Posted on Monday, July 9th, 2018 by Will Hagle
iNaturalist
lets you explore and share your observations of the natural world.
The internet has proved to be a wonderful tool for data collection and the furthering of scientific study on a mass scale, and iNaturalist is applying that model to the natural world. The site and app’s goal is to help people record and share observations about the natural world. The way it works is this: people use their phone’s camera to take a picture of something in the real world, post it to the app, and then discuss with other naturalists. It sounds easy, and it is, but even taking a picture of nature can help contribute to the scientific community. iNaturalist even shares findings with scientific data repositories.
If you’re out in nature and unsure as to what species of plant or animal you’ve come across, the active community on iNaturalist can help you. If you want to keep track of plants or animals you discover like they’re Pokémon, the app can do that too. If you just want to contribute to science while remaining aware of your naturalistic surroundings, the app is perfect for you. It has a wide variety of uses, as well as an impressive amount of data to explore. You can take in the wealth of observations in map or list form. It’s endlessly interesting to explore the biodiversity of the world, and (aside from going outside, of course) iNaturalist is the best place to do so.
