Citizen Science Apps

iNaturalist began as the Master’s final project of Ken-ichi Ueda, Nate Agrin and Jessica Kline at UC Berkeley’s School of Information in 2008. It is now one of the most popular nature apps – in the world!

You can use iNaturalist to record any of your own observations of living things. Once uploaded you can get help with identification from other users, or you yourself can help to identify other people’s observations.

Once an observation is correctly identified by several people, it becomes “Research-Grade” information that can be used by scientists for research.

You might be able to help with identifying new species, finding distributions of living things in new habitats or help confirm that a particular species is happy and well in the habitat it’s in.

Visit inaturalist.ala.org.au to find out more information and download the app.

Australia has over 245 known species of frog, almost all of which are found nowhere else in the world. Some species are flourishing, but others have declined dramatically since the 1980s, and four have become extinct.

FrogID is a national citizen science project run by the Australian Museum that is helping us learn more about what is happening to Australia’s frogs. All around the country, people are recording frog calls with the free FrogID app for our frog call experts to listen and identify.

By recording a frog call with the FrogID app, you provide a unique, time-stamped and geo-referenced audio recording that allows scientists to understand and conserve Australia's unique frog species.

Help our scientists – There’s no way scientists can count Australia’s frogs on their own. That’s where you come in. With FrogID, citizen scientists just like you can help record frog calls and put more frogs on the map!

Visit frogid.net.au to find out more information and download the app

Australia's unique freshwater turtles are in crisis - their numbers are declining and your help is needed to record where you see turtles in your local area.

TurtleSAT is a Citizen Science mapping tool produced by the 1 Million Turtles Community Conservation program. By mapping the location of freshwater turtles in waterways and wetlands across the country, scientists can better understand how to protect them.

You can record whenever you see freshwater turtles, their nests or evidence of predation on turtles by pests such as introduced foxes.

Visit turtlesat.org.au to find out more information and download the app.

Every city in the world has a unique litter fingerprint. This fingerprint provides both the source of the problem and the path to the solution.

Litterati enables you to take a picture of litter before you pick it up. Each picture tells a story, it says what you picked up, the geotag of where it was picked up and the timestamp when it was picked up. These pictures form a map of data that can be used to make a difference.

For example, San Francisco America wanted to know what percentage of their litter was from cigarette butts. Within 4 days they collected 5,000 photos and this data was used in court to increase the tax on cigarette sales. The revenue generated was then used to clean up the city.

Another example was a group of American 5^th graders who picked up over 1000 pieces of litter in their schoolyard. The data showed that the most common type of litter was the plastic straw wrappers from their own cafeteria. So, at the request of the students, the school eliminated the straws.

You too can be the catalyst for change and advocate for a litter free world.

Visit litterati.org to find out more information and download the app.

Play the world's first mobile game that takes you outdoors to discover, map and ultimately help protect life on our planet. Your sightings contribute to real research and conservation. 

Start by getting outdoors to capture (just with photos!) as much life as you can. You’ll score gold for every sighting, with extra gold if you can identify what you’ve found. And even more gold if you can find something rare or interesting.

• Climb the leader board as you build your own collection of species - birds, insects, spiders, reptiles, anything.
• Beat your friends in winner-takes-all 'Challenges'.
• Go on a 'Quest' to add something new to your collection.

Visit questagame.com to find out more information and download the app.

Platypus are unlike any other animal found on earth, but due to habitat destruction, bushfires, drought and pollution this Aussie icon is threatened with extinction.

By mapping where platypus live we can track - and then prevent - declines in numbers.

That’s where you can help. There are places within the platypus’ range where sightings have never been recorded, or where they haven’t been seen for a long time. These are our biggest gaps in knowledge.

You can help researchers fill these gaps by visiting these priority areas, look for platypuses, and upload your findings.

Visit acf.org.au/platy-project to find out more information and platy-project.acf.org.au to record your sightings.

The Aussie Bird Count is an activity for all-ages that involves observing and counting the birds that live near you – where that’s in your garden, a local park, a beach or even your town centre. By telling us about the birds you’ve seen within a 20 minute period, you will help BirdLife Australia development an understanding of local birds whilst getting to know the wildlife at your doorstep!

The Aussie Bird Count only takes place once per year in National Bird Week (starts the 3^rd Monday of October).

Visit aussiebirdcount.org.au to find out more information and download the app.

More than three quarters of the world’s food crops rely, to some extent, on insect pollination for yield or quality. Perhaps more importantly, more than 95 per cent of plant species need animal pollinators to help them reproduce, which drives biodiversity and ecosystem health.

Yet there’s very little information available about the vast majority of natural pollinator species, which includes more than 20,000 species of bees, along with thousands of species of flies, butterflies, moths, wasps, beetles, and vertebrate animals including bats, possums and birds.

The Australian Pollinator Count is a long-term project to monitor the status and trends of insect pollinator populations.

Taking part is quick and easy. You simply need to observe some flowers for 10 minutes, record the pollinators you see and register your results.

The Australian Pollinator Count takes places once per year in Australian Pollinator Week (starts the 2^nd Saturday of November).

Visit australianpollinatorweek.org.au to find out more information and download the app.