Israel - iNaturalist World Tour
Israel is the 40th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. This is our first stop in the Middle East. The concentration of observations in the Golan region results from Israel flagship iNaturalist project: Tatzpiteva (accounting for 25K of Israel's 40K observations). 4 of the top 5 observers are Tatzpiteva members: @yairur, @ariel-shamir, @uriah, and @omerweiner, and there are many other top observers clustered in this region. Elsewhere, top observer @ronf has observations in nearly every corner of Israel, but they are centered near Jerusalem along with @bobasil and others. @merav is the top observer near Tel Aviv - the other large urban region. @yaelorgad and @centaur have observations centered in the north east.
Check out this Observation of the Week post of nudibranch sightings in Israel by @barchana. Also, this Observation of the Week post is from nearby Jordan, but it features a parasitic plant sighting by @fragmansapir who is currently the scientific director at the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens.
I already mentioned the Tatzpiteva project led by @ariel-shamir and @oarazy. One thing thats very interesting is that most people interact with this project, not through iNaturalist.org but through Tatzpiteva.org.il which is an app build on top of the iNaturalist API. Along with iSeahorse.org, these are the longest running external web apps built on the iNaturalist back end that we're aware of.
The observations per month graph largely reflects the growth in the Tatzpiteva project. @ariel-shamir and @oarazy tell us that "peaks" in spring and autumn are when wildlife (and observers) are most active while "valleys" in the graph, in addition to periodic cycles (less activity in summer) indicate periods of technological problems with the Tatzpiteva app, as well as periods when the project faced administrative challenges. Growth in 2019 reflects the initiation of new projects. For example, as part of the Taking Citizen Science to School initiative, the Tatzpiteva team encourages schoolteachers to employ iNaturalist for their nature observation projects. Similarly, @elisheva1 and @anatbnevo organized City Nature Challenge: Tel Aviv for the first time this year.
The top identifier overall and in nearly every species category is @ariel-shamir from the Tatzpiteva project. For birds and mammals, @sammyboy2059, also a member of Tatzpiteva, is the leading identifier. For the Fish category, the leading identifier is @maractwin - indicating the importance of out-of-the-country members to Israeli iNaturalist projects. Special thanks to @ronf, who is the 2nd top identifier, and also @ariehohd, @cliygh-and-mia, and others.
What can we do to help iNaturalist grow in Israel? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread
@yairur @uriah @ariel-shamir @ronf @omerweiner @itai @dvora @sammyboy2059 @ariehohd @cliygh-and-mia
We’ll be back tomorrow with the Thailand!
Comments
Todah chaverim Israelim! I sure wish iNat was a thing last time I traveled there...
@loarie
Thank you Scott for this great israel activity summary on Inaturalist. our ability to thrive in our local Tatzpiteva project is largly due to this amazing platform and all its wideworld members. it is very gratifiyng to have such a international involvment in our local all around israel projects.Inaturalist has succsided -apart from creating an incredible very professional reporting platform- to create a worldwide international community of wildlife lovers who interact globaly.
The only country from middle east Israel, supports a important geographical location, during migration of birds from Europe & back.
Sadly many birds like Storks & others are shot & killed over countries Lebanon , Turkey.....for fun & sport. Storks returning to my country Lithuania in summer , do not return to their nests for breeding. Sad but true. International community has to prevent this from happening !!!
Thanks for the summary! I've only recently joined iNat, but I've found the community to be supportive and a great source of information and advice. Thanks to @ariel-shamir and others for all their hard work. I'm looking forward to participating in next year's City Challenge, and perhaps in helping iNat grow in popularity in central Israel in the long term.
Feels so nice to see myself on Israel map. Thanks a ton @ariel-shamir for all the identification help. Hope to visit Israel again and do more iNating.
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