iNaturalist

Website: https://www.inaturalist.org/ 
 

Prerequisites

Data Source
To integrate iNaturalist with Gundi, you will need either:

  • iNaturalist Taxa IDs
  • iNaturalist Project IDs

Identifying the Project ID

The Project ID can be either a numeric value or a slug. You can find the slug by:

Navigating to the desired project on iNaturalist.

Copying the identifier from the site URL.

Example: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/example-project

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Another method is appending .json to the project URL and searching for the slug value.

Example: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/example-project.json

 
 

Identifying the Taxon ID

The Taxon ID is a numeric value found in the site URL when viewing a taxon page.

Example: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47686-Protozoa

 

Alternatively, you can append .json to the taxon URL and search for the numeric ID.

Example: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47686-Protozoa.json

 
 


Data Delivery

EarthRanger

Setup Instructions for the iNaturalist - EarthRanger Integration.

1. Create an Integration User

In EarthRanger, create a dedicated user account (e.g., “Gundi Service Account”) for this integration. Please refer to EarthRanger's documentation or contact Support.

2. Create Authentication Token

Create a long-lived token for the user created in Step 1. This token will be used for authentication. Please refer to EarthRanger's documentation or contact Support.

3. Configure Event Type and Schema

Ensure that the required event type and schema exist in EarthRanger:

Event Type: inat_observation

4. Assign Permissions

Edit the user created in Step 1 and assign the necessary permissions to post event data. Be sure to include permission for the Event Category that contains the inat_observation event type (from Step 3).

 
 

Smart Connect

To send data to SMART:

  • Ensure that the necessary categories and attributes are set up in your SMART CA data model before proceeding.
 
 

Configuration in Gundi

1. Login to Gundi and click Create Connection.

2. Select iNaturalist.

3. Click Add Item to enter a Taxa ID or Project ID.

4. Apply any optional filters (these will be in addition to any filters already applied in iNaturalist).

Quality Grade

If specified, only observations with the selected quality grades will be included. As of November 2024, valid values are:

  • casual
  • needs_id
  • research
 
 

Annotations

Map of annotation terms and the values which to include.  

Format

{"TermID": ["TermValue"], "TermID": ["TermValue", "TermValue",…]}

Multiple term values are treated as ORS, while multiple term IDs are treaded as ANDS.


Example

{"1": ["2"], "22": ["24", "25"]}

This will include observations where:

Life Stage is Adult (ID 1, Value 2) AND

Evidence of Presence is Organism (22, Value 24) OR Scat (22, Value 25).

 

Reference Guide
Term ID 1: Life Stage (2=Adult, 3=Teneral, 4=Pupa, 5=Nymph, 6=Larva, 7=Egg, 8=Juvenile, 16=SubimagoBody)
Term ID 9: Sex (10=Female, 11=Male)
Term ID 12: Plant Phenology (13=Flowering, 14=Fruiting, 15=Flower Budding, 21=No Evidence of Flowering)
Term ID 17: Alive or Dead (18=Alive, 19=Dead, 20=Cannot Be Determined)
Term ID 22: Evidence of Presence (23=Feather, 24=Organism, 25=Scat, 26=Track, 27=Bone, 28=Molt, 29=Gall, 30=Egg, 31=Hair, 32=Leafmine, 35=Construction)
 
 

Bounding box

Specify a bounding box for the search area in the format:

[ne_latitude, ne_longitude, sw_latitude, sw_longitude]

 
 

5. Enter the event type ID to use in EarthRanger.  

6. Configure a string prefix for observed species when creating events. 

7. Configure the number of days of data to load from iNaturalist on the connection's first run.

8. Specify whether to include photos from iNaturalist observations.

9. Select your Organization.

10. Enter a name for this Connection (e.g., “iNaturalist - AccountName”)

11. Click Next

12. Select a Destination. Please consult our guides.
 

Next Steps

EarthRanger

Coming soon..

 
 

SMART Connect

Coming soon..

 
 

Screenshots

 

Note on Latency

The time it takes for data to appear in your destination system depends on several factors, such as latency introduced by the source, network conditions, and intermediary systems. While these factors may vary, Gundi typically checks for available data at scheduled intervals (approximately every 10 minutes).

If data is not available in your system after this interval, please check the source of the data for its availability. If the issue persists, contact our Support team for assistance.

 

Tags: Pull Integration, Events, Data Provider, Sightings, Events
Last Update: Sep 4, 2025