iNaturalist is frequently mentioned in a variety of local news outlets. We suggest searching
Google News
for recent examples. Below are some notable examples of broader media coverage about iNaturalist.
September 2023,
KQED Forum
Scott Loarie and Ken-ichi Ueda are interviewed about the evolution and impact of iNaturalist along with community members Jennifer Rycenga and Prakrit Jain.
April 2023,
The Washington Post
Michael Coren recommends Seek, iNaturalist, PlantNet, and Merlin as science-driven apps for exploring biodiversity in your neighborhood.
December 2022,
The New York Times
Amy Harmon interviewed dozens of members of the iNaturalist community in search of what makes it a place for civil discourse in pursuit of truth about the natural world.
September 2022,
Nature
Amber Dance covers community science and profiles several community science leaders, including iNat user Greg Pauly.
July 2022,
Reasons to Be Cheerful
Elizabeth Hewitt details several of the successes of iNaturalist.
January 2022,
Atlas Obscura
Shoshi Parks covers the effort to document newts in California using iNaturalist to try and reduce newt road mortality.
September 2021,
Audubon Magazine
Carlyn Kranking reports on how iNaturalist is being used to document Spotted Lanternfly predators.
September 2021,
Discover Magazine
Nathaniel Scharping interviews Sonya Richmond and Sean Morton about their
journey
.
September 2021,
Florida Museum
Jerald Pinson reports on a study that studies the patterns of people using iNaturalist.
July 2021,
Chicago Sun Times
Dale Bowman said
Seek by iNaturalist
"changed my outdoor world, especially for identifying plants and trees."
March 2021,
Travel Awaits
Joe Cuhaj recommends iNaturalist for hikers who want to learn more about what they see on the trail.
March 2021,
National Geographic
iNaturalist data shows similar trend to other butterfly datasets in
Science
paper
September 2020,
National Geographic
Christine Peterson covers how iNaturalist and other apps helped people explore from home.
2020 August,
The Conversation
"iNaturalist has become a world-leading resource that combines observational data with artificial intelligence and community expertise to bring natural history into the digital age." by Paul Manning and Morgan Jackson
2020 August,
The New York Times
How "mothing" turned Margaret Roach into a citizen scientist.
2020 August,
The New York Times
Stephanie Rosenbloom endorses
Seek by iNaturalist
for learning more about what's around you.
2020 August,
Sierra
iNaturalist also helped Korrin L. Bishop find meaning during the pandemic.
2020 June,
Mashable
Sarah Lindenfield Hall tells of neighborhood nature explorations with her daughter during the covid-19 pandemic.
2020 February,
Wired
Catherine LeClair writes about iNaturalist and
Seek by iNaturalist
, and how using them helped her become more connected to nature.
2020 February,
USA Today
Covers the
collaborative ID of a hoodwinker sunfish
found in California.
2019 July,
CBC.ca and CTV
iNaturalist and
iNaturalist Canada
are discussed in this article, as well as the importance of crowdsourced data. iNaturalist staff member Carrie Seltzer was also
interviewed for CTV
in connection with the article.
2019 June,
Bay Nature
Seek team members discuss Seek 2.0's live ID suggestions feature.
2019 Apr,
FlyTimes
Dipterists Even Dankowicz and Chris Cohen discuss the use of iNaturalist in their research.
2019 Apr,
Slate
April Glaser explores the tradeoffs between sharing biodiversity information and keeping it secret, using eBird and iNaturalist as examples.
2019 Feb,
NPR
The iNaturalist observation of a rare Hoodwinker Sunfish in the wrong hemisphere spawned many news stories in outlets around the world. This piece by Merrit Kennedy describes the dialogue on iNaturalist that made this discovery possible.
2019 Jan,
The Daily - Case Western Reserve University
Hundreds of dragonfly photos on iNaturalist were examined as part of a study looking into the connection between wing color and local temperature.
2018 Oct,
Mongabay
Sue Palminteri talking with co-director Scott Loarie about how iNaturalist has scaled over the last 10 years and what new challenges emerge with new technologies.
2018 Oct,
The New York Times
Coverage by Nicola Twilley of the
Never Home Alone
project (and book of the same name by Rob Dunn) that aims to understand the wildlife inside our homes.
2018 Aug,
Associated Press
Emiliano Rodriguez Mega writes about the
New York Botanical Garden's
endeavor to map all of the city's plants.
2018 Apr,
Microsoft News
A story for Earth Day highlighting the contributions of users, the impact of the community, and the support of Microsoft AI for Earth.
2018 Mar,
Earther
Asher Elbein writes about the new gamified, kid-safe nature exploration app for iOS
Seek by iNaturalist
that uses solely computer vision.
2017 Dec,
South China Morning Post
A piece about Hong Kong's Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (BSAP) and its citizen science initiatives, including a BioBlitz that used iNaturalist.
2017 Dec,
The New York Times Magazine
Ferris Jabr writes a piece about iNat's computer vision ID feature and the importance of knowing the names of living things.
2017 Jul,
The Atlantic
Ed Yong describes iNaturalist's computer vision functionality released in June 2017 and puts it to the test with his own observations.
2017 Jul,
Bay Nature
In-depth coverage by Eric Simons of the evolution and initial launch of iNaturalist's computer vision/image recognition tool, with many quotes the iNaturalist team and broader iNaturalist community.
2017 Mar,
Science Friday
iNat co-founder Ken-ichi Ueda shares how to use iNaturalist to record and share the spring wildflower bloom alongside a panel of fellow wildlife-enthusiasts.
2016 Nov,
DatingAdvice.com
Not quite "press", but still kind of amusing, and not a bad write-up! Also
brings to mind
John Muir Laws's thoughts on love and nature
.
2016 Jul,
National Public Radio
This story featuring iNaturalist by KERA in Texas got picked up by NPR for
national broadcast on All Tech Considered.
2016 Jul,
Mongabay
Describes a snail posted to iNat from Vietnam that hadn't been seen in over 100 years.
2015 Nov,
Forbes
Story about a recent paper on technology for conservation that covers iNaturalist
2015 Aug,
National Geographic
Highlighting the power of big data generated by citizen science using iNaturalist, eBird, and other examples.
2014 Nov,
MongaBay
Nice story on iNat reaching 1,000,000 observations and launching improved maps.
2014 May,
Science
Pimm et al. assess the current rate of extinction compared with a
hypothetical background rate. They cite iNaturalist as an important tool
in helping scientists fill the gaps in our knowledge of where species
currently persist.
2014 February,
San Francisco Chronicle
SF Chronicle coverage of an iNat-powered bioblitz that we helped
organize in collaboration with
Nerds for Nature
,
Wild Oakland
, and
numerous other partners. Nerds for Nature has conducted numerous
bioblitzes like this, and they're both tons of fun and a great model for
using iNat to engage people with nature while collecting potentially
useful data.
Want more? Noteworthy observations and other news can be found on
Facebook
and
Twitter
. The
iNaturalist blog
highlights news and and stories from the Observation of the Week. You can also search Google for
even more news about iNaturalist
.