{"id":16082,"date":"2025-10-30T14:55:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T14:55:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/?p=16082"},"modified":"2025-12-05T15:15:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T15:15:42","slug":"celebrating-10-years-of-inaturalist-canada-a-decade-of-tracking-species-at-risk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cwf-fcf.org\/index.php\/en\/celebrating-10-years-of-inaturalist-canada-a-decade-of-tracking-species-at-risk\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating 10 Years of iNaturalist Canada: A Decade of Tracking Species at Risk"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Decade of Discovery and Conservation<\/strong><\/h2>\n

iNaturalist Canada<\/a> turns 10! Since 2015, this platform has brought together a community to document and share observations of biodiversity across the country and has grown into a go-to tool for community science, helping to track wildlife populations, monitor changes in species distributions, and inform research and conservation efforts.<\/p>\n

To date, this amazing community has recorded more than 21 million observations in Canada, with more than 600,000 new observations added monthly during the summer. By the time you\u2019re reading this, these numbers will have jumped even higher! While there are a lot of American Robin and Canada Goose observations, there is a vast number of rare, threatened and endangered species that scientists might have never known about, more than 400,000 to be exact. These are tallied in the Species at Risk in Canada<\/em> iNaturalist project<\/a> that was created in conjunction with experts from the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). There you can see what species are at risk in Canada, look at their distributions and maybe even contribute some of your own observations.<\/p>\n

Mapping a Decade of Data<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Observations of Species at Risk from 2015-2024 from iNaturalist.ca \u00a9 All maps and video: Stella McTaggart, Carleton University (Geomatics)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The above map showcases all species at risk, however an important added value of iNaturalist<\/a> also lies in tracking vulnerable wildlife by looking at individual species or key groups, such as:<\/p>\n

The Monarch Butterfly: Following a Species on the Move<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Monarch Butterfly<\/strong> is one of the most well-known species at risk in Canada. Each year, Monarchs travel thousands of kilometres between Canada and Mexico, relying on milkweed plants to complete their life cycle. However, habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused their populations to decline.<\/p>\n

iNaturalist observations show how these butterflies are distributed across Canada, seasonal location, and how their range may be shifting.<\/p>\n