Recent events surrounding the consumption of death cap mushrooms have ignited a debate about the ethics of sharing location data on the popular citizen science platform, iNaturalist. As the platform gains popularity for tracking biodiversity through user-submitted observations, concerns have arisen over how to balance public safety with the protection of rare species.
iNaturalist lets users upload their observations — like those of fungi — to a public database where they can instantly be seen by others. Thanks to the efforts of citizen scientists, Fungimap has mapped more than 120,000 fungi observations. This wonderful project is the unsung hero behind helping researchers and conservationists on iNaturalist. These recent developments have left mycologists and users alike in an intense discussion. They face criticism about the risks that they pose by providing precise locations of dangerous fungi.
iNaturalist and Its Role in Conservation
Because iNaturalist is a project that works in concert with museums and collections-based organisms like the Atlas of Living Australia and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Observations marked as “research grade” feed into these databases, which are slowly but surely becoming more important for conservation, restoration, and land-management efforts. By the 2025 season, we had introduced specific initiatives to address the issue. Armed with the iNaturalist data, we were able to safely eradicate almost 900 death cap mushrooms from several locations across the city of Canberra.
Dr. Michael Priest, president of Fungimap, urges transparency when it comes to sharing information on fungi. He argues that it is fundamental to their public safety mission, particularly with respect to hazardous species.
“If people aren’t sharing information, then it’s very difficult to keep people safe,” – Dr. Michael Priest
Fungimap is responsible for about a quarter of all death cap mushroom observations reported on iNaturalist in Australia. This massive dataset provides a snapshot of just how widespread these potentially deadly mushrooms have become. It’s been a big booster of training initiatives that help educate the public and build awareness.
The Ethical Dilemma of Location Sharing
The horrifying and tragic recent case involving Erin Patterson raised alarm bells. Even more folks were concerned by the risks that would come with revealing exact locations of toxic fungi. Patterson started seeing death cap mushrooms on iNaturalist. This tragic incident has now put the platform’s role in informing versus misinforming users in the spotlight.
In discussions held at the recent annual general meeting of the Australian Mycological Society, participants considered how to best manage sensitive observations. We recommend people to use iNaturalist’s “obscure” feature, said vice president of Fungimap Jasmin Packer. This new feature is particularly important because it gives users the ability to make specific observations public while hiding their exact locations.
“You’ll be able to see the record, but the location will be fuzzy,” – Jasmin Packer
This recommendation is intended to avoid discouraging community engagement while putting safety first. Though Dr. Priest thought there was merit to protecting records from the public’s eye, she cautioned against making all records invisible.
“I spoke out strongly against hiding records because I believe iNaturalist … is also a very good educational tool,” – Dr. Priest
He stressed that hiding content would erode user trust, making it harder to achieve our shared goal of fostering knowledge-sharing about biodiversity.
The Future of Fungi Observations
This ongoing discussion around iNaturalist’s new feature implementation points to a larger conversation that’s crucial to the future of protecting people and plants. Others call for harsher measures to conceal where these perilous creatures are lurking. Others argue that full disguise might prevent critical educational opportunities and public awareness advocacy from taking root.
Both Dr. Priest and Packer agree that deeper conversations like this one are essential. Like you, they’re seeking to strike the right balance between a focus on safety first and achievement of educational objectives.
“We need to have some roundtable discussions around how best to deal with that,” – Jasmin Packer
Each year, iNaturalist is adding more users such as mycologists who contribute to the value of all independently verified observations. It’s up against the need to protect individuals while fostering an overall culture of experimentation and exchange.
