SA iNaturalists - December 2021 Update
This December saw 7,079 observations covering 1,921 species from a total of 449 observers. There were 93 species receiving their first iNat record in SA. This month there were 84 new observers contributing their first observations in SA. Upon this months observations, 522 identifiers contributed a total of 12,381 identifications.
Uploads for SA at the end of December stand at 278,325 observations of 8,489 species from 3,988 observers with, as of today, 4,553 identifiers providing 508,608 identifications.
The international National Park City Foundation has awarded Adelaide National Park City status, making Adelaide the first in Australia and second in the world.
The iNaturalist 'Year in Review 2021' is available. Check out the 'Most Comments and Faves' section to see some of the most amazing observations uploaded around the world last year. Scroll to the bottom of the Year in Review page and select 'View Your 2021 Stats' to see your own 2021 summary.
Featured Observations from December
A Lomera Case Moth showing itself at Boothby Rocks by @ethanbeaver.
A patterned Neoloricate Chiton at Marino Rocks by @mtank.
A Fairy Moth at Parra Wirra by @anthonypaul.
A Female Darwin's Leaf-cutter Bee at Swan Reach by @ellurasanctuary.
A Flower-feeding March Fly in Belair NP by @mariannebroug.
A Kangaroo Island Western Whipbird in Dudley CP by @darcywhittaker.
(These are taken from observation during the month with at least one 'favourite'. If you see an interesting observation from SA, remember to favourite it, and it might appear here at the end of the month).
Featured Project
The Adelaide Parklands Umbrella Project brings together all the parks surrounding Adelaide into one overarching project currently containing over 5,000 observations. Each park has it's own self-contained collection project. Click through to find your favourite park.
Do you have a particular expertise and are keen to help out with identifications in SA? Select your favourite taxa below to head to the Identify page:
Aves / Amphibia / Reptilia / Mammalia / Ray-Finned Fishes / Mollusca / Arachnida / Insecta / Plantae / Fungi / Protozoa / Unknowns
Top observers & species observed in December:
(Data used for this post taken on the 10th of January. It excludes any observations and identifications from December that were uploaded after this date)
Comments
That's awesome Geoff :-) Thanks for compiling these lists, they are very interesting.
If it's not too big an ask, is it possible to do a summary for the year? I'm particularly interested in this number "There were 93 species receiving their first iNat record in SA." for the year.
Cheers
Brett
Hi Brett, the +93 species in SA for the December month represents only the difference between the End of Nov total species for SA and the end of Dec total species for SA. I've not found an easy way to determine what exact species these are. They rarely represent 'first sighting records' in SA, more often the first time an observation has been IDed on iNat to a particular species (or first Genus or Family). The number also includes observations still at 'Needs ID' level. And includes new IDs on historic observations, i.e. might not represent a recent sighting.
Investigating these I've found that they generally consist of the following: (1) Legitimate first time iNat records IDed to Research Grade by knowledgeable people, (2) Observations at 'Needs ID', IDed by an expert observer, that is yet to be confirmed, (3) Observations at 'Needs ID' that are 'guesses' by inexperienced users or following the AI suggestions. (4) Cultivated species that haven't been labelled as such.
The 8,500 species recorded across SA represent the most well known and most sighted species. What remains, as I'm sure you're aware, are the harder to identify invertebrates, fungi, bryophyte and algae species that often require multiple photos showing diagnostic characteristics. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say these represent less than a quarter of the 'new species' added each month. Most of those are still likely at 'Needs ID' awaiting a second expert to confirm. Only a handful of these are likely to be 'first sighting records' in SA (and many of those are yours).
I'll take a look at making a 2021 summary. It looks like 40% of all observations in SA were uploaded last year!
iNaturalist Australia Year in Review: https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/stats/2021
No prob's Geoff, I understand that it's a "rubbery" number (ie not 1st sighting, etc). But it's still interesting. To me it's an "indication" of the growth of knowledge of our wildlife. At the end of the day it's a photographic site and many id's, including mine, don't stand up to scientific rigour; but it's all we have :-) The more photo's of different species locally, the more the general knowledge grows, etc. It's a gr8 thing.
I guess it'd be interesting to see the total species for SA at the end of Dec 2020 vs Dec 2021. That would give the yearly "indication"? But it's not something iNat gives is it, it's based on you storing the end of month figures?
Cheers
Brett
I looked at previous journal posts. As at Dec 2020, 7,129 species & Dec 2021, 8,489 species = 1,360 new species recognised over 2021 on iNat for the 1st time in SA. That's huge!
Solved it myself due to the work you do with the Journals :-)
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