How you can do your part in preserving the Canadian Wildlife, from your fingertips.
Author: Quinn Ong
An Introduction
There is a wanting in every human to record sightings down. This may be in the form of journaling, or even through storytelling. We want to record everything down—be it when we are bird or squirrel watching in our backyards, or when we are on a hike, the same can be said for museums or archeologists. Many of us capture these moments down with our phones, in our notebooks, or through postings on our social media. You’ve definitely been there. Well, here’s introducing you another way — by using the iNaturalist Canada app!
There are extremely valuable biodiversity information within sightings and recordings made by you. This is why the iNaturalist Canada app was made so that we could make use of these valuable information. If there are enough people who record these observations through the iNaturalist Canada app, we can definitely contribute to making a positive impact in preserving Canada’s wildlife. The iNaturalist Canada app allows us to build a living record of wildlife in Canada that scientists and environmental managers, activists, workers can make use to monitor the changes in the biodiversity, while also allowing the general audience — like you and me to learn more about Canada’s amazing biodiversity, and wildlife.
iNaturalist Canada app is a tool that is easy to use. The application allows for image recognition software that will speedily provide suggestions of what you just took a photo of, and it’s amazingly accurate. All these are done right at your finger tips and information is given in real time. These observations can then be reviewed by experts in the iNaturalist Canada community to manage the wildlife conservation of Canada. Other features include being able to ook up the species that have been seen nearby and record down and track of all your sightings with your personal species list.
Here’s a video to tell you more about this iNaturalist Canada mobile application!
Programme Lead of iNaturalist Canada
James Pagé is an employee at at iNaturalst.org, He has been leading the Canadian Wildlife Federation in the development of the iNaturalist.ca mobile app, along with several partners such as the Royal Ontario Museum, Parks Canada and NatureServe Canada. He works on various at risk species and biodiversity projects at Canadian Wildlife Federation, some of which includes turtle recovery work, rare (mostly plant) species surveys, citizen science and with vegetation surveys in eastern Ontario. Here is a quote from him:
“I’m so inspired by the number of Canadians exploring our vast country to build an ever-growing account of life in Canada. From beginners to experts, young and old, together we’re able to accomplish something scientists could never have done on their own.” (James Pagé, Canadian Wildlife Federation).
Programme Resources
iNaturalist.ca is an online platform where the average user can record and share what they see in nature, meet other nature watchers, and learn about Canada’s wildlife. Through this platform, we are building a network of everyday people turned citizen scientists to explore every corner of our country. Anyone who is able to take a picture with a smartphone or digital camera can contribute to a growing wealth of knowledge about Canadian species and help conserve our natural world. These discoveries are then vetted through NatureServe Canada to end up in the hands of decision makers and academics who can use this vital information to further the cause of conserving our wildlife.
Key Achievements
From Canadian Wildlife Federation
- Over 1 million observations in Canada documenting over 18,000 different species!
- iNaturalist Canada boasts the most northern observation recorded in the global iNaturalist database – a Dwarf Weaver Spider found on a tiny island off the northern tip of Elsmere Island.
- The first ever recorded finding of the European Firebug in Canada was made using iNaturalist.ca
- iNaturalist Canada boasts the most northern observation in the world — Fjaeldmark Dwarf Weaver spider!
- The Monarch Butterfly (an Endangered species in Canada) is one of the most observed species in iNaturalist.ca (this list includes the Grey Squirrel, the Mallard Duck and the Canada Goose).
- New species to Canada identified via iNaturalist.ca!
Here’s how you can contribute!
Thanks for reading!
References
Feature Photo by Chris Cooper on Unsplash
Source: Canadian Wildlife Federation. (n.d.). iNaturalist. Retrieved from https://cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/inaturalist/?src=ESB
Images: Canadian Wildlife Federation
Infographic by: Quinn Ong, made by Canva.com
Endangered Public Animals Canada 