French Polynesia - iNaturalist World Tour
We stay in the Pacific in French Polynesia is the 122nd stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The top observer is @lisa_bennett. Her observations are clustered around the Windward Islands & Leeward Islands along with most other top observers such as @petdoc, @bridgetspencer, @rmcminds, @rosspolynesiaexpedition2014, @anudibranchmom, and @pgeorgakakos. @rosspolynesiaexpedition2014 was involved in a Biocube effort on Moorea by the Smithsonian institution. A few top observers such as @pitrusque, @bja2800dk, and @luca63 have observations clustered in the Tuāmotu-Gambier region. None of the top 10 observers are clustered in the Marquesas Islands to the north or the Austral Islands to the south.
The graph of observations per month is still jagged reflecting random visits by travelers, but the 'background rate' has been ticking up since 2018.
As with Palau yesterday, @maractwin is the top identifier and leads in fish IDs. @phelsumas4life leads in 'other animal' (marine invertebrate) IDs. @kemper, another fish-o-phile, is the second top identifier. Other top identifiers include @mtank and @tim_wilms.
What can we do to get more people in French Polynesia using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.
@lisa_bennett @petdoc @pitrusque @bja2800dk @bridgetspencer @maractwin @kemper @mtank @phelsumas4life @tim_wilms
We’ll be back tomorrow in Laos!
Comments
"but the 'background rate' has been ticking up since 2018." As the overall number of observations drops, for those places which are travel destinations, distinguishing the background rate trend will be an increasingly useful statistic. The background rate will be an indicator of the extent to which the local population is picking up and engaging with iNaturalist, perhaps in part as a result of visiting iNaturalists generating local interest.
Thanks for mentionning ;-) Happy to contribute to iNaturalist ! There's so much to see in French Polynesia, so many living beings to identify. Definitely need to go back !
Cool! I love that the islands themselves are barely visible on the map - they're all covered in user icons ;)
I am rather confused. I have always thought that the Windward and Leeward Islands were in the West Indies, not French Polynesia.
@lesday, windward and leeward refer to wind direction, so it’s a common term for islands.
I’ll be back in French Polynesia next month so there will be another blip soon :)
@lisa_bennett , thank you.
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