Two pictures of same species as one observation or multiple?

General
1

Been wondering, if I take multiple pictures of multiple individuals, but they’re of the same species, same place, moments apart, should I upload each as a separate observation, or combine them to one? E.g. I’m taking pictures of three different pool frog individuals at a pond, does each individual require it’s own observation, or should I lump them together, since they’re all pool frogs, at the same pond at the same time?

2

From an identifier point of view, I’d prefer people did one observation and said “There were 3 of these present”, but it is OK to make each individual a separate observation. At some point though, you have to draw a line. I really would not want to see a separate observation for each bird in a flock of 100, for example. (Or really any number past about 5.)

3

Each frog will be its own observation :) though of course if you only want to make one observation of one of the frogs that’s fine too!

An observation records an encounter with an individual organism, or recent evidence of an organism, at a particular time and location.

https://help.inaturalist.org/en/support/solutions/articles/151000169927-what-is-an-observation-

4

If the three frogs are in one photo, technically you can post the photo three times, though as an identifier I’d say please post it once unless you want to annotate it for male and female or adult and young.

If the three frogs are in three separate photos, technically you should post each one separately, as @bouteloua says. As an identifier, though, I won’t complain if they’re posted together as single observation (assuming they really are all the same species).

5

This is why I often post several observations of the same species at the same place and time. I’ve learned from experience that even if I think I’ve found 5 of the same species, it often turns out that I’ve found a couple similar species and didn’t recognize the differences. As an identifier, I’d rather see 10 photos of the same moth species as 10 observations than one observation with 10 moths in it that actually represent a few similar species.