Results: The World's Largest Sample of Indoor Organisms

Here’s in interesting edge case: Brown Anole (Anolis sagrei) from Delaware Park, Buffalo, NY, USA

The lizard is well outside of its natural or normal introduced range because it can’t survive in that climate, but an unintended population has become established in the greenhouse in the zoo. (Assuming that’s all accurate) does this count as indoors for this project?

That’s an extreme example but I’ve found a number of plant parasites, ant populations, fly populations, spiders feeding on the above etc. indoors in greenhouses.

Do those fit in this project or would it be better to create another project for this context?

I have a project for wild plants growing in greenhouses or other indoor contexts: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/indoor-greenhouse-weeds

5 Likes

I would guess that a greenhouse isn’t really a “habitation” in the sense that the greenhouse was designed for plants and/or animals to inhabit as opposed to humans. Humans will occupy the space for a specific reason (looking at the animals/plants), but this feels quite different to me because the space is specifically designed to harbor non-human life. An analagous situation would be an unintended organism living in a livestock barn or aquarium tank. I guess if observations in structures like that are included in the project, then this could be as well though.

2 Likes

One of the observations highlighted in the opening post of this thread is of an owl in a barn.

Ah, I thought that was an attic given it’s size in the pic, but yeah, if barns are legit, I don’t see why greenhouse plants/animals or wild animals in zoo enclosures or aquaria tanks would be different. You could probably add all observations from your greenhouse weeds project!

3 Likes

Is the project not restricted to Animalia? I thought it was.

The title says “organisms” and there are fungi included at least, so I don’t think it is restricted to Animalia.

The only rules seem to be that it must be wild and must have a photo:
https://www.inaturalist.org/project/never-home-alone-the-wild-life-of-homes/terms

This topic reminds me of my wife’s encounter with a python slithering around in her parental kitchen. This was about two decades ago in Java, Indonesia. Surprisingly, my wife has a strong dislike of snakes in any form. I wonder why…

I bookmarked this topic to later add my indoors observations too.

Regarding that Barn Owl observation – There are horizontal beams (not a continuous floor) across the base of the triangle formed by the roof. Houses are built like that. I shouldn’t say never, but barns generally aren’t built like that. That’s a Barn Owl in the attic, presumably the attic of a house.

2 Likes

Sorry for the delay, more good discussion of edge cases here. Hmm. So, for sure, plants in greenhouses don’t count, as they are captive/cultivated. But anoles and other non-cultivated organisms found in greenhouses do count. Please note in the comments if the observation is from a greenhouse though, as this is a fairly different environment than a typical human habitation. We might want to treat them separately. @raymie’s greenhouse-specific project is probably a better home for loads of greenhouse observations than Never Home Alone.

2 Likes

Plants in greenhouse are not necessarily captive/cultivated, they only are if they were planted in the greenhouse intentionally. Wild weeds can and do appear in greenhouses all of the time. That’s what my project is tracking.

6 Likes

I only just notice this, but this is neat! I’ve observed have a handful of unexpected plants that have cropped up in pots that I can add.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.