Remember when Pokémon Go mania had people exploring the outdoors in search of fictional game characters?
Well, we have just leveled up, folks. iNaturalist, the latest app taking the globe by storm, is being hailed as like Pokémon Go, but for nature — in real life.
iNaturalist is not a game, but rather it's a tool for connecting people with nature. Let’s say you are curious about the tan bird with an orange beak at your bird feeder. Simply take a photo of it, upload it to iNaturalist, and it will identify it for you. Knowing that you have a female cardinal at your bird feeder is a wonderful finding, however, iNaturalist is much more than that.
There is an entire community of naturalists and researchers that follow up and confirm or correct the AI identification, and you can connect with them to ask questions or join their projects. iNaturalist can be accessed at www.iNaturalist.org, or by using the iNaturalist app that can be downloaded from the App Store or Google Play store.
You can gamify iNaturalist by using the Life List feature and trying to collect observations of all of the species of a certain genus, or helping researchers collect observations of the target species that they study.
“I love that I can find something I know absolutely nothing about, and someone on iNaturalist will know what it is and I can learn so much more,” said Sean Golden, Master Naturalist and staff member at BREC Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center. “For example, I recently saw a new butterfly, and after it was identified on iNaturalist, I learned that it only eats one specific native plant as a caterpillar, and then I wanted to learn about that plant, and so on. The interconnectedness of nature is incredible.”
Your photo observation of a cardinal at the bird feeder may seem ordinary at first, but when you take a step back for the big picture, your observation is adding a point of data to millions of points of data that paint a picture of the natural history of Northern cardinals (Cardinalis cardinalis). Observations become open-source data, and researchers all over the globe can search them for scientific studies.
With that in mind, Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater Baton Rouge has a challenge for you: Keep clicking photos of wild plants and animals Friday-Monday, April 26-29. Your iNaturalist observations not only help Master Naturalists document biodiversity, they will help the group compete in a global contest, the City Nature Challenge. Observations posted in iNaturalist anywhere in the 12-parish region between the Atchafalaya River and the Pearl River that weekend will help the Baton Rouge region in the friendly nature competition against the New Orleans region, Southwest Louisiana region, and 500-plus cities all over the globe. The City Nature Challenge, organized by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences, has rapidly grown into a global phenomenon since it started in 2016 with just two cities competing.
The more participants, observations and number of species documented, the better Master Naturalists will fare in the contest.
The key is to post photos of wild plants and critters, as observations of landscape plants, pets and Mike the Tiger will stymie the group's progress.
But there's more. Like the double broods of periodical cicadas emerging together in 2024, a rare and exciting opportunity is happening in the Baton Rouge region: BREC is hosting its annual “BioBlitz” iNaturalist event during the 2024 City Nature Challenge, so your iNaturalist observations will be twice as valuable, benefitting both BREC's and Master Naturalists' standing in the City Nature Challenge.
BREC Conservation uses iNaturalist to track what species are found in the parks, which is critical for planning and shaping programming. BREC is requesting your assistance to survey the Bluebonnet Swamp Nature Center at the BioBlitz Friday-Saturday, April 26-27.
“Bluebonnet Swamp has changed an incredible amount over its 20-plus years of operation, and the BioBlitz gives us an opportunity to get a baseline of the habitat so we can observe further changes in the future,” said Kenneth LeCroy, BREC Conservation manager. “BREC has land all over the parish, and even at our most diligent we can’t be everywhere all at once, but visitors making observations help catch that valuable information.”
The BioBlitz has day and night hikes suitable for all ages, led by experts with contagious enthusiasm for their field of study, while, of course, making iNaturalist observations along the way. Younger children will especially enjoy the Nature Explorers hike on Saturday. Adults and teens can take in the evening presentation on Friday about the fascinating and unexpected history of Bluebonnet Swamp. If you are feeling creative, sign up for the workshop on Saturday that explores nature through artistry.
“What I like about iNaturalist is it takes some of the guesswork out of nature. One of the barriers of entry for some people getting out into nature is uncertainty about what is around them, and not knowing if a snake, bug or plant can hurt them. Instead of just having to guess and hope for the best, you can get these questions answered as quickly as taking and uploading a picture into the app,” said LeCroy.
This information is presented in conjunction with Louisiana Master Naturalists of Greater Baton Rouge, which seeks to advance awareness, understanding and stewardship of the natural environment. For more information, email info@lmngbr.org.