“Sharing cool wildlife sightings has become an important component of citizen science efforts. We post wildlife photos on iNaturalist , we participate in backyard bird counts, you report unusual sightings to wildlife agencies. These activities can play important roles in conservation, enabling resear…

If it would be something like nesting birds - you can upload MUCH later. Then your obs data will be accurate, but the immediate risk to wildlife will have passed. https://elephantseyegarden.blogspot.com/2014/11/after-our-mountain-fire-flowers.html Even on my old blog I uploaded the last - after fi…

[image] sopacexplorer: ork, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pick an obscured area, discern the appropriate environment, and figure out the most likely location. which kind of calls into question how useful obscuring is? God knows I’ve used iNat to help figure out what areas to targ…

I have to think long and hard about this. Most of these animals are residents and breed in the area and some may have large home ranges. So even though my trail cam pics are from 2 years ago, hunters or trappers familiar with their behavior could still target them. On the other hand, those people co…

At the end of 2019, a Great Curassow (Crax rubra, a very cool, tropical game bird) showed at a city nature park here where I live (I saw it). Then, the pandemic came, and the park closed for a while. Then, the news started saying that ‘‘wildlife was coming back because of lockdown’’, and said that t…

This worries me too and it’s why I mostly only post plant observations to iNat. Any animal observations where it wouldn’t be common knowledge that those species are there (eg a lake local to me where there are geese and mallards), I always make sure to obscure these. I disagree with harming/killing …

I don’t really find any rare species, and I trust the iNat community to not go killing chickadees and frogs because they pose a danger to pets. I am nowhere near the professional level of most people here, and finding rare rainforest species of epiphyte doesn’t really apply to me. If I were ever in …

[image] walkingwithnature96: only post plant observations to iNat Plants are also poached. We have a HUGE problem around our rare succulents (and lizards and beetles)

I have seen signs at wildlife refuges: Do not pick plants; do not dig up plants; do not take sphagnum; area is under 24/7 camera surveillance; do not step off path; no walking on bog; no picking of flowers; etc.

Oh no! I’d never thought of that, what a shame! I’ll remember that in future and only upload really common ones. Thank you for letting me know x

Really?! Man! If you knew about how crazy are orchid fanciers (at least here). Walking around Mexican neighbourhoods (including mine) I’ve seen many times houses with native orchids and bromeliads. And even worse, some use the excuse that orchids kill trees (which is false) to mercilessly end with t…

Wildlife Sightings: Share or Stay Quiet?

Nature Talk

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Plant poaching in my area Nature Talk	23	834	August 11, 2025
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Safety Of Posting Locations On iNaturalist General	41	1537	October 15, 2025
Danger of locations on iNaturalist General	21	5726	November 25, 2019
iNat apprehension from land managers General question	51	4860	June 17, 2019

Wildlife Sightings: Share or Stay Quiet?

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