Updates to iNaturalist "locals" and "tourists"
Back in 2023, I downloaded every research grade observation from iNaturalist and made a map that classified each one as a “local” or a “tourist,” depending on the length of the observer’s history in that area.
iNaturalist has only grown since, and updating the data for 2025 was long overdue! Dario shared it in the iNat forum earlier this week, and this wave of interest was good motivation.
As of this week, the data has been updated to use observations until August 5, 2025. Thank you to past me for taking detailed notes about the data processing and deployment steps.
Along the way I also added a new feature — statistics on observations over time to complement the map.
Observations over time
The data contains rich time detail that I never tried to represent in the map visualization directly. For this update, I added a synchronized stacked bar chart that shows the observations per month for your current view.
When zoomed out, observations accumulate into aggregate clusters that don’t contain detailed time information. Because of this limitation, the stats view only works while quite zoomed in. Through careful tippecanoe massaging, zoom 11 and above contain exclusively raw points to enable this feature.
Some things to see in the time series
The growth of iNaturalist in the UK, and seasonal patterns in London. Note that the seasonal pattern is stronger for “tourists” than for “locals”!
Palm Springs, California has the opposite seasonal variation.
The overall growth of tourism in Colombia is apparent, especially in cities like Bogotá.
As is the impact of COVID-19 on tourism in Costa Rica, here at Lake Arenal.
Observations on iNat forums
It’s been great to see what other people notice about the map in their iNaturalist posts.
Vireya looked in Australia:
Tom Wainwright wondered about the tendency of rural observers to travel geographically farther, and if that could explain some of the urban/rural correlation with local/tourist he saw in Oregon.
User keirmorse noticed that the main official trails at Pinnacles National Park were mainly “tourist” observations, while the backcountry areas were almost exclusively “local.”
Still other iNaturalist forum users discussed finding their own observations on the map, seeing where others in their community were exploring nature, and the map’s utility as a biodiversity “hotspot” finder. I’m really grateful to folks in the iNat forum for sharing how they use the tool and what they noticed.
If you have any questions or thoughts, please reach out to me over email.