That’s right! It’s time for another Global iNaturalist BioBlitz hosted by Learn Adventurously!
Last year we ran a global iNaturalist BioBlitz competition that resulted in over 8,000 observations of 2,600 species! https://learnadv.com/blog/biodiversity-in-your-city-june-2021/. This competition was heavily gamified and largely organized over Instagram (instagram.com/DillonTheBiologist) and through Discord discord.gg/rHdMpTTn3f.
Now its time for Learn Adventurously to do another one! This competition is free for anyone to join from anywhere in the world. All you need is a phone!
WHAT IS THIS COMPETITION?
The Learn Adventurously BioBlitz is free, global, community science competition that is open to anyone! All you need to do is document biodiversity via the iNaturalist app between April 11th and April 25th. We use a custom scoring system to determine the winners of the competition and reward users with specific challenges throughout the whole competition period!
See the competition page here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/learn-adventurously-2022-bioblitz
HOW CAN YOU PARTICIPATE?
To participate, you only need to complete a few simple steps:
- Sign up for an account on iNaturalist.org (its free!)
- Fill out this google form (https://forms.gle/n3nKeSmdfoTcCBXRA) so I can add you to the project page
- Between April 11 and April 25th, go out and document biodiversity!
- Follow instagram.com/DillonTheBiologist and our discord community for specific challenges and announcements
- At the end of the competition, I will announce the winners using our scoring system!
This competition is meant to be as easy as possible for the competitors. If you have never used iNaturalist before, we’ve compiled resources to help you get started.
WHAT ARE THE RULES?
Observation Requirements:
For our purposes, an observation is only counted if they meet these criteria:
- Observations can be of any taxa accepted by iNaturalist
- Taxa includes any observation of birds, plants, mammals, insects, arachnids, gastropods, reptiles, amphibians, fungi, fish, or protozoa
- Taxa do not need to be identified down to species. Observations identified down to a higher taxonomic level (such as genus or family) count the same as species-level identification. e.g. Sceloporus occidentalis has the same worth as observations identified to Sceloporus sp.
- Observation must have a photo or sound, date/time, and geolocation.
- Observations must be made between April 11 – April 25 according to iNaturalist time
- Observations cannot be of “captive” species as defined by iNaturalist. This includes pets, gardens, zoos, or houseplants.
- Teams are not allowed for this BioBlitz, but looking for observations with friends is highly encouraged!
POINT SYSTEM:
Instead of counting just unique taxa or the number of observations made, we use a gamified scoring system that rewards making observations of a diverse array of taxa. This is to encourage finding new diversity and offers a way for us to have challenges!
- 5 points for each new taxa observation.
- 1 point for each duplicate observation, up to 5 observations.
- Bonus point challenges will have their own specific point allotment
Ignoring bonus point challenges, each taxon can net you 10 points. 5 points for the initial observation and then up 5 more points for 5 additional observations. You will not have to score yourself! When you are added to the BioBlitz, all valid observations will be added to the project page over on iNaturalist automatically. The score will be calculated at the very end of the competition and announced via our social channels.
Bioblitz Resources:
Have you never used iNaturalist before? No worries! It is a very easy application to use. Below we have included resources to help you get started!
iNaturalist Guides:
Getting Started with iNaturalist
Video Tutorials from iNaturalist