What is the most-observed individual organism on iNat?

I wish I could tell you. It’s been over a year since I ID’d those plants and I have forgotten.

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The General Sherman tree alone seems to have roughly 90 - 130 observations on here, so I would assume that would be it.

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I just looked at monterey cypress in socal and i’m pretty sure I figured out which tree it was within a few seconds of scrolling… it’s the one growing above a rock wall on the seashore in Del Monte Forest. If you google the place half the pictures that come up are that same tree.

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There was a little frog in a container in Hong Kong last year that was quite the celebrity. :)

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What about famous stands of aspen clones? Maybe not the intended subject of the observation but caught in the background? :)
When looking that up I found this interesting case of ecological cascade. https://www.sltrib.com/news/2017/11/11/utahs-pando-aspen-grove-is-the-most-massive-living-thing-known-on-earth-it-may-die-soon/

It’s behind paywall.

Odd. I got to it no problem. Maybe try a different browser or maybe blocked in your country or region? It really is a nice story about one of the oldest aspen stands in the world, how it’s dying and how people are bringing awareness (and becoming popular with tourists and maybe observations?) and trying to restore it through restoring the ecology around it.

Maybe you’re their subcriber?

No I’m not a subscriber, I think I’d know. It looks like you are in Russia? That might be why. I sent you a private message of a link to a pdf version. Anyone else that can’t access feel free to message me.

I could read it - from South Africa.

if that’s the criteria you’re using, then i bet the most observed organism would be some power observer who often captures their hands in their photos.

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Regarding the Methusela tree in the Bristlecone Pines, the staff keep the identity and exact location of Methusela well hidden, even though it is reportedly close to one of the hiking trails through the grove…so I just photographed every old tree on the trail. Methusela must be in there somewhere!

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I’m willing to bet there are some zoo animals that have a lot of entries. I’m thinking specifically of Fiona the baby hippo here at the Cincinnati Zoo. She’s become somewhat of a national icon!

Huh… it opened for me okay.

But not for me.

I would think it’s a weed of some kind. A botanist at the Lady Bird Johnson defined a weed as an unwanted plant.

The question is about specimen, not just species.

I still think it could be a weed. Think of a school in a fairly urban area, that has a class do an iNat project every year. If there is a perennial weed in the schoolyard, you know every kid is going to submit that exact specimen. Probably all from the same angle, just like @sedgequeen 's Monterey cypress. Either that or a (planted) tree in the schoolyard.

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Tree is more likely for kids to capture too, school projects’ observations rarely show weedy plants at all, at least from my experience.

This single organism would obviously be a mushroom, and probably Conocybe apala, in every single person’s yard almost around the world.