Kenya - iNaturalist World Tour

Kenya is the 44th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The top observer, @designedforx has activity centered in the southeastern corner of Kenya and is associated with the REEFoultion project. Wildlife ecologist @waswala has activity centered around the capital of Nairobi along with many other top observers such as @amarzee @hfabian @seasav and @wangecimwangi. Also based near Nairobi, @mmuchai is associated with the University of Nairobi and @zarek specializes in arachnids and admins the Arachnids of East Africa project. @elliotgreiner and @mjplagens are both visitors to Kenya but have a great deal of observations clustered to the North West of Nairobi. Another visitor @kucycads has observations clustered in the Laikipia region to the north of Nairobi. This is where a several researchers who use iNaturalist in their work are based such as @paulakahumbu (check out her Wildlife Warrior projects such as this one), @dejong who runs a project on Laikipia and also on Primates of East Africa, and @blaircostelloe. @mikeloomis and @wildnothos have observations centered along the trans-frontier Serengeti region which borders Tanzania. Several top observers such as @mustafa_adamjee have observations centered near Tsavo National Park. Don't miss this Observation of the Week on a melanistic serval cat spotted in Kenya by @srullman.



The number of observations per month has been slowly increasing in Kenya over the last few years. Certainly many of the efforts mentioned above have helped drive this growth. @waswala, @mmuniafu (affiliated with USIU-Africa), and @sidney_shema helped organize the Nairobi City Nature Challenge this April.



Ecologist @johnnybirder, originally from South Africa, is the top observer in Kenya and also the top bird identifier. @jakob, who needs no introduction on iNaturalist, is the second top identifier and leads in mammals and insects. @marcoschmidtffm is the top plant identifier . Thanks to other top identifiers such as @ldacosta @calebcam, and @maxallen.



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

@designedforx @waswala @elliotgreiner @mjplagens @amarzee @johnnybirder @jakob @ldacosta @calebcam @maxallen

We’ll be back tomorrow with the Norway!

Posted on August 6, 2019 09:45 PM by loarie loarie

Comments

Tomorrow would be Norway, no?

Posted by arnel over 4 years ago

fixed thanks!

Posted by loarie over 4 years ago

Thanks for featuring Kenya and all the major players contributing here! I don't know how to convince people to post their records on iNaturalist as a priority before posting on social media (or at least in addition to). There are some great natural history groups for various taxonomical groups for Kenya and/or East Africa, but most of the contributors there do not then also post on iNat (some have accounts, but rarely use them).

Posted by zarek over 4 years ago

Cool to see a country with mammals in the number 2 spot!

Posted by lonewookie over 4 years ago

Thanks for featuring Kenya!

Posted by dejong over 4 years ago

@zarek are these FB natural history groups or physical ones?

Posted by loarie over 4 years ago

@loarie FB groups. If you're on FB, check out East African Snakes & Other Reptiles, Arthropods of East Africa, Plants and Flowers of East Africa, Flora of Tropical Africa, Scorpions of Kenya, Wings Over Kenya, Raptors Over Kenya, etc.
People post photos primarily requesting ID, some just for the sake of showcasing our natural history.
Lots of similar groups for Southern Africa.

Posted by zarek over 4 years ago

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