INATURALIST

INATURALIST DEMONSTRATED IMPACTS IN THREE KEY AREAS THAT ALIGN WITH ITS MISSION: PEOPLE, SCIENCE, AND CONSERVATION. THE CORE OF HOW INATURALIST FULFILLS ITS MISSION BY BUILDING AND SUPPORTING SCALABLE TECHNOLOGY THAT ALLOWS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD TO MAKE AND SHARE OBSERVATIONS OF BIODIVERSITY USING FREE MOBILE APPS AND WEBSITES.IN 2024, MORE THAN 1.3 MILLION PEOPLE WERE DIRECTLY ENGAGED IN INATURALIST'S CORE ACTIVITY OF MAKING THEIR OWN OBSERVATIONS AND/OR IDENTIFYING OBSERVATIONS FOR OTHER PEOPLE. EACH MONTH, ABOUT 1.2 MILLION PEOPLE USED SEEK BY INATURALIST, AND APPROXIMATELY 3.6 MILLION PEOPLE VISITED THE INATURALIST WEBSITE. (CONT. ON SCH. O)THANKS TO THIS GLOBAL COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE DOCUMENTING BIODIVERSITY, INATURALIST PASSED THE MILESTONE OF HAVING 500,000 UNIQUE TAXA OR APPROXIMATELY 23% OF ALL NAMED SPECIES ON THE EARTH. OVER 300,000 OF THESE SPECIES WERE RECORDED IN 2024 ALONE. COMPARED TO OTHER SOURCES OF BIODIVERSITY DATA, INATURALIST IS THE LARGEST SOURCE OF DATA FOR MOST OF THE WORLD'S SPECIES. MORE THAN 900 SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS PUBLISHED IN 2024 USED INATURALIST DATA.BY USING MACHINE LEARNING TO SYNTHESIZE MILLIONS OF INATURALIST OBSERVATIONS, IDENTIFICATIONS, AND PHOTOS, WE RELEASED 7 NEW COMPUTER VISION MODELS AND GEOMODELS THAT MAKE IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO IDENTIFY THE SPECIES THEY SEE. BY THE END OF 2024, NEARLY 100,000 TAXA WERE REPRESENTED IN THESE MODELS. BUILDING ON THE GEOMODEL, WE ALSO RELEASED AN ANOMALY DETECTION TOOL TO HELP SURFACE UNUSUAL OBSERVATIONS. INATURALIST DATA IS NOW CRITICALLY IMPORTANT TO DISCOVER NEW SPECIES, REDISCOVER "LOST" ONES, EXTEND AND REFINE SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS, DETECT INVASIVE SPECIES, MANAGE ENDANGERED SPECIES, ADVOCATE FOR PROTECTED AREAS, UNDERSTAND OUR CHANGING CLIMATE, STUDY ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR, AND INFORM HUMAN HEALTH. MANY ANNUAL STATS AND EXAMPLES CAN BE FOUND HERE: HTTPS://WWW.INATURALIST.ORG/STATS/2024