What is #InverteFest?

#InverteFest is a periodic online event where we invite you to celebrate the overlooked invertebrate fauna around you and share the joys of discovery online.

The hashtag was conceived when Franz Anthony and Maureen Berg went looking for bugs and slugs in Bali. Kelly Brenner, stuck in Seattle, wondered if we could invite our online friends to look for bugs and slugs together in spirit, even though we’re physically far apart. Besides, what may be an everyday creature to you is often exciting to someone who lives half the world away!

When?

#InverteFest happens three times a year:

• The last 7 days of December, so you could bring your family along on a critter-spotting adventure. If you hate your family, we just gave you an excuse to avoid them. You’re welcome.
• The last 7 days of April, which coincides with Northern Hemisphere spring.
• The last 7 days of August, because it’s sandwiched right between April and December.

Who can participate?

Everyone! If you have access to social media, join us during the dates announced and share photos or videos of your local invertebrate discoveries using the hashtag #InverteFest.

However, note that #InverteFest primarily happens on Bluesky now where you can follow the InverteFest feed. If you’re not on Bluesky or other social media platforms, find a friend or family member who could post on your behalf. You can also follow our official InverteFest Twitter account, which we still update at the beginning of the event, but no longer monitor.

What counts as an invertebrate?

Any animal without a backbone! This includes insects, arachnids, slugs and snails, microscopic life like tardigrades or rotifers, marine life like clams, crabs, jellyfish and pond like life water boatmen, daphnia and water striders, and many others.

How do I participate?

• Find invertebrates
• Share observations
• Interact

Where do I look?

Practically everywhere! Invertebrates can be found on your roof and in your basement, in your yard and at the park. Look under rocks and logs, in ponds and creeks, tidepools and on the bark of trees. Literally, leave no stone unturned. (Just be sure to put the stone back for the invertebrates!)

Bonus: Contribute to community science!

If you have an iNaturalist account, join the project page to contribute to community science! Don’t forget that you need to manually click the join button to be counted.

Join the 25-31 December Project on iNaturalist

Ask Franz on Bluesky to get the up-to-date iNaturalist link to join the fun.

New to iNaturalist?

iNaturalist is an app/website that lets people record wildlife observations and helps you identify them using their algorithm and a community of enthusiasts and real scientists. Your observations will help scientists map out where the animals live and their seasonal abundance. You might even document never before seen behaviors. Or even better: new, unknown species!

iNaturalist also has a map showing where the contributors upload from. Each season, we try to get as many countries/regions involved as possible. To incentivize this, whoever becomes the first person to upload from a country/region gets a bad animal doodle from Franz (or our other volunteers, depending on the situation).

Here’s a handy guide on how to use the iNaturalist app on your phone or the website through your computer.

https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started