iNaturalist
Nonprofit app and community for recording and identifying wildlife and plant observations.
Liked for turning everyday sightings into data with real research and conservation value,1234 for its open API,567 and for range maps and projects that show what others have spotted nearby.89 Caveats include a doxxing risk from photos geotagged at users' homes10 and image recognition that is hard to find in the UI and unreliable for mushrooms unless you already know what you're looking at.11
Why people recommend it
Research value · 3
Observations feed science and conservation, including finds new to science and recognized national records.
“I love iNaturalist! It's the closest thing to real-life Pokemon I know of.”
“I love iNat, and I think it has a lot of real-world value.”
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“I really like how easy it is to use, the various views on the data”
Data views · 2
Range maps, seasonal info, geofenced projects and export make the data easy to explore.
“I really like how easy it is to use, the various views on the data”
Open API · 3
Developers praise the open API and build tools on top of it.
“None of this replaces useful tools like iNaturalist whose excellent open API I use”
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“We use iNaturalist to curate eDNA observed results on https://ednaexplorer.org”
Easy and fun · 2
Easy to use, and likened to real-life Pokemon.
“I really like how easy it is to use, the various views on the data”
“I love iNaturalist! It's the closest thing to real-life Pokemon I know of.”
Caveats and dissent
Doxxing risk · 1
Clusters of backyard observations on the map can reveal users' home addresses and names.
“I love this app, but it's also a significant doxxing risk”
ID reliability · 1
Identification can be unreliable for mushrooms unless you already have an idea of the species.
“I mostly use iNaturalist for foraging mushrooms, and have found it’s somewhat unreliable unless I already have an idea of what I’m looking for.”
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“For now, we still want your observations, but if this is a concern you have, please take a look at the geoprivacy settings!”
Threads where it came up
- iNaturalist 6 mentions
- Crime Pays but Botany Doesn't 2 mentions
- Butterflies are in decline across North America, a look at the Western Monarch 1 mention
- Ask HN: Any Interesting Niche Hobbies? 1 mention
- Show HN: Wildex – we built Pokémon Go for real wildlife 1 mention
- Why I Left iNaturalist 1 mention
Data: inaturalist.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 11
“None of this replaces useful tools like iNaturalist whose excellent open API I use”
“I use iNaturalist (and Merlin for birdsong recognition).”
“have been tracking butterflies in iNaturalist for a decade”
“I use iNaturalist myself, but there are others.”
“We use iNaturalist to curate eDNA observed results on https://ednaexplorer.org”
“I love iNaturalist! It's the closest thing to real-life Pokemon I know of.”
“The Inat API is so great.”
“I really like how easy it is to use, the various views on the data”
“I love this app, but it's also a significant doxxing risk”
“I mostly use iNaturalist for foraging mushrooms, and have found it’s somewhat unreliable unless I already have an idea of what I’m looking for.”
“I love iNat, and I think it has a lot of real-world value.”