Wednesday, August 27, 2008

iNaturalist! I am down with this




Sometimes I complain about the over use of technology. But today I am applauding this great new tool iNaturalist. It's like Google Maps, but focuses on wildlife sitings. I'm telling everybody -- starting with you. This is a perfect way to document your Urban Wildlife sitings.

iNaturalist.org encourages the participation of all nature enthusiasts, including, but not exclusive to, hikers, hunters, birders, beach combers, mushroom foragers, park rangers, ecologists, and fishermen. Through these different perceptions and expertise of the natural world, we hope to create extensive community awareness of local biodiversity. This site combines common web technologies to provide a fun and efficient way to record, find, and share nature observations.

I love this site. One, it is so colorful. I feel like I’m watching HDTV. The site is arranged in 4 major pages.
Observations: this section allows you to post your observations and search for other observations from around the world.
Species: this section is a Biological Encyclopedia; everything is listed and defined according to its nomenclature, each Kingdom, phylum, order, and genus.
People: The members of this e-community and the number of observations they have shared.
ID Please!: Do you have a photo of something you don’t know? Then go to iNaturalist and post the picture in the Forum. Other members will lend their expertise to help you identify it. How great is that?

This is a perfect way to record your Urban Science Adventures! ©
Hat tip to Bora for posting about this. I love it!

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