Make and share observations: 20-23 September
Upload all your observations: 20 September - 07 October
Help with Identifications: 23 September - 07 October
All observations must be made starting on 20 September at midnight (South African Standard Time) and up until midnight on 23 September at 23h59 (ZA time). Any observation made before or after will not count.
Note that this is for observations made - you have a week to upload and identify your observations afterward. So it is OK to not upload during the 4 days of the challenge and upload them the week afterwards. Or you can do it immediately if you prefer.
Similarly, it is the dates observed that count - identifications may be done anytime until 7 October to count for the GSB - you do not have to identify your observations to submit them (you are welcome to identify them though). It is often most efficient to upload your observations first and then identify them at leisure later.
No, only observations made during 20-23 September will count for the GSB.
No. All observations that are made within the boundary of the region/ country between 20-23 September will automatically get pulled into the project for that region/ country. No further action other than making and uploading the observation is needed. You can participate in several regions - iNat will take care of all the details.
You are encouraged though to join your Region/ Country's project (and more if you anticipate participating in several regions):
Any observations of WILD plants, animals, fungi, seaweed, bacteria, lichen, or living organisms you find in and around your city!
This includes dead organisms, or evidence such as shells, tracks, scats, feathers, nests, and slime trails.
But domestic Cats, domestic Dogs, and People (esp. selfies) are NOT included. You can include people or hands or fingers to show the scale of living organisms (if it is safe to do so), but it must be about the organism (although sometimes with fishermen, one never knows if the observation is more about the fish or the man).
Yes, as long as you’re not making a lot of these observations, most cities will include observations of non-wild organisms during the GSB. However, these must be marked as captive-cultivated.
No problem! You don’t have to know the name of what you recorded. Part of the fun of the CNC is learning about species that you don't know. So if you have been meaning to find out what that bird, plant, or goggo is, the CNC is the time to go and observe it.
There are a couple ways you can get your observations Identified on iNaturalist, but the City Nature Challenge is not the time to learn them.
So if you want to find out, practice beforehand. There will not be time during the event. You will be either making observations over the weekend or helping with IDs afterwards.
But basically iNat offers:
The iNaturalist app is convenient to make observations. It records the date and place and uploads the different photos and observations seamlessly. Unless you have an expensive camera, it is the way to go.
But it is fine to use a real camera, and if you are really serious you will probably get one soon if you don't have one. You can upload your observations using the Upload tool on iNaturalist. If your camera does not have GPS, then you will need to manually do your mapwork on the Upload Tool - we would recommend though that you record a track on your phone, and sync the tracts into your photos, which will save you lots of time during uploading.
Yes, you’re welcome to use sound as evidence of an organism for your observations – this is a great way to make observations of animals like birds, frogs, and crickets! You can record sound directly in an observation using the iNaturalist app.
We get it - sometimes a cool bird or butterfly flies by without stopping and you just can’t get a picture. Yes, you can make observations in iNaturalist without a photo, and some cities will allow observations without photos for the City Nature Challenge. However, please do this sparingly, and only if you know for sure what the species was since no one can help ID or confirm an observation without a photo. If it is rare or unusual, it would be better to try harder and get a picture or sound. Some cities do not allow it: check the conditions when you join your city.
Seek by iNaturalist is a great way to engage children and families in nature exploration because it does not automatically collect personally identifiable information about users. To use Seek to make observations for the City Nature Challenge, you must first login to Seek using your iNaturalist account.
It is probably better to work as a parent-kid team, with the parent managing the process. Cub groups often participate under their Akela, or a few parents, or set up a patrol team.
An identification confirms that you can confidently identify it yourself compared to any possible lookalikes. Please do not simply “Agree” with an ID that someone else has made unless you are certain about the ID.
If you disagree with an identification, then please add your identification. It is helpful if you disagree to explain why you disagree. Similarly, if someone disagrees with your identification, and you think that you are correct, then please ask them why they disagree and explain why you think you are right. Please be friendly: all our identifiers are volunteers and many are still learning, but we can all learn together.
No: all observations will count for the CNC, even those that are not Research Grade, and even those that don't get identified at all (hopefully we won't have any of those, so please take good, clear photos!).
“Research Grade” observations need identification and confirmation. They also need to meet other criteria, like needing an adequate date, place, media, being wild, and having a 2/3 majority in the event of an ID dispute.
Relax! Luckily we have 2 week - up until 04 October your local time to upload them and get them identified. They will still get added to your city’s project, as long as they were made in the 20-23 September window.
Yes! In the same way that anyone can be an observer, anyone can help identify observations.
One way is to go to your city’s project, click “Observations” and you’ll see an “Identify” button just below it on the menu bar. Clicking this will take you to the iNaturalist Identify page and show you all of your city’s observations that still need to be identified.
But keep an eye on your city/ region journal. Most cities will coordinate the identification among volunteers, and provide links that you merely need to click to help with IDs.
If you are a specialist, you can add your taxon in the species box to see only observations in your group. Bear in mind, that many may still need to be identified to that group.
iNaturalist counts species in different ways. There are a half dozen different ways of tallying species, and different parts of iNaturalist use different ones.
For the Umbrella Project, only species-rank identifications are tallied. Subspecies are ignored.
So the Umbrella Project always has fewer "species" But for the GSB itself, the City Project leaves will be used in reports, but for overall collaborative results, the umbrella project will be used.
Comentários
Could you please advise regarding the planned dates for special observation efforts, e.g. I think Friday 20 Sept is moth night. Is there any other, e.g. for shores and rock pools, wetlands/aquatics, etc
There are no set dates I'm afraid
Adicionar um Comentário