I am aware that some observers have people in various parts of the world ship them orgainisms, and then they photograph the organism, and mark the location as the location from which the shipper said the organism was caught A fake example: Suppose someone ships me a live ant from Britain, so I can …

[image] insectobserver123: someone ships me a live ant from Britain If that info is in a note or a comment, then identifiers can each decide how to ID, and how to DQA. I would Mark as Reviewed and leave it to the taxon specialists.

[image] DianaStuder: If that info is in a note or a comment, then identifiers can each decide how to ID, and how to DQA. I don’t think this is correct, DQA votes have an objective meaning, they are not an identifier’s personal decision [image] DianaStuder: I would Mark as Reviewed and le…

If iNat is about tracking one’s own wildlife-encounters (as I’ve heard on this forum a few times), then surely these observations should not be made? The uploader never encountered the organism in location x, where it was found. And should the uploader make an observation at location y, where they …

The location of the observation must be used.

I don’t see any issue with this, so long as the date and location given are the date and location of wild collection, and you fully trust your source to be reliable and accurate about that information. I would nevertheless suggest best practice is to be upfront and give a brief summary in the descri…

My impression is iNat is about documenting the natural world, so an expert uploading excellent photography with the correct collection co-ords should be the perfect iNat observation, regardless of where they took the photos, or whether they personally collected the organism. Main thing is accurate …

[image] insectobserver123: I don’t think this is correct, DQA votes have an objective meaning, they are not an identifier’s personal decision That’s not really the case. The DQA options have an objective meaning, but the reason they are votes on inat is because no individual person (other tha…

[image] eyekosaeder: And should the uploader make an observation at location y, where they took the pictures, I would imagine, the observation would need to be marked either “captive/not wild” and/or “location inaccurate” in DQA I think it would be one or the other, either treat it as wild ca…

I occasionally get sent entomology specimens to identify and donate to my local museum. My own decision has been to NOT post these on iNat, because I want that to be about my own personal observations, but rather to use Bug Guide for things like that. However, I don’t see a problem with experts do…

Uploading observations of organisms shipped to you

General

jhbratton October 14, 2024, 8:59am 6

Would it be best if the original observers uploaded the observations, as they are the ones who encountered the specimens in the wild? And they would credit you with taking the pictures for them.

Topic		Replies	Views
Legitimacy to upload an observation General question	36	1544	June 13, 2026
"My" Observations? General	33	2397	October 17, 2023
Observations of animals and plants from scientific collections General question	22	515	August 26, 2026
Museum Specimens / Antique Photos and iNaturalist General question	41	2840	May 16, 2022
When Observations are Photos of Photos General question	24	3696	August 24, 2019

Uploading observations of organisms shipped to you

Related topics