Two cases, wild or captive/cultivated organisms?

General
1

Hello, I have two cases I would like to submit to you to understand whether the organisms can be considered wild or captive/cultivated.

Example 1

The arthropods I find in the soil of my balcony pots. Can I consider them wild or are they captive? I have no way of knowing whether they were present in the soil before or whether they are actually subsequent generations.

Example 2

I bought an aquatic plant. In the bowl I transferred it to, I now find algae, crustaceans, chironomid larvae, and other organisms. Can I consider them wild since they reproduce independently and I did not intend to have them or reproduce them, or should I consider them captive/cultivated since I top up the water and they are confined to a balcony?

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I believe from past discussions in this forum that organisms inadvertently transported by people still count as wild, even if they were constrained during transport.

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Heya @roberto_costantino!(:

Brilliant question!

From the FAQs: https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000169932-what-does-captive-cultivated-mean-

Checking captive / cultivated means that the observation is of an organism that exists in the time and place it was observed because humans intended it to be then and there. Likewise, wild / naturalized organisms exist in particular times and places because of other reasons (e.g. members of native or established non-native populations or released/escaped pets, hitchhikers, or vagrants).

Imho, in both cases it indeed sounds like the organism(s) should not be marked as captive:)

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I would have both scenarios as wild.

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Both are wild, since you did not intend for them to be there. Same as if a weed pops up in your front lawn.

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