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.
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.
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.