#128: iNaturalist: How Your Photos Save Species: Scott Loarie on iNaturalist and Community Science

Long time listeners know that I’m a huge fan of iNaturalist. Their app literally changed my life by dramatically improving my relationship with, and knowledge of nature.

And iNaturalist is much more than just a nature identification app. When you use iNaturalist, yes, you get a helping hand in identifying plants, animals and fungi. But you’re also contributing to perhaps the largest community science dataset on Earth, which starts to get to the heart of iNaturalist’s mission.

After our Jumpstart Nature episode on iNaturalist, I received many questions about how iNaturalist works - just how does it know how to ID so many organisms? How are sensitive species, such as rare plants that are subject to poaching, protected?

And with the increased concern about the environmental impact of certain types of AI, how does iNaturalist’s AI, called Computer Vision, compare?

So who better to answer those questions than Scott Loarie. 

And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out the Jumpstart Nature Podcast! Episode #5 profiles three creative and inspirational uses of iNaturalist!

Be sure to check out the iNaturalist blog and newsletter as well!

FULL SHOW NOTES

LINKS

California Academy of Sciences

iNaturalist, their blog, and their newsletter

Jumpstart Nature Episode 5 profiles inspiring uses of iNaturalist

Support Us On Patreon!Buy our Merch!Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz MusicLicense (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-licenseArtist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!