iNaturalist: An App that Turns Your Phone into a Real-Life Pokédex

Imagine walking through your neighborhood, a park, or a forest and stumbling on a plant or animal you’ve never seen before. Instead of wondering what you just saw, what if you could take a picture and instantly find out?

My love for wildlife photography started early. I recently had a memory of the Fisher Price camera toy I played with as a toddler. Each time you clicked the shutter, a new animal would appear in the viewfinder.

I also spent countless hours playing Pokémon Snap on the Nintendo 64. The goal of the game was to take as many pictures of wild Pokémon as possible. In high school photography classes, I found myself drawn to landscape photographers, who were able to make me feel like I was standing where they were.  

My hobby has pushed me to leave the city and head outside of my comfort zone in search of new, unique landscapes and creatures. For a while, photography and cinematography only served as timestamps of my trips across the American West with my life partner, but once I was introduced to iNaturalist, my images had a new purpose. 

iNaturalist is an app and website that allows you to record and upload your findings in the natural world to a database used by global scientific institutions. Founded in 2008 by UC Berkeley students Ken-ichi Ueda, Jessica Kline, and Nate Agrin as a Masters project, the website-turned application has grown into a global database where users can confirm the specific types of floura, fauna, and funga they discover. 

I first learned about iNaturalist during my time on Catalina Island at the Wrigley Institute’s Spring Break program in 2022. As we hiked the Deer Valley trail, Lorraine Sadler, a world renowned scuba diver and the institute’s Education Specialist, demoed the app on some native plants. I was blown away at how quickly we could confirm the identity of the plants and animals around us.

Your observations and contributions can do more than remind you of an exciting hike; they can aid in the tracking of endangered species, management of invasive species, and potentially lead to new discoveries! I have a lot of fun looking at the explore page to see new contributions from around the world. 

iNaturalist findings have been used in a number of published papers that have cited the movement of species in relation to the changing climate. For example, due to community contributions, a population explosion and northern movement of the Hopkin’s Rose nudibranch, a type of sea slug, was noticed due to warmer ocean temperatures in 2015.

Other notable range expansions, discoveries, and rediscoveries of species have happened all over the world because of tools like these. For news on these discoveries, check out iNatForum to see community updates and discussions! 

One of the most useful aspects of iNaturalist is the app's image recognition, which gives you a “best guess” for your findings. Just like a Pokédex, your phone becomes a tool to identify, log, and track your findings in the natural world. Even if you aren’t exactly sure what you’re looking at, you’re given a great jumping off point before your findings are reviewed and confirmed by other users. 

This “best guess” function was especially helpful while traveling through the Pacific Northwest in 2020. It was my first time in a region so cold and moist; the sheer amount of visible funga made the experience feel fantastical. With very little experience in mycology, the app was vital for building my understanding of the complex world of fungi. 

If you're looking to use the functions of the app without creating an account and without user data collection, I'd recommend Seek, an all-ages, kid-friendly app by the iNaturalist team!

In addition to bringing me loads of fun through being a real life version of Pokémon, this little app has expanded my understanding of the world around me. It’s brought out a curiosity for the natural world that I haven’t had since I was a kid. Everywhere I look, I see new plants and animals that make me think “I wonder what that is? Let me check!” 

It’s exciting to know that in addition to serving as a timestamp of my travels, my pictures can be used to aid in community science through events like the 10th annual City Nature Challenge!

Starting today, April 25, and going through April 28, The City Nature Challenge is"an international event, motivating people around the world to document wildlife in their own cities." Beginning in 2016, it's a friendly, nature-focused competition between cities!

Using iNaturalist, you can participate in your local community's exploration and documentation of local ecosystems this weekend! Last year, 83,528 people participated in The City Nature Challenge, leading to 2,436,844 observations of over 60,000 species!

While it can often be overwhelming to think about how far technology has progressed in the last century, tools and community events like these dissolve the barriers of entry to learning about the natural world. The only thing preventing you from learning more is your willingness to explore. 

It’s more important than ever for communities to engage with and advocate for the preservation of native environments. So, the next time you’re on a walk and you encounter something you’ve never seen before, take out your phone, take a picture, and join a global community of naturalists!