iNaturalist Project
iNaturalist is a participatory science portal in which members of the public upload photos or audio recordings of wildlife. Observations are tagged with location and time/date stamps and publicly searchable on the organization’s website (inaturalist.org). Identification of organisms is assisted with an artificial intelligence interface which suggests possible taxonomic groups, as well as a robust community of users who suggest identifications and/or confirm other user’s suggestions. Photos or audio recordings can be taken and uploaded in the moment on a mobile device, or with a traditional camera and uploaded later from a laptop or desktop.
All CalNat courses incorporate iNaturalist observations into at least one activity (in addition to a class participatory science project, discussed in the Participatory Science Projects section). Wild Davis students participate in the iNaturalist-focused City Nature Challenge (CNC, citynaturechallenge.org) which promotes iNaturalist observations of urban wildlife in cities around the world during a four-day weekend, in this case April 24th-27th, 2020. The 2020 CNC was heavily impacted by shelter-in-place guidelines and limited access to regional greenspaces. Numerous participating cities opted to cancel their CNC entirely. Other cities cancelled all formal gatherings and events, and transitioned to a “City Nature Celebration,” reducing the competitive focus of the CNC and emphasizing observing backyard wildlife.
Figure 2 compares CNC participation between 2019 and 2020 in both numbers of observations (Fig 2A ) and number of participants (Fig 2B ). All 2019 Wild Davis students made observations in the Sacramento Region (which includes the UCD campus and town of Davis). The majority of 2020 Wild Davis students (21/23) resided in a CNC-participating region, and students outside these regions could still post observations to iNaturalist during the CNC window, though their observations were not included in CNC totals. In both quarters, students received course points for participation in the CNC (or participation on iNaturalist during the CNC for students outside CNC regions), with full points received for at least 20 observations. In 2019, students were required to make observations of wild organisms (not captive or cultivated); however, to accommodate shelter-in-place directives in 2020, cultivated plants (including landscaping and gardens) were allowed, so long as the observation was marked “Captive/Cultivated” on iNaturalist.
Likely due to limitations to outdoor recreation under shelter-in-place guidelines, overall Wild Davis participation in the CNC was reduced in 2020 compared to 2019 (Fig 2A ). Prior to the spring 2020 quarter, only one 2020 Wild Davis student had an iNaturalist account and no 2020 students participated in the 2019 CNC (Fig 2B ). Interestingly, the majority of 2020 CNC observations by Wild Davis students were made by students from the 2019 cohort (862/1389, 62%,Fig 2A ), though this large contribution was generated by a small number (n=2) of individual students (Fig 2B ).