It’s easy to leave Nosara thinking the only wildlife that really exists are howler monkeys, coatis, and a select few other creatures that venture into the town. However, this is simply not true. Take a walk on the Nosara Civic Association trails, or through the land within the Ostional Wildlife Refuge or in Lagarta Lodge’s biological reserve, and you’re likely to spot a whole range of birds, insects, and animals that you’ve never seen, nor are able to identify.

And that’s where iNaturalist can help.

iNaturalist a free mobile app that has been helping wildlife sustainability organizations, both local and global, to make better-educated decisions to minimize the impact of development on wildlife. The project has been called “a standard-bearer for natural history mobile applications”.

This freely-accessible, interactive digital map identifies wildlife and combines citizen science and rapid biodiversity assessments to evaluate, track and visualize the biodiversity in Nosara, and around the entire world. Additionally, by recording and sharing your observations, users help create research quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.

In Nosara, iNaturalist is already playing a key role in conservation programs. The NCA urges more people to use iNaturalist to report wildlife sightings, thus giving us greater insight into the species that live here, and insights into their behaviour, numbers, and patterns. .

KEY FEATURES INCLUDE

• Discover species new to you both near and far
• Record your own observations and share them with the community
• Receive suggestions and crowdsourced identifications of what you’ve seen
• Discuss and help others identify what they’ve seen

iNaturalist may be accessed via its website: www.inaturalist.org, or from its mobile applications.

iNaturalist is very simple to use, but for more information check out this short tutorial video.