🦋 iNaturalist Scraper

Whether you're 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 the world's largest citizen science platform.

The iNaturalist Scraper collects wildlife observations with species names, locations, coordinates, photos, observers, quality grades, and identification data. Filter by taxon, place, date range, quality grade, and more.

✨ What Does It Do

• 🐾 Species observations - collect scientific names, common names, and taxonomic ranks for observed organisms
• 📍 Location data - extract GPS coordinates, place names, and geographic information for each sighting
• 📸 Photo URLs - get medium-resolution photo URLs for every observation
• 🏅 Quality grades - filter by research grade, needs ID, or casual observations
• 📅 Date filtering - search by date range to track seasonal patterns or recent sightings
• 🔬 Identification data - see agreement and disagreement counts for community identifications

🔧 Input

• Taxon Name - search for a specific species or group (e.g., 'whale', 'butterfly', 'eagle')
• Max Items - how many observations to collect (free users get 10 items, paid users up to 1,000,000)
• Quality Grade - filter by Research Grade, Needs ID, or Casual
• Place ID - filter by iNaturalist place ID (e.g., 1 for United States, 6 for Australia)
• Start Date - filter observations from this date (format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• End Date - filter observations up to this date (format: YYYY-MM-DD)
• Has Photos - only return observations that include photos
• Order By - sort by creation date, observation date, or votes

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

📊 Output

Each observation record includes up to 17+ data fields. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Field	Description
🔗 uri	Observation page on iNaturalist
🐾 speciesGuess	Observer's species guess
🔬 taxonName	Scientific name
🏷️ taxonCommonName	Common name
📊 taxonRank	Taxonomic rank (species, genus, etc.)
📅 observedOn	Date of observation
📍 latitude	GPS latitude
📍 longitude	GPS longitude
🌍 placeGuess	Place description
🏅 qualityGrade	Quality grade (research, needs_id, casual)
✅ numIdentificationAgreements	Community ID agreements
📸 photoUrls	Observation photos
👤 userName	Observer's name

{
    "id": 12345678,
    "speciesGuess": "Humpback Whale",
    "taxonName": "Megaptera novaeangliae",
    "taxonCommonName": "Humpback Whale",
    "taxonRank": "species",
    "observedOn": "2026-03-15",
    "createdAt": "2026-03-16T10:30:00+00:00",
    "latitude": 21.2743,
    "longitude": -157.8234,
    "placeGuess": "Maui, HI, US",
    "qualityGrade": "research",
    "numIdentificationAgreements": 3,
    "numIdentificationDisagreements": 0,
    "photoUrls": ["https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/..."],
    "userName": "nature_observer",
    "userLogin": "nature_observer",
    "uri": "https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/12345678",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-04-09T12:00:00.000Z"
}

💎 Why Choose the iNaturalist Scraper?

Feature	Our Tool	Manual iNaturalist Browsing
Batch collection	✅ Up to 1M observations	❌ Browse one at a time
GPS coordinates	✅ Lat/lng included	⚠️ Map only
Date range filtering	✅ Custom start/end dates	⚠️ Limited filtering
Structured output	✅ JSON, CSV, Excel	❌ Web pages only
Automated scheduling	✅ Daily/weekly monitoring	❌ Manual visits
Photo URLs	✅ Direct download links	⚠️ Click each observation

📋 How to Use

1. Sign Up - Create a free account w/ $5 credit
2. Configure - set your taxon, location, date range, and how many observations you want
3. Run It - click "Start" and get structured wildlife data in seconds

No coding, no setup, no manual browsing required.

🎯 Business Use Cases

• 🔬 Researchers - collect species observation data with GPS coordinates for ecological studies
• 🌿 Conservation orgs - monitor endangered species sightings across regions and time periods
• 🎓 Educators - build biodiversity databases for classrooms and field studies
• 📊 Data analysts - study species distribution patterns, seasonal migration, and population trends
• 🗺️ GIS professionals - map wildlife observations with precise latitude and longitude data
• 📱 App developers - build nature identification or wildlife tracking apps with real observation data

❓ FAQ

🦋 What is iNaturalist? iNaturalist is a citizen science platform with over 100 million observations from millions of contributors worldwide. It covers all living organisms, from insects to whales.

🏅 What do the quality grades mean? "Research Grade" means the community has agreed on the species identification. "Needs ID" means more identifications are needed. "Casual" covers observations that may lack photos or location data.

📍 What Place IDs can I use? Common Place IDs include: 1 (United States), 6712 (Canada), 6 (Australia), 7161 (United Kingdom). You can find Place IDs on the iNaturalist website.

📅 Can I filter by date range? Yes. Use the Start Date and End Date fields in YYYY-MM-DD format to narrow observations to a specific time window.

📸 Are photos included? Yes. When observations have photos, the scraper returns medium-resolution photo URLs that you can download directly.

🔗 Integrate iNaturalist Scraper with any app

• Make - Automate wildlife data workflows
• Zapier - Get alerts for new species sightings
• Slack - Get notified in your team channel
• Google Drive - Export observation data to spreadsheets
• Webhooks - Trigger actions when runs complete

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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

⚠️ 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.