants via seed exchange rather than e.g. buying imported plants from plant shops, and ultimately, to improve the ecological literacy of citizens by motivating them to observe and report biodiversity on their balconies.
It’s currently only for Barcelona, Spain, but I would very much appreciate any feedback on the idea and the prototype itself. Thank you very much in advance!
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/balconnect
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I’ve never figured out how to ad an organism to a project.
My knowledge is limited, but here’s how I add observations to a project. First, join the project. Then when you view an observation, on the right side near the middle is a heading Projects. Put the courser in there and select from the list of projects that comes up. Alternatively, when you’re uploading photos there’s a heading on the left for projects. This is based on a computer, not a cell phone. I don’t know for cell phones.
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I’m teaching a plant identification class on-line, making heavy use of iNaturalist. I find it useful to have close-up photos of small plant parts, often parts revealed only by opening up flowers. I’ve been posting such photos on iNaturalist. The project “Dissected Flowers” gathers these so they’re readily available.
Please add observations to this project when you find or post appropriate ones.
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Okay, that worked and wasn’t hard. I guess previously I had been joining projects average users weren’t permitted to add to, because I had tried it the way you said and been confused about why the project wasn’t popping up.
I guess I should have posted a link to the Dissected Flowers project. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/dissected-flowers
Are you sure those were traditional projets? Collectional projects won’t let you manually add things.