Madagascar - iNaturalist World Tour

We end Week 5 on the iNaturalist World Tour in Madagascar. This is just the second country we've visited on the African continent so far, after South Africa. The top two observers @onjalalaina and @damontighe have observations centered in the Fianarantsoa region. Observations by @franck, @davidrabehevitra, and @romer are centered in the region around the capital of Antananarivo. @feno stands apart with observations centered along the northwestern coast.

Madagascar's isolation has resulted in some of the most unique and bizarre biodiversity found anywhere in the globe. Check out this Observation of the Week featuring one of @nlblock's observations and this one featuring one of @victorialnjackson's to get a sense for these strange species. On top of this, Madagascar is often referred to as the "hottest of the hotspots" - places where high numbers of unique species collide with severe threats such as deforestation.

One thing that stands out in Madagascar is that despite its position as a natural history mecca for visitors from around the world, most of the top observers are Malagasy. This strong community of Malagasy iNaturalist users can be traced to the Zavamaniry Gasy project which @stevenkew and his colleagues at the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens helped initiate with the support of the JRS foundation. This Observation of the Week by @fabienrahaingo gives a sense for the project as do many tweets by @TeamKMCC.

The chart of observations per month shows the launch of the Zavamaniry Gasy project towards the end of 2014. The peak in February 2018 is driven by a visit by iNaturalist super user @damontighe which you can read more about in this Observation of the Week post. But the fact that the Zavamaniry Gasy community is still active nearly 5 years after launching is amazing. Its clearly one of the factors driving recent growth of iNaturalist in Madagascar.

Members of the Zavamaniry Gasy community are also some of the top identifiers such as @davidrabehevitra, @romer, and @franck. @jakob, who has a wealth of expertise from Africa, leads insect identifications. @markscherz and @jbroadhead lead herp and bird identifications respectively. Many thanks to other top identifiers such as @danielaustin.

What can we do make iNaturalist better in Madagascar? Please share your thoughts below or on this forum thread

@onjalalaina @damontighe @franck @feno @davidrabehevitra @esrakotoarisoa @jakob @romer @jbroadhead @danielaustin

We’ll be back tomorrow with the China!

Publicado el julio 28, 2019 05:06 TARDE por loarie