Creek Critters

Audubon Naturalist Society

About this app

Use Creek Critters to:
• Find the tiny critters (macroinvertebrates) that live in your stream
• Identify the critters using a visual key with line drawings and photos
• Automatically create a report on your stream’s health based on your findings
• Map your stream report

A tool for education and community engagement!

Ratings and reviews

A fascinating app built upon a simple idea: by identifying macroinvertebrates (“Critters”) in your local waterway, you can determine water quality. Macros are small! But the app’s beautiful line drawings and helpful photos, plus its intuitive logic flow, will lead you towards a visual i.d. of the species in your sample dish. Has six legs? Two distinct tails? Well, that narrows down prospective species, and you keep going from there until you have a positive i.d. Identify enough species and you’ll have a general picture of the quality of the water the critters live in. To me, probably the coolest aspect of the app is that it is leverages technology to lead one back to the natural sciences. Knowledge is power. I hadn’t known my local creek was so full of critters, nor had I been aware that my local creek needs help. The critters told me that.

Don't recall ever seeing ads inside this app which is a HUGE plus. App is very simple to use and very informative of different wildlife you can find while also providing identification pictures of said wildlife!

A fantastic tool for citizen science and more experienced stream monitors alike! I work with kids and families who daily traverse our neighborhood stream that suffers greatly but often looks "clean" (especially after a clean-up). After learning how to identify macros, many have become aware of the poor water quality and of the cumulative downstream impacts of human behaviors. Creek Critters is intuitive and engaging to use, enabling users to learn while logging data on their streams' health.