The Solomon Islands are the 100th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. Cheers to making it through 100 stops! The top observer by a very healthy margin is @maractwin who is an avid diver. Several other top observers such as @insequentways and @tonydiver also focus on the rich marine life the Solomon Islands have to offer. Many top observers such as @devonderaad, @isaacrush, and @juliasunnarborg have observations clustered in the Western Province. Its noteworthy that all of @juliasunnarborg's iNaturalist observations are from the Solomon Islands. Other top observers such as @jbecky and @vespadelus have observations clustered in the Guadalcanal Province. Don't miss this Observation of the Week post about a snail seen in the Solomon Islands by @vespadelus observed during biodiversity survey he was involved in. @plantcrazy007 uniquely has observations clustered in the Malaita Province. You can read more about @plantcrazy007 in this Observation of the Week post about a Land Planarian he found Solomon Islands while researching forest ethnobotany. @obinfiji, who works for BirdLife International on nearby Fiji, uniquely has observations clustered in the Rennell and Bellona Province.

The graph of observations per month is dominated by 3 visits by the prolific @maractwin in Dec 2014, Apr 2018 and May 2019. But if you ignore these peaks there appears to be some organic growth in 2019.

@kemper is the top identifier and also the top fish identifier. @isaacrush leads in bird IDs and
@phelsumas4life leads in 'other animals' (aka Solomon Island marine inverts). @glmory, @petdoc and @maractwin are also top identifiers.

What can we do to get more people in the Solomon Islands using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@maractwin @devonderaad @jbecky @isaacrush @insequentways @tonydiver @kemper @glmory @petdoc @phelsumas4life

We’ll be back tomorrow in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba!

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba are the 101st stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. There's some confusion about this entity which is also known as the Caribbean Netherlands. There used to be an entity known as the Netherlands Antilles which included these three islands and also Curaçao, Sint Maarten (the dutch half of the island), and Aruba. Aruba left in 1986 and in 2010 Sint Maarten and Curaçao left effectively dissolving the Netherlands Antilles. This new Caribbean Netherlands entity is a bit inconvenient for our purposes though since it includes two islands, Sint Eustatius and Saba, in the northern Caribbean near Sint Maarten and one island, Bonaire, in the southern Caribbean near Curaçao and Aruba, hence the odd looking map.

The top observer is @sea-kangaroo who has observations on all three islands. Interestingly, of all the top 10 observers who have observations on Sint Eustatius or Saba also have them on Bonaire (e.g. @zahnerphoto, @ehabes, @neild, and @seahorses_of_the_world). But all of these but the @seahorses_of_the_world account have their observations clustered to the Sint Eustatius or Saba side of the Caribbean. @ehabes is at Utrecht University in the Netherlands studying the invasive vine Antigonon leptopus on these islands. Several top observers such as @lovelyclemmy, @anudibranchmom, @sarka, @rogerritt and @vivienneo only have observations on Bonaire to the south. The iSeahorse project has a blog post about a seahorse sighting by @kbodle on Bonaire.

The graph of observations per month is still quite jagged, indicating that its dominated by visits by individual users such as this visit in Feb 2019 by underwater enthusiast @zahnerphoto. But the background number of observations does seem to have ticked up in recent years.

@maractwin is the top identifier and leads in fish. @kemper is another top fish identifier here. @kent_miller leads in marine (non-mollusk) invertebrates ('other animals') and @ehabes leads in plant IDs.
While @john8 leads in bird IDs, West Indies Ornithologist @chrisharpe is one of the top identifiers. @susanhewitt leads in mollusk IDs. On her profile, @susanhewitt describes a paper she wrote on marine mollusks of Saba (using iNat data!) and that she participated in an scientific expedition to Sint Eustatius in 2015.

What can we do to get more people in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@sea-kangaroo @zahnerphoto @lovelyclemmy @ehabes @anudibranchmom @maractwin @kent_miller @chrisharpe @susanhewitt @kemper

We’ll be back tomorrow in New Caledonia!

New Caledonia the 102nd stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. @lisa_bennett is the top observer and unusually has observations clustered on Ouvéa Island, one of the smaller Loyalty Islands. @harryrosenthal also has observations clustered on the Loyalty Islands. Most of the other top observers have observations on the largest island of Grande Terre. Many top observers such as @damienbr have observations clustered around the capital of Nouméa. Other top observers on Grande Terre include @vmoser,, @leonperrie, @jakob, @freddesmoulins, @lennarthud, @nataliemhowe, and @mazancourt.

The graph of observations per month shows an increasing since mid 2018.

@maractwin is the top identifier and leads in fish. @jakob leads in insects and @whimbrelbirder leads in birds, @phelsumas4life leads in other animals, @leonperrie leads in plants and @susanhewitt leads in mollusks. Thanks to other identifiers such as @rfoster.

What can we do to get more people in New Caledonia using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@lisa_bennett @damienbr @leonperrie @vmoser @jakob @freddesmoulins @maractwin @whimbrelbirder @rfoster @phelsumas4life

We’ll be back tomorrow in Paraguay!

Paraguay is the 103rd stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The top observer by a healthy margin is @jaykeller with observations around the capital of Asunción. Several other top observers such as @joaquinmovia (a volunteer at the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay) and @emiliobuongermini (a biologist involved in an NGO dedicated to improve the knowledge of Paraguayan biodiversity) and @titolahaye. Other top observers such as @elacroix-carignan (a biology student at Université de Sherbrooke in Quebec), @rob21, @mfaucher have observations clustered around Loma Plata in the Paraguayan Chaco. @watarumatsunaga has observations clustered along the Paraná river border with Argentina and @ammartin's observations are in a great transect across the country. @alee4 doesn't appear on the map (which was crunched on Septermber 1st) but has many new observations in the southern half of the country and is now 10th on the observer leaderboard.

Paraguay es la parada 103 en el iNaturalist Tour Mundial. El observador superior por un margen saludable es @jaykeller con observaciones alrededor de la capital de Asunción. Varios otros observadores importantes como @joaquinmovia (voluntario en el Museo Nacional de Historia Natural del Paraguay) y @emiliobuongermini (biólogo involucrado en una ONG dedicada a mejorar el conocimiento de la biodiversidad paraguaya) y @titolahaye. Otros observadores principales como @elacroix-carignan (estudiante de biología en la Universidad de Sherbrooke en Quebec), @rob21, @mfaucher tienen observaciones agrupadas alrededor de Loma Plata en el Chaco paraguayo. @watarumatsunaga tiene observaciones agrupadas a lo largo de la frontera del río Paraná con Argentina y las observaciones de @ammartin se encuentran en un gran transecto en todo el país. @alee4 no aparece en el mapa (que fue procesado el 1 de septiembre) pero tiene muchas observaciones nuevas en la mitad sur del país y ahora es el décimo en la tabla de clasificación de observadores.

Observations seem to have ticked up in 2019. The peak in April 2017 was driven by @jaykeller while the peak in Jan-Mar 2019 was largely driven by @joaquinmovia, @elacroix-carignan, and @rob21.

Las observaciones parecen haber aumentado en 2019. El pico en abril 2017 fue impulsado por @jaykeller mientras que el pico en Enero-marzo de 2019 fue impulsado en gran medida por @joaquinmovia, @elacroix-carignan y @rob21.

@nicoolejnik from nearby Argentina is the top identifier and leads in birds, arachnids, and mollusks. Top observer @joaquinmovia leads in insect and plant IDs and top observer @emiliobuongermini leads in herp and mammal IDs. Thanks to other top identifiers such as @jbroadhead and @john8.

@nicoolejnik, de la vecina Argentina, es el principal identificador y es líder en aves, arácnidos y moluscos. El observador superior @joaquinmovia lidera en identificaciones de insectos y plantas y el observador superior @emiliobuongermini lidera en identificaciones de herpes y mamíferos. Gracias a otros identificadores principales como @jbroadhead y @john8.

What can we do to get more people in Paraguay using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

¿Qué podemos hacer para que más personas en Paraguay utilicen iNaturalist? Comparta sus pensamientos a continuación o en este hilo del foro.

@jaykeller @joaquinmovia @emiliobuongermini @elacroix-carignan @titolahaye @rob21 @watarumatsunaga @nicoolejnik @jbroadhead @john8

We’ll be back tomorrow in Saint Kitts and Nevis!

¡Volveremos mañana en Saint Kitts y Nevis!

Saint Kitts and Nevis the 104th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. @susanhewitt is by far the top observer and is pretty much singlehandedly holding down these islands with her annual visits. @susanhewitt's observations are mostly on Nevis along with top observers @cherrielee and @ktratboy. Other top observers such as @mlodinow, @ronald63, @narpus, and @jmeerman have observations on nearby St. Kitts. Its noteworthy that @gabriel217, in 10th place on the leaderboard, has only posted iNat observations from Saint Kitts and Nevis and doesn't have any observations posted from elsewhere.

The graph of observations per month pretty much just shows @susanhewitt's annual visits in June 2015, May 2016, Aoril 2017, April 2018, and March, 2019..

@adorantes, from the nearby Yucatan, is the top identifier by far and leads in plant, bird, and arachnid IDs. Thanks to other top identifiers such as @kitty12, @ehabes, @rajibmaulick, and @chrisharpe

What can we do to get more people in Saint Kitts and Nevis using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@susanhewitt @mlodinow @ronald63 @cherrielee @narpus @adorantes @kitty12 @ehabes @rajibmaulick @chrisharpe

We’ll be back tomorrow in the US Virgin Islands!

We end Week 15 in the US Virgin Islands - the 104th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. These islands sit between Puerto Rico to the West and the British Virgin Islands to the East. The top three observers in the US Virgin Islands: @casseljs, @thehappiestwanderer and @stinger, and also @mickley have observations clustered in the northwest island of St. Thomas. @stinger is a plant ecologist and a giant in the field of biodiversity informatics behind such efforts as ITIS and BISON. Most of the top observers, e.g. @heather232, @corey22, @emily28, @sarka and e@as_is_the_sea, have observations clustered on the north east island of St. John. A few, scuh as @grodz & juddpatterson, are clustered on the southern island of St. Croix.

The number of observations per month ramped up significantly in 2019.

@maractwin is the top identifier and leads in fish. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of fish observations here. @kemper and @rangertreaty50 are other top identifiers with lots of fish IDs. @joshuagsmith leads in bird IDs and @mack911 leads in fungi IDs.

What can we do to get more people in the US Virgin Islands using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@casseljs @thehappiestwanderer @stinger @heather232 @corey22 @maractwin @rangertreaty50 @joshuagsmith @mack911 @kemper

We’ll remain in the Caribbean tomorrow on Curaçao!

It's Week 16 of the iNaturalist World Tour. We've also updated all the figures to include data from September 2019. Taiwan, Denmark, Czech Republic, Peru, Austria, China, Chile, Thailand, Poland, Philippines, Botswana, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Benin, Iceland, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Guatemala, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Mozambique, Hungary, Nepal, Eswatini, Egypt, Cambodia, New Caledonia, and US Virgin Islands have all moved up in the rankings. That means the St. Kitts and Nevis (which now is slated for this week) was covered last week, but we need to cover Venezuela which is now slated for last week. So, if you're still following along, this week we'll play catch up with Venezuela (in place of the St. Kitts and Nevis), Uruguay, and Curaçao, and El Salvador in Latin America, Cyprus and Jordan in the Eastern Mediterranean, and Cameroon in Africa.

We begin playing catch up with Venezuela. The top observer is @ozzhernandez with observations clustered around the capital of Caracas. @steven-cyclist, who once lived in Venezuela, @cepsl, and @angelfern56, director of the IVIC herbarium of the Venezuelan Institute of Scientific Research, also have observations clustered here. @imerualfonzo, curator in Vertebrate Paleontology of the José Royo y Gómez Museum of the Central University of Venezuela, has a centroid pulled to the south of Caracas as does @pagophila. @gchavarri has observations clustered near Ciudad Guayana, @luchomartinez near Mérida and @franciscomarval near Cumana. @greglasley's observations from travels nearly 30 years ago are across the country but pulled towards his observations in Trinidad. Don't miss this Rainbow Whiptail seen by @dllavaneras featured in an Observation of the Week post from Isla Larga near Puerto Cabello Venezuela.

The number of observations has ticked up substantially in 2019 beginning with an isolated peak in January 2019 driven by @steven-cyclist.

@chrisharpe, an Ornithologist / conservation biologist working in Neotropics (especially Venezuela) leads in identifications generally and bird IDs specifically. @ozzhernandez leads in insect IDs, @herp in herp IDs, and @diegoamaya in plant IDs. Other top identifiers include @rafael_gianni and @gchavarri.

What can we do to improve iNaturalist in Venezuela? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@ozzhernandez @steven-cyclist @imerualfonzo @pagophila @cepsl @gchavarri @angelfern56 @chrisharpe @herp @rafael_gianni

We’ll be back tomorrow in Cyprus!

Cyprus the 107th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The political boundaries within the Island of Cyprus are controversial. First, Akrotiri and Dhekelia British Overseas Territories (mostly military bases) carved out of the island. Second, the northern half of the island is the defacto state of Northern Cyprus after Turkey invaded in 1983. GADM treats Northern Cyprus as a separate country even though it is only formally recognized by Turkey. Following GADM, Cyprus (officially the Republic of Cyprus) is the Island of Cyprus minus Akrotiri and Dhekelia and Northern Cyprus.

The top observer is botanist @danielcahen with observations clustered in the mountainous Platres region. @jakovosdemetriou, studying biology at the National and Kapodistrian University in nearby Athens, Greece has observations clustered along the west coast along with other top observers such as @denis_m, @luca63, @sandy_rae, @clamsdell, and @sandralamberts. @jurga_li has observations clustered along the southern coast along with @bogmyrtle and @purperlibel.

The graph of observations per month has been ramping up since 2018.

@ronf is the top identifier and leads in plant IDs. @johnascher leads in insects and @sammyboy2059 leads in birds and mammals. @jakovosdemetriou is both a top identifier and top observer. @cliygh-and-mia comes in 5th on the identifier leaderboard.

What can we do to get more people in Cyprus using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@danielcahen @jakovosdemetriou @denis_m @luca63 @jurga_li @sandy_rae @ronf @sammyboy2059 @jakovosdemetriou @cliygh-and-mia @johnascher

We’ll be back tomorrow in the Uruguay!

Uruguay is the 108th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The top observer, @santiagomailhos, has observations are throughout Uruguay but most are clustered south of the city of Paysandú on the banks of Uruguay River, which forms the border with Argentina as are @cmbiancardi's observations. @pablobaldu has observations clustered near the capital of Montevideo and along this southeastern coast of the country. Many other top observers also have their observations clustered here such as @mirmeleon, a student at Facultad de Ciencias (Universidad de la República) in Montevideo, @leo_lagos, editor of the daily science section of Uruguay's newspaper, @phviny, @liuid, and @ori86. @liuid is doing a PhD studying bats at the University of La Plata (Argentina) and is currently based in southern Brazil. @joaco5 has observations clustered along border with Brazil near the city of Rivera. @roget, associated with Fundación Vida Silvestre Argentina, has more observations across the Rio de La Plata in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The graph of observations per month has been ramping up in 2019. Peaks in April 2019 and August 2019 were mostly driven by @santiagomailhos and @pablobaldu respectively.
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The top identifier is @rafatosi, a bird oriented Uruguayan biologist, who also leads in bird, mammal, and herp IDs. Top observer @mirmeleon is another local top identifier and leads in 'other animals'. Most of the other top identifiers are from nearby Argentina including @lrubio7 (who leads in insects & arachnids), @nicoolejnik (who leads in mollusks and fish), and @r-a-p.

What can we do to get more people in Uruguay using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@santiagomailhos @pablobaldu @mirmeleon @joaco5 @leo_lagos @phviny @rafatosi @lrubio7 @nicoolejnik @r-a-p

We’ll be back tomorrow in the Curaçao!

Curaçao is the 109th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. Curaçao sits between Aruba and Bonaire in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela. Here, top observers include visitors (e.g. @avocat @jasondombroskie @anudibranchmom @zahnerphoto @anthonysarkiss and @stanvrem), people doing research on the island (e.g. @wernerdegier studying symbiotic crustaceans) and people who live / have lived on Curaçao (e.g. @clifford and @patrickas). Somewhat unusually, 50% of the observations are from a project by California Academy of Sciences coral reef researcher @pimbongaerts which I'll describe at the end of this post.

While the number of observations per month has ticked up in recent years, the graph is dominated by @pimbongaerts field season in July of 2019.

West Indies bird expert @chrisharpe leads in bird IDs, @maractwin leads in fish IDs and @greenline leads in plant IDs. Other top identifiers include @adamwang. But the top identifier, leading in 'other animals' (in this case corals) is @ianespanol1 who was @pimbongaerts's Summer Systematics Institute at the California Academy of Sciences charged with identifying corals recorded during the field season.

@pimbongaerts (aka Pim Bongaerts) and @ianespanol1 (aka Ian X Espanol De La Cruz) are interested in conserving coral reefs. They used iNat to record and identify observations of 29 coral species from their field sites in Curaçao. Working with UC Santa Cruz researcher Collin Hurst, they used this data to train a coral classifier to explore if they could train the computer to recognize Caribbean coral species based on corallite-scale. Eventually, they hope to automate monitoring of coral biodiversity.

What can we do to get more people in Curaçao using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@pimbongaerts @avocat @jasondombroskie @anudibranchmom @zahnerphoto @ianespanol1 @chrisharpe @adamwang @maractwin @greenline

We’ll be back tomorrow in the El Salvador!