Join MassWildlife on iNaturalist

Join MassWildlife on iNaturalist to view and contribute to species information.

MassWildlife

The Details

What you need

Join MassWildlife on iNaturalist! It’s free, it’s fun, and it helps document and track some of the plants, animals, fungi, and other species that live in Wildlife Management Areas and other natural communities across the state. All you need is a phone or a camera. iNaturalist hosts communities working together to learn more about wild plants and animals. People of all skill levels help each other identify wildlife and plants they observe. You can post your own observations for help with identification, see which species others have observed.

How to join

To sign up, go to inaturalist.org.

Visit the getting started section to learn about using iNaturalist. There are also short video tutorials available. 

More info

Use iNaturalist to explore the natural world!

Join MassWildlife on iNaturalists in support of two important initiatives:

  • MassWildlife has a Massachusetts Biodiversity Survey to strategically document the biological diversity of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and to support an inclusive community of naturalists dedicated to conservation and lifelong learning. This includes several projects, including a reptile survey, carnivore/large mammal survey, freshwater mollusks, ecological indicators, and conifers.
  • MassWildlife has a Wildlife Management Area Biodiversity Project that is collecting observations of the biodiversity of 15 Wildlife Management Areas across the state. 

You can learn a lot from iNaturalist. Here are some additional tips:

  • It gets easier the more you use it. Try to post a few photos every week.
  • Take the best photos you can. They don’t have to be perfect, but they should show the species.
  • Follow people who share lots of observations.  Feel free to follow us. Our username is masswildlife.
  • If you go somewhere new, find it in iNaturalist and see what other people have found there.
  • Please document both common and rare species. Over the years, the ranges of these species may shift. iNaturalist is one way to track those shifts. Please consider also submitting any reports of species listed under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act to MassWildlife's Heritage Hub.

Contact

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