Peru - iNaturalist World Tour
Peru is the 34th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. Here, the top observer is @ripleyrm who is based in England but has botanized up and down the spine of Peru. Most of the top observer activity is clustered in the Amazon parts of Peru. @philkahler and @sullivanribbit in Loreto. But most of the top observers are clustered in the Madre de Dios region and the slope of the Andes near Cusco. @diego_amazonia and @cstobie appear to be based Peru year round but most of the other top observers are among the many visitors from elsewhere who have worked or traveled extensively in Peru (e.g. @arnoldwijker, @tonyrebelo, @birdernaturalist @eccentric_entomophile, @cullen. @sandralamberts). You can read about one of @cullen's Peruvian dragonfly encounters in this Observation of the Week blog.
The number of observations per month has been growing over the past few years. But the jagged edge probably reflects sporadic visits, field seasons from travelers to Peru from elsewhere. It doesn't appear that iNaturalist has yet caught on much with Peruvians as much as it has in neighboring countries like Ecuador or Colombia.
We're fortunate to have local top identifiers lending their South American expertise such as @cstobie (the top identifier overall and top insect identifier) @diegoalmendras (the top bird observer), @frank_arroyo and @diego_amazonia. @ripleyrm leads as the top plant identifier. Thanks to many other top identifiers such as @john8, @johnascher, @jasonrgrant, @johngsalamander, and @henicorhina.
What can we do to get more Peruvians using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread
@ripleyrm @diego_amazonia @arnoldwijker @tonyrebelo @birdernaturalist @diegoalmendras @ripleyrm @john8 @johnascher @frank_arroyo
We’ll be back tomorrow with the Madagascar!
Comments
the Cuzco-Madre de Dios area is the hotspot for ecotourism and birdwatching in Peru, so it makes sense most observations come from that area. Some organizations are trying to promote the city nature challenge, but it's mainly happening just in Lima. I believe it's more up to Peru to promote other areas for tourism, so iNat can be more popular all over. Also, most scientific expeditions don't share their photos publicly, so that's another issue.
Very cool!
@diego_amazonia, concerning your final point, that's absolutely correct. I know several people running research stations in the Madre de Dios region and, while they record a very large amount of observations, very few, if any, ever make it to iNat, and when they do it tends to be because visiting students posted the observations.
Perú is one of these amazing places in the world.
I didnt know I knew so much about peruvian insects hahaha I was expecting to be more like a expert on fishes (marine and elasmobranchs). I guess using "professionaly" iNat in universities and putting more effort to make it easy for south americans could be a nice idea. I feel, in some way, iNat is focused for a english speaker, more "educated" or polyglota group of person. I lived in Peru for a short time and, as in Chile, many people in the area of science are very jealous of sharing their own data, perhaps iNat should point at this point.
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