Hi, I’m new to iNaturalist and still figuring things out.
I’ve read the FAQ but I have a question I can’t find a clear answer on: Are museum specimens (e.g. taxidermy, pinned insects, wet specimens, animal skeletons) allowed to be added? And, if yes, how should the date be marked down (date of visiting the museum, I presume)? And should they be marked as captive/cultivated or not?
The FAQ and tutorials only really provide answers to whether or not zoo animals and cultivated plants are allowed, but I nowhere really see a mention of museum specimens being permitted. Hence my confusion.
Thank you!
If you’re visiting a museum I wouldn’t add specimens you see there - iNat’s really for mapping extant wild species. If you have your own collected specimens, it’s best to use the date/time/location of when it was collected.
Thank you for clearing things up for me!
If you happen to know the location where the specimens were collected from and when they were collected then posting them I suppose can be beneficial but it’s really supposed to be your own experience with nature.
That said, it’s okay if once in a while you post a pic your friend (who doesn’t do iNat) took of a butterfly or something. Sometimes my friends will send me pictures of stuff for me to post but it’s about 1 in 500 of my observations.
Yes, if users weren’t present for the collecting date/time/location, even if they know that, they really shouldn’t be posting that organism as their observation.