Who are the Trackers on iNaturalist?
I sometimes choose a common animal or plant, and see if I can identify a lot of them in a batch. Most of the ones I select have already been well-worked-over, especially for birds. Today for some reason I chose Virginia Opossum. There are seven pages of 20 observations each of unidentified Opossum. Most of these are of tracks or skeletal remains, and most are responsibly done, for instance with measurements. I think this would be easy pickins' for a skilled tracker who also did IDs on iNaturalist. But where are they? We have some excellent trackers in our area, but I've not yet been able to proselytize them into iNaturalist. Ideas?
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So if any of you consider yourself to be good trackers, or know other iNat participants who are, it would be good for me to know about this, so I can direct the random ID-able observation their way.
@dpom @robberfly @moonlittrails @kueda @loarie @damontighe @kestrel @rebeccafay @catchang @tiwane @geodani @vermfly @kschnei @clem @merav @sea-kangaroo @wildmarin @adrained @jmaughn @leftcoastnaturalist @truthseqr @rjadams55 @finatic @charlie @muir @nlblock @dyeany2 @luna-shadow @maractwin @hollycybelle @varajuan @sambiology @jaykeller
@jonahevans knows his animal tracks for sure and prob would know who else does
@biohexx1 might have someone in mind...
My own tracking skills only impress the extremely gullible...
My go-to tracker is @beartracker !
Generally I funnel all California mammal observations into
these projects:
-California Mammals
-Global Roadkill
-North American Animal Tracking Database
-Scatology
-Skulls and Bones
@thunefeld knows tracks as well.
Thanks - this is a great list for starters. They should all play (with O-) possum!
That’s so sweet you’d include me in a tracking query. But alas, animal ID is my kryptonite. I keep hoping to improve.
I'm also a hack job tracker, but my colleague @antnat is the guy.
@sophie is... i am not good at it
My go-to tracker is also @beartracker. I know just enough about carnivore tracks and scat in our area to get myself in trouble. However, I love to know when mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes and foxes have visited our preserves, and since I rarely, if ever, see them, I've been studying tracks and sign left by these animals for about 8 years now. (@beartracker has been studying tracks and sign of all animals for a lifetime - 35 years or more.)
I participated in a project sponsored by UCSC to study carnivore diets (by studying scat) in order to understand how human encroachment on their habitat is changing their diet over time.
My go-to person for bone ID is @asemerdj .
I funnel my observations into the following projects as appropriate:
Scatology
Skulls and Bones
I also use the tag Track/Sign as appropriate.
@beartracker, @herptracker and @chris_hass have been great to me by looking at my observations of tracks. I also add mine to the North American Animal Tracking Database project and have received helpful IDs there.
I'm not great with tracks but I can ID some if they're obvious. I'm happy to look at bones anytime!
@beartracker hands down.
Check out her youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/beartracker777/videos
@biohexx1 , do you put observations of scat, tracks & bone in the following projects?
Mammals of North America
California Mammals
Just wondering if those projects want scat/tracks/bone, or if they only want actual sightings.
Thanks!
For CA Mammals, actual sightings.
Mammals of North America takes all kinds of detection, but prompts you for which type it is.
OK. Thanks, @gyrrlfalcon.
Here is my list of trackers that are known to me. I know many of them personally. Some of these folks are CyberTracker evaluators, or CyberTracker certified at various levels. If they have a particular regional or species specialty I indicated it there. That doesn't mean they can't ID other tracks, just that they are particularly good at that region or species. (In my opinion.) All of these folks are great trackers! And thanks for the recommendations above, everyone. I appreciate it. :)
My list of trackers on iNaturalist:
speiden
jonahevans
chris_hass - my go-to person for cougar and felid sign
chrishyde
thunefeld - awesome at desert animals
jonpoppele
nicksharp
herptracker - herp tracks and all others
asemerdj - bones and skulls
dphyillaier
nateharvey
antnat
connoromalley92 - cougars
thumbsonthefeet
denisetracks
davescott
susanhewitt - molluscs
jptracker
smansfield - bear specialist
toddtracks
bharger00
jim_carretta - desert
ollerton - desert
shankarts - desert
lydiaschindler
barrymartin
marcelo_aranda
garth-olson
tresgatas - U.S. and South African species tracks and signs
ceiseman - insect and invertebrate track and sign
wyatthersey
letsche - herps
lindajhunter - bears, cougars
Wow - that's a great resource. I am wondering if there is a way we can open this kind of conversation up to iNat users generally? It could also be a helpful model for other difficult ID taxa, I'd think.
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