Digital Knowledge: Natural North Carolina

The Natural North Carolina Project through the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences is a citizen science project that asks the public to submit photos of wildlife, plants and fungi that are spotted around the state. It’s a great way to engage the public and allow them to contribute to a state-wide research project. The museum utilizes the INaturalist platform to manage contributions from the public, and I found the whole process very user-friendly and fun! The project is listed on the museum’s website, but I wasn’t able to easily find any other information or solicitations for contributions from the public, which is a shame. This is such a cool project!

NCMNS Citizen Science Current Projects Page:

Project Description & Link to INaturalist Site:

I quickly created an account and contributed a photo of a Golden Silk Spider on behalf of a relative that currently lives in North Carolina. The picture I contributed was an easy species to identify, but depending on the photo you are submitting, it could be difficult due to photo clarity or distance from the subject. When I provided the information for the project, I only had the common name for the spider, so I had to do a quick search for the proper name in order to accurately label it on the site.

When a picture is first submitted to the project, the organization requires identification confirmation from other community members before it is labeled ‘research grade’. The photo is also kept public, so people can suggest other species if they think it is misidentified. There is both a Terms & Rules page and an informational page about how the community identification process works. Both pages shown below:

Terms & Rules:

Explanation about Community Identification:

This was a really fun project to work with and I was surprised I had never heard of something like this before. By having the public submit photos, the museum is able to cover much more ground in a shorter period of time than if it just had a handful of researchers working on the study. As far as challenges go, I think by engaging with the general public for research there is a larger chance for error and also the possibility of someone contributing intentionally misleading information, but by having other project community members weigh in, it gives an opportunity to flag the contribution and do some more digging to determine its validity. With this type of project, I think outreach through social media might be an effective way to solicit as many contributions as possible. Many people love to share wildlife photos on different platforms, and I think this would reach those folks who already have that interest in photography and nature.

Here is a link to the project if you’re interested in getting involved: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/natural-north-carolina

Below are some screenshots of the contribution process step by step.

INaturalist Natural North Carolina Home Page:

Log In Page:

Add Observations Page:

Observation page (complete):

Final Observation Page – Note the page says ‘needs ID’ by the species name & requires at least two identifications from community members to become ‘research grade’.

Enjoy!