The next time you see a flower or creature you can’t identify, all you need to do is pull out your smartphone and take a picture.
The iNaturalist app is an international platform that links nature-lovers with others who share their interests – including professionals who can identify unknown wildlife or provide background information on a species when photos are uploaded with a geolocation attached.
“It’s built to be equally a biodiversity database and a social media platform,” says Jonathan Carpenter, a local naturalist who uses the application for personal use and contracted freelance work.
With every additional user and photo, the database grows. And so does its potential.
“The database is so huge – so big, in fact, that the way we’re now looking at the data is different than we ever intended,” Carpenter says.