Armenia - iNaturalist World Tour

Armenia is the 75th stop on the iNaturalist World Tour. The top observer is @ahospers, a visitor to the Armenia from the Netherlands. There are several other visitors (e.g. @julie_sf, @sdrovetski, @sindic) among the top 10 observers. The second top observer @scops, has observations clustered around the capital of Yerevan. This is the case with most of the top observers in Armenia including @artem, @tigran82, @ttadevosyan, and @vahemart. An exception is @transcaucasiantrail whose observations are clustered to the southeast.



The spike in August of 2018 results from the top observer, @ahospers, adding his observations. But beside that spike, the number of observations per month haven't been growing much. This may partially be because there was some relatively early activty on iNaturalist from Armenia such as @ttadevosyan's Armenian Citizen Herpetologists Atlas and @vahemart's Flora of Armenia projects both started back in 2012. While its unclear why this early activity didn't spur much growth, it does flatten the slope a bit comparing recent activity.



The top identifier @sammyboy2059 is based in the UAE and also leads in bird IDs. @kastani from Kazakstan leads in plant IDs and @kharkovbut based in Ukraine leads in insect IDs. @ttadevosyan and @artem are local top identifiers from Armenia and lead in herp and 'other animal' IDs respectively. Thanks to other top identifiers such as @cliygh-and-mia.



What can we do to get more people in Armenia using iNaturalist? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread.

@ahospers, @scops, @artem, @julie_sf, @transcaucasiantrail, @tigran82, @sammyboy2059, @kastani, @cliygh-and-mia, @ttadevosyan

We’ll be back tomorrow with the Fiji!

Posted on 07 de setembro de 2019, 05:36 AM by loarie loarie

Comentários

I think you meant "The top identifier sammyboy2059"?

Publicado por alexis_orion mais de 4 anos antes

Yay, Hayastan! Technically I lived in Armenia for a year, so not quite a visitor. We were really fortunate to be able to take group hiking trips outside of Yerevan every 2-3 weeks. If I'd known about iNat then, the number of photos we would probably have is... shocking. The environment is incredibly and beautifully diverse.

The "cluster" of observations around Yerevan is only due to having more observations near where people live, which seems pretty natural; the geographic distribution of observations is otherwise really impressive! As far as getting more people involved, many of the top local observers and identifiers are specialists and they already have a lot on their plate.

Publicado por julie_sf mais de 4 anos antes

Fixed thanks!

Publicado por loarie mais de 4 anos antes

Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan are the core of a "biodiversity hotspot." It would be amazing to document the lifeforms of the region, their health, and their phenology. The information would be important for the whole planet.

Publicado por tarpinian mais de 4 anos antes

I have been advertising iNaturalist to professional biologists working in Armenia, and amateurs naturalists alike. I do run a Facebook page Amphibians and Reptiles of Armenia (it has 300+ members), and I do post links to relevant iNaturalist observations there periodically, so every visitor is aware of it. Also I ask people personally to submit their observations, when I find any of the Facebook or elsewhere. Yet many people remain hesitant. I realize hesitance among representatives of academia is caused by thinking that publish data in journals is more prestigious, and therefore a better way, than publishing it online (remember how many people oppose Wikipedia). Some people believe they can sell the information for money, then why to give it up for free? There is also stigma about sharing geographical locations of findings of rare species, which spreads on any personal findings, despite obscured and private functions solve that issue. Amateur naturalists, on the other hand may be free of such a stigma, but many of them are not sufficiently motivated I guess, perhaps are not sufficiently organized. Also the language barrier may be holding some people back from participating. If may be interesting to check if Armenian interface may increase use? Just my few cents.

Publicado por ttadevosyan mais de 4 anos antes

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