GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION OF CROCODILIANS REVEALED BY CITIZEN SCIENTISTS

The conservation of crocodilians requires collaborative efforts on data collection, such as alliances between scientists and citizens. Citizen science emerges as an effective tool, engaging a larger audience than conventional scientific data collection methods. We compiled data of crocodilians recorded by citizen scientists through the iNaturalist platform on a global scale to evaluate the number of observations of crocodilians across families, genera, and species, geographic distribution and the number of observations and users of iNaturalist over time. The final dataset comprised 63,530 observations from 21,885 observers, documenting 27 crocodilian species from nine genera and three families. Notably, the American Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis; n = 40,473; 64%) and the American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus; n = 6,209; 10%) had the highest number of observations. Regarding conservation status, 11 (41%) species are threatened with extinction according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, with seven (26%) classified on the Red List as Critically Endangered (CR), one (4%) as Endangered (EN) and three (11%) as Vulnerable (VU). The dataset included observations from 87 countries, with the USA (n = 41,824; 66%) contributing the highest number of observations and Brazil and Colombia (n = 6 species; 22%, each) contributing the highest number of species. Temporal analysis revealed that the number of observations increased in 2016 (n = 2,365) and reached a mean of 7,758 observations per year from 2016 to 2022. Our study demonstrated that data derived from citizen scientists provides valuable insights into the spatial and temporal distribution of crocodilians globally.