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How to use this slideshow

This slideshow is designed to introduce people who are new to iNaturalist to:

What iNaturalist is
How it works
How the contributed data are used to help species and places.

You are welcome to use some of the slides or all of the slides, modify slides, translate the slides, and add your own slides in where appropriate.

There are speaker notes on the slides, suggesting what you might want to say with each slide. [Some slides also have tips about advancing animations, updating stats, substituting slides, or slide options.]

Attributions on photos in this slideshow must stay with the photos.

Last updated on: 17 April 2025 [current version]

Hairy Oyster Mushroom observed by Randall Jiménez in Costa Rica

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Introduction to

Photo by Abhas Misraraj, iNaturalist

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The Challenge

As climate change and habitat destruction accelerate, over 1 million species face the threat of extinction this century.

We need engaged people and information to guide effective conservation.

Common Kingfisher

observed by thelittleman

in China (CC BY-NC)

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More People

More Places

More Species

Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash.

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Identify species while helping to protect them!

Engage people in nature and science

How does iNaturalist work? Allowing anyone with a smartphone or camera to explore nature and contribute to science and conservation.

Accelerate biodiversity science and conservation

Impacts of iNaturalist: crowdsourcing the world’s largest dataset on biodiversity and powering conservation projects.

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How

works

Photo by Abhas Misraraj, iNaturalist

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Identify species while helping to protect them!

Engage people in nature and science

How does iNaturalist work? Allowing anyone with a smartphone or camera to explore nature and contribute to science and conservation.

Accelerate biodiversity science and conservation

Impacts of iNaturalist: crowdsourcing the world’s largest dataset on biodiversity and powering conservation projects.

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How does work?

Take a photo (or record a sound) of an organism using the app.

2. You will get a suggested identification.

The app automatically records the date/time and location.

3. The uploaded observation is visible to the iNaturalist community, who can confirm and correct identifications.

Observations with consensus on the ID are shared with other databases used for science and conservation.

So how does iNaturalist work? [Option 1: quick overview slide]

You document evidence of an organism – a plant, animal, fungus, etc.

At its simplest, you use your phone with the iNaturalist app.

You take a photo and get a suggestion for an ID, or add your own ID if you’d prefer. The data associated with that photo, like where you are and what day it is, is also recorded (make sure you share your location!).

Once you upload that observation, the community on iNaturalist can confirm it - this is that same observation on the iNaturalist.org website. When the identification is confirmed, iNaturalist shares the data with other databases used for science and conservation.

So what began as just a photo is now data - a record that this particular species was seen at this location on this day. Information that helps scientists understand things like how species and places are changing through time, and helps people who manage and protect species and places make more-informed conservation decisions.

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How does work?

1: Take a photo!

An observation starts with evidence of an organism — usually a photo.

Take a photo directly in the app

— or you can take photos with your phone and add them in the app later.

If you’re using a regular camera, you can upload your photos on the iNaturalist website.

(You can also record sound!)

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How does work?

2: Get an identification

iNaturalist has trained a species recommendation model, based on your photo and your location.

You can also add your own identification.

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How does work?

3: Contribute to science!

Once your observation is uploaded, other iNaturalist community members can confirm or correct the identification.

Observations with consensus on the identification are shared with other databases used extensively for science and conservation.

Your photo is now biodiversity data!

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The iNaturalist Community

Over 3.5 million people around the world have contributed observations!

415,000 people have added identifications to others’ observations!

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Keep track of everything you’ve seen

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Explore what’s been seen in other places

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Projects to answer questions and track places and species

There are projects you can contribute to, helping researchers answer questions or helping conservation organizations know more about species and places.

For example, this project –PolliNation DC– run by the Smithsonian and the University of D.C., looking at the wild species that use small community gardens in the Washington, D.C. area as habitat.

You can see that over 1,000 people have contributed more than 4,000 observations from community gardens, documenting almost 900 species.

[click]

Projects will show you the most recent observations,

[click]

They also have leaderboards so you can see who has made the most observations and found the most species, and what the most-observed species are – which can be motivating for competitive people!

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And you can see the map of observations - in this case they’re all in tiny community gardens around Washington, D.C.

You can also start your own project and have members of the iNaturalist community help answer your question or gather more information!

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How using

makes an impact

Photo by Abhas Misraraj, iNaturalist

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Identify species while helping to protect them!

Engage people in nature and science

How does iNaturalist work? Allowing anyone with a smartphone or camera to explore nature and contribute to science and conservation.

Accelerate biodiversity science and conservation

Impacts of iNaturalist: crowdsourcing the world’s largest dataset on biodiversity and powering conservation projects.

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Deepens Connections to Nature

Getting outside to discover the diversity of nature

Learning more about the species around you

Building community around nature, both online �and in-person

iNaturalist helps people deepen their understanding of and connection to nature

[click]

iNaturalist encourages people get outside, slow down, be curious, and notice all the species around them

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They also learn more about the species they encounter, getting identifications and other useful information

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It also helps people interested in nature connect to other people: online, where people can interact on other people’s observations or through projects – the New York Times called iNaturalist the nicest place on the internet! – and also in person

Many organizations hold events like bioblitzes to bring people together to make observations

And sometimes people come together to make a difference in their communities, using iNaturalist & iNaturalist data for conservation & stewardship, like…

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Supports Biodiversity Science

Hundreds of undescribed species documented, and rediscovered lost species

The largest dataset of global biodiversity: ~6 million new observations per month, used in thousands of scientific papers

Inimia nat (I. nat)

iNaturalist supports biodiversity science, both through individual observations that are important as well as through the crowd-sourced big data side of it

There have been hundreds of species that were not described by science found through iNaturalist

Like this mantis from Australia - first documented on iNaturalist and was not described, now described and named Inimia nat - I. nat for short - honoring iNaturalist

There have also been hundreds of “lost” species rediscovered on iNaturalist - these are species that were thought to either be extinct in particular places or extinct altogether, refound by iNaturalist members - like this hawk in Papua New Guinea that hadn’t been documented since 1969

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iNaturalist is also the largest dataset currently of global biodiversity - hugely important for understanding where species are now and how that is changing with climate change and habitat loss

Inimia nat: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/147015125

New Britain Goshawk: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/204361575

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Over 250 million observations

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1000+ studies published in 2024 using iNaturalist data

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Leads to Conservation Outcomes

Tools to help land, marine, and resource stewards target conservation priorities

Elm Zigzag Sawfly

observed by Matthew Zappa in the United States (CC BY)

Supports data-driven advocacy for rare species and protected area designations

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Leads to Conservation Outcomes

Tools to help land, marine, and resource stewards target conservation priorities

Elm Zigzag Sawfly

observed by Matthew Zappa in the United States (CC BY)

Supports data-driven advocacy for rare species and protected area designations

Invasive species early detection

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Every observation is important!

Serval

observed by Stan Rullman

in Kenya (CC BY)

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Every observation is important!

Feral Pigeon

observed by SpyingNaturalist in Italy (CC BY)

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