Photo source: USA Today
Have you ever wondered how to tell the difference between a frog and a toad, a mule deer and a white-tailed, or poison ivy and a box elder? Lucky for you, you don’t need to get a bachelor's degree in biology to find out; there’s an app for that!
iNaturalist was developed by UC Berkeley students and funded by National Geographic to allow scientists and non-scientists alike to document nature – a term coined “citizen science.” Citizen science is important in tracking populations of plants, animals, and fungi in any ecosystem around the world. Since iNaturalist’s creation in 2008, the platform has helped to discover new species, rediscover species who were thought to have been extinct, and illustrate a clear picture of the natural or introduced range of any organism. To join in on the fun, all you need is your smartphone!
Identify
After creating an iNaturalist account on the app or via a web browser, it’s time to start identifying. Find a plant, animal, or fungus of interest and snap a photo. Photos can be taken directly in the app or uploaded from your camera roll. The app will use the geolocation captured by your phone to suggest the most accurate ID for your organism based on your location. Let’s say you upload a picture of an armadillo found in The Woodlands, Texas. The app will suggest the only species found in this area, the Mexican long-nosed armadillo, instead of all 24 species of armadillo found worldwide. It’s that good.
Track
Now that you’ve documented your resident Township armadillo, you can embark on your quest to find the other 23 species of armadillo around the world, and iNaturalist will keep track for you! All the species you identify – armadillo or other – will be listed under the “Observations” tab on your home page. You can even filter through your observations by “taxa,” which categorizes your findings into smaller plant, animal, or fungus groups.
iNaturalist.org webpage where headers show the observations, species, identifiers, and observers. The grid below displays identified species with pictures and details.
Discover
iNaturalist compiles every observation around the globe into searchable data to be seen by anyone. As an avid armadillo enthusiast, you can navigate to the “Explore” tab to generate a population map of armadillos around the world. Type “armadillos” in the species tab and leave the location blank. The app will generate a map of where other iNaturalist users have documented our plate-armored friends. To your surprise, the map shows armadillos only live in North and South America, which crosses five continents off your to-do list in your World Armadillo Discovery quest. Phew!
iNaturalist.org webpage labeled “Observations” with armadillos in the search bar and a world map of their locations below.
Contribute
You’ve officially located, identified, and documented all 24 species of armadillo through the iNaturalist app. This is a tremendous contribution to science because now, the young armadillo fanatics of the next generation can follow in your footsteps by viewing your armadillo observations which include the day, time, and location they were photographed. You can also help others identify their observations to species and strengthen the status from “casual” to “research grade.” An observation marked as research grade means multiple people have confirmed the same species for one observation, making it a more reliable source of information. To do so, select an observation made by another member and suggest an ID. You may also leave a comment to explain what makes you believe it is that species.
Learn
iNaturalist is an invaluable resource to learn from other naturalists at a global level. It provides a trustworthy community as everyone becomes familiar with their local environments and everything living within. When you travel abroad and document an armadillo you’ve never seen before, you can count on a local naturalist to confirm an accurate ID for you. We all have so much to learn from each other!
iNaturalist reminds us we don’t need a four-year degree to immerse ourselves in science or to hold immense knowledge of the natural world around us. Your chances of discovering the twenty-fifth species of armadillo are just as high as someone with a Ph.D. in armadillo-ology.
What are you waiting for? Go ahead and call yourself a scientist!
For more information, contact the Environmental Services Department at enviro@thewoodlandstownship-tx.gov or 281-210-3800.