🦋 iNaturalist Scraper - Wildlife Observations

🚀 Collect wildlife observations from the world's largest citizen science platform. Get species names, locations, GPS coordinates, photos, observers, quality grades, and identification data from 100+ million observations.

🕒 Last updated: 2026-04-23

Whether you are a wildlife researcher tracking species sightings, a conservation organization monitoring biodiversity, or an educator building nature databases, this tool makes it easy to collect structured observation data from iNaturalist.

The iNaturalist Scraper delivers scientific names, common names, taxonomic ranks, GPS coordinates, place descriptions, observation dates, quality grades (research, needs ID, casual), identification agreement counts, photo URLs, and observer details. Filter by taxon, place, date range, quality grade, and photo availability.

Target Audience	Wildlife researchers, conservation organizations, educators, data analysts, GIS professionals, app developers
Primary Use Cases	Ecological studies, species monitoring, biodiversity mapping, seasonal pattern analysis, nature education, wildlife tracking apps

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📋 What Does It Do

• Collects scientific names, common names, and taxonomic ranks for observed organisms
• Extracts GPS coordinates, place names, and geographic information for each sighting
• Gets medium-resolution photo URLs for every observation
• Filters by Research Grade, Needs ID, or Casual quality grades
• Searches by date range to track seasonal patterns or recent sightings
• Includes identification agreement and disagreement counts from the community

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🎬 How to Use - Full Demo

🚧 Demo video coming soon.

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⚙️ Input

Field	Type	Description	Default
Max Items	integer	Free users: limited to 10 items. Paid users: up to 1,000,000	10
Taxon Name	string	Search for a species or group (e.g., whale, butterfly, eagle)	whale
Quality Grade	string	Research Grade, Needs ID, or Casual	research
Place ID	integer	iNaturalist place ID (e.g., 1 for US, 6 for Australia)	-
Start Date	string	Filter from this date (YYYY-MM-DD)	-
End Date	string	Filter to this date (YYYY-MM-DD)	-
Has Photos	boolean	Only return observations with photos	false
Order By	string	Sort by creation date, observation date, or votes	created_at

Example 1:

{
    "taxonName": "whale",
    "maxItems": 50,
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "placeId": 1,
    "hasPhotos": true
}

Example 2:

{
    "taxonName": "butterfly",
    "maxItems": 100,
    "startDate": "2026-01-01",
    "endDate": "2026-03-31"
}

⚠️ Place IDs are numeric identifiers. Common IDs: 1 (United States), 6712 (Canada), 6 (Australia), 7161 (United Kingdom). Find IDs on the iNaturalist website.

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📊 Output

🧾 Schema: id, uri, speciesGuess, taxonName, taxonCommonName, taxonRank, observedOn, createdAt, latitude, longitude, placeGuess, qualityGrade, numIdentificationAgreements, numIdentificationDisagreements, photoUrls, userName, userLogin, scrapedAt

📦 Sample 1:

{
    "id": 12345678,
    "speciesGuess": "Humpback Whale",
    "taxonName": "Megaptera novaeangliae",
    "taxonCommonName": "Humpback Whale",
    "taxonRank": "species",
    "observedOn": "2026-03-15",
    "latitude": 21.2743,
    "longitude": -157.8234,
    "placeGuess": "Maui, HI, US",
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "numIdentificationAgreements": 3,
    "photoUrls": ["https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/..."],
    "userName": "nature_observer",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-09T12:00:00.000Z"
}

📦 Sample 2:

{
    "id": 23456789,
    "speciesGuess": "Monarch Butterfly",
    "taxonName": "Danaus plexippus",
    "taxonCommonName": "Monarch",
    "taxonRank": "species",
    "observedOn": "2026-02-20",
    "latitude": 36.7783,
    "longitude": -119.4179,
    "placeGuess": "Pacific Grove, CA, US",
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "numIdentificationAgreements": 5,
    "photoUrls": ["https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/..."],
    "userName": "butterfly_watcher",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-09T12:00:00.000Z"
}

📦 Sample 3:

{
    "id": 34567890,
    "speciesGuess": "Bald Eagle",
    "taxonName": "Haliaeetus leucocephalus",
    "taxonCommonName": "Bald Eagle",
    "taxonRank": "species",
    "observedOn": "2026-01-10",
    "latitude": 47.6062,
    "longitude": -122.3321,
    "placeGuess": "Seattle, WA, US",
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "numIdentificationAgreements": 4,
    "photoUrls": ["https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/..."],
    "userName": "eagle_eye",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-09T12:00:00.000Z"
}

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✨ Why Choose This Tool?

Feature	Details
100+ million observations	Access the world's largest citizen science wildlife database
GPS coordinates	Precise latitude and longitude for every observation
Quality grades	Filter by Research Grade for verified species identifications
Photo URLs	Direct download links for observation photos
Flexible filtering	Taxon, place, date range, quality grade, and photo availability
Community data	Identification agreement and disagreement counts
Scheduled monitoring	Track new sightings daily or weekly

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📈 How It Compares

Capability	This Tool	Other Solutions
Batch collection	Up to 1,000,000 observations per run	Browse one at a time
GPS coordinates	Latitude and longitude included	Map view only
Date filtering	Custom start and end dates	Limited filtering
Structured output	JSON, CSV, Excel	Web pages only
Photo URLs	Direct download links	Click each observation
Automation	Daily/weekly scheduled runs	Manual visits required

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🚀 How to Use

1. Sign Up - Create a free account w/ $5 credit (takes 2 minutes)
2. Find the Tool - Search for "iNaturalist Scraper" in the Apify Store
3. Set Input - Configure your search filters using the simple form
4. Run It - Click "Start" and let it collect your data
5. Download Data - Get your results in the "Dataset" tab as CSV, Excel, or JSON

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💼 Business Use Cases

Audience	How They Use It
Researchers	Collect species observation data with GPS coordinates for ecological studies and population monitoring
Conservation Orgs	Monitor endangered species sightings across regions and track seasonal migration patterns
Educators	Build biodiversity databases for classrooms and field studies with real observation data
GIS Professionals	Map wildlife observations with precise latitude and longitude for spatial analysis projects

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🌟 Beyond business use cases

Data like this powers more than commercial workflows. The same structured records support research, education, civic projects, and personal initiatives.

🎓 Research and academia Empirical datasets for papers, thesis work, and coursework Longitudinal studies tracking changes across snapshots Reproducible research with cited, versioned data pulls Classroom exercises on data analysis and ethical scraping	🎨 Personal and creative Side projects, portfolio demos, and indie app launches Data visualizations, dashboards, and infographics Content research for bloggers, YouTubers, and podcasters Hobbyist collections and personal trackers
🤝 Non-profit and civic Transparency reporting and accountability projects Advocacy campaigns backed by public-interest data Community-run databases for local issues Investigative journalism on public records	🧪 Experimentation Prototype AI and machine-learning pipelines with real data Validate product-market hypotheses before engineering spend Train small domain-specific models on niche corpora Test dashboard concepts with live input

🤖 Ask an AI assistant about this scraper

Open a ready-to-send prompt about this ParseForge actor in the AI of your choice:

• 💬 ChatGPT
• 🧠 Claude
• 🔍 Perplexity
• 🅒 Copilot

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

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🔌 Automating Your Workflow

Schedule this tool to run daily, weekly, or monthly through the Apify platform. Set it and forget it. Your data will be waiting in your dataset every time. Combine with webhooks to trigger downstream actions whenever a run completes.

🔌 Integrate with Your Favorite Apps

• Make - Build automated workflows
• Zapier - Connect 5,000+ apps
• Slack - Get instant notifications
• Airbyte - Sync to data warehouses
• GitHub - Version control integration
• Google Drive - Export to spreadsheets

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🆘 Need Help?

• Check the FAQ section above for common questions
• Visit the Apify documentation for platform guides
• Contact us at Tally contact form

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⚠️ Disclaimer: This Actor is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to iNaturalist, the California Academy of Sciences, or the National Geographic Society. It accesses only publicly available data.