Welcome to the forum. I’m assuming “a user” is an iNat user. A couple of questions. Do you collect and preserve specimens, or are you a photographer? If the latter, why will a photo not serve the users purpose? Are they asking you to collect new specimens, or send old ones? Personally, I would be suspect. I would ask the user to state where they are from, why they need the specimens, and then confirm that by independent means (Google scholar, faculty lists at a University). I would also wonder why a researcher does not have the funds to explore the geographical area they wish to see. What is the fee for? Reimbursement is one thing, but why the ‘fee’. As @krancmm krancmm points out, there may be legitimate reasons for ths, but it depends on the Pedigree of the requesting person.
I’ve shipped plenty of specimens primely bugs to researchers
And a few plant specimens, I had one lost soul in here trying
To get me and a few other people on here to ship them
a plant that I guess is very toxic and is commonly used as a poison
I didn’t do it and do believe it worked it’s self out
I also had a odd request concerning a highly endangered
Plant but it was to obscure the observations
A curator was able to get that fix in a timely manner
And was also contacted by law enforcement concerning
Someone looking to sale and buy highly endangered cactus
In the US and Mexico
I guess I had photos I posted on here that showed
Cactus on a certain date they wanted for evidence
In a court case all in all I’ve never had anybody offer me a lot of money
Or any money For anything so far
I would definitely use caution when dealing with requests like these
For those who may question the value of collecting specimens vs. photographing them, there are several resources on that topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4103463/
For one of my recent studies, I made use of specimens collected in 1969 of a threatened species of rodent. I was able to compare levels of genetic diversity within the population back then compared to present day–which can help inform conservation management decisions.
Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of evolution, was paid by museums to collect scientific specimens. Of course, not everyone who pays for specimens or who collects them for a fee is doing it for scientific research. I’m aware of a collector who took hundreds of bats (legally) and sold them to a scientific materials company to be turned into skeletons imbedded in plexiglass.
Here is where it get’s interesting. If “collected legally” meant they were under a permit, and that permit was for collection of specimens to make educational materials, then that is a legitimate end use. There can be grey areas… what if the original permitted collection of material was for a study of the bats internals (which perhaps required the demise of the animals themselves), and then the acrylic mounting of remains was just an attempt to put the remains to good use?
I think the key issue here, is to what extent is the collecting event permitted and/or legal, and any subsequent use of material being appropriate for the circumstances. The real difficulty with “approach from strangers” is that there is often no way of establishing these details!
I guess with EUROBATS it’s not that easy to catch hundreds of bats and use them “wrong” way.
To date I’ve collected 2500 plus cacti samples, not the cactus
But DNA from a puncher for my daughter who is doing a ongoing study on genetics
I’ve also collected for researchers 300 plus plant samples
100 plus insects
I’ve helped trap and collect for several hundred live a Animals for over a dozen G&F, Universities, and other researchers
I’m on 5 Scientific permits in 4 states to do this work
And for folks like you I have collected hundreds of dead rodents
For researchers like you for genetic study’s
I have a storage locker full of field collecting supplies that I’ve been given over the years
I am currently doing GIS work for private
US Government and DOD and have done paid field work for two state agencies
Thanks to my daughter and INat I have a hobby that’s turned Into a paid Job
I wish I could post half of what I’ve observed
But I simply don’t have enough time to post them anyways Lol…
This was a large beetle that I observed on a private property abutting a national forest in Puerto Rico. The requester was from Russia and offered no credentials or reason for the offer. I wasn’t in a position to collect (off island) so not really an ethical dilemma. I just thought it could be an undesirable side effect to the site. Theoretically If I was younger, needier, less conservation minded I might have taken this as an entry point to become a poacher, perhaps collecting whatever this person wanted to supplement my income. I think the fact that anyone on the app can contact anyone else is great but can be dangerous. Maybe warranting iNaturalist to share a global note to non-professionals (me) about what a legitimate collection ask is.
I posted an insect that was an invasive species from another continent, not previously reported in this area. A researcher who I recognized as a prominent iNat user asked me if I would collect it for him, and he came and picked up the (live) specimen. I was willing to do this because I was pretty sure this was a legitimate researcher, and we were working with an invasive species. Under other circumstances, I probably wouldn’t have helped.
-Mark
I was contacted by an expert in a field who wanted to confirm that an observation I made might have been a new invasive species, but he needed the specimen to confirm the species. I was willing to send him a specimen if I could find one again, but I didn’t see anything until the end of the season, when I found one squished on the sidewalk near my original observation. He still wanted the squished speciment to get the species, and I sent it to him. I don’t think I would have done so for the sake of a collector, but this seemed like a pretty legitimate request, so I sent the dead specimen. He confirmed it was the relatively new invasive species.
No credentials? Then my response would be a hard no.
At minimum I would expect such a request to come from an institutional email address and ask to have the specimen delivered to an address at the same institution (which you double-check on their website). I realize that many institutions are closed now, but that wouldn’t change my response.
Oh, and if it abuts a national forest I’d do at least a cursory check of their website to find out if they have any policy regarding such things. A call or email to ask would be nice, but–again–many places are closed for business now.
Or maybe I’m a cynic.
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