Participant Guide
The goal of the Great Southern Bioblitz is to provide a platform for groups, associations and individuals to encourage engagement in citizen science across the southern hemisphere. Through the online platform iNaturalist, we hope to increase biodiversity awareness and encourage citizens to contribute to the understanding of where plants, animals and fungi occur in their distribution.
All you need to do to contribute is to download the iNaturalist application to your handheld device or make an account on your computer and make observations over the collection period 20-23rd September 2024. You will then need to upload to iNaturalist, you will have 14 days to upload and identify your observations. Please use your 'local node' to make observations. Don't worry if you cant identify the organism just make sure you get some good clear photos or sounds (see below). There will be a period to identify the observations following the "Bioblitz", just remember to level the ID at the highest level. Because iNaturalist is an emerging and popular nature apps, with artificial intelligence built in to help identify the biodiversity around you. The platform connects you with over 1, 200, 000 scientists and naturalists globally each with their own interests and skill level. Fortunately, the platform has many online resources to help you get to know your way around the system including those below.
iNaturalist Video Tutorials
We want to see photos of you all participating, these may be used in our promotions in future years. Please submit your photos via the link in the button.
Urban Bioblitz:
Intro to iNaturalist
This video from Calgary by Matt Wallace, is an introduction to iNaturalist for students to document and learn about the biodiversity found in their neighborhoods. All of the footage was filmed in Calgary parks.
Music by Matt Wallace and Liam Murphy. If you found this video helpful, consider visiting www.citizenblitz.ca and click the "Buy me a Bus Ticket" button to help support bioblitzes and nature-based art in Calgary.
Local iNaturalist Nodes.
iNaturalist
The platform has several nodes that upload the collected data to a national database. With that in mind, it's best to use your local 'Node' (see below) if there is no node in your area then use
iNaturalist.org.
iNaturalist Australia
Use this node in Australia
iNaturalist NZ — Mātaki Taiao
Use this node in New Zealand
ArgentiNat
Use this node in Argentina
iNaturalista
Use this node in Colombia