It’s a Bioblitz Bonanza: City Nature Challenge 2024
The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge (CNC) is a global bioblitz event that happens once a year where cities from around the world flood iNaturalist with observations of nature in green spaces in and around their cities. The first CNC, in 2016, was an eight-day competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco where they made 20 000 observations with 1000+ observers (citynaturechallenge.org/about). Since going international in 2018, it has grown exponentially with new cities entering every year. This year we had 690 cities, 51 countries, 2.4M observations, 65.7K species and 83.5K observers!
I first heard about the iNaturalist CNC in 2022 with a group of other students from the Science department at my university. We all went to the Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve and joined Johannesburg CNC: 2022 (City Nature Challenge 2022: Joburg iNaturalist). I set myself a goal of 50 observations and I was able to double it, ranking fourth in my city, because I got my friends and family to join me! I knew after that year no matter where in the country I was, I would always make sure to compete in the CNC every year.
Esi Bossman participating in the City Nature Challenge in Skukuza.
Three CNC’s later and I was fortunate enough to be part of a team coordinating and organising the CNC bioblitz for the Lowveld, which took place from 26-29 April 2024. I registered to become a CNC city organiser because I wanted people in Skukuza to be able to make observations on iNaturalist – because we see such weird and wonderful things here – and they count towards this bioblitz event. This was my first year being a city organiser with other Citizen Scientists for the Mbombela/Kruger area (City Nature Challenge 2024: Mbombela · iNaturalist). After a busy few days of racking up observations Mbombela had 1 252 observations and 570 species from 48 observers. It is quite exciting to note that first place went to Erin Crowhurst, the Large Mammal Ecologist Intern in Kruger with 308 observations! Three of the top five spots went to SANParks staff and a neighbouring Kruger lodge:
- Erin Crowhurst (Scientific Services): 308 observations
- Esi Bossman (Scientific Services): 211 observations
- Megan Fisher (Burchell’s Bush Lodge): 138 observations
- Brendan Cottrell (Veterinary Wildlife Services): 50 observations
A caterpillar photographed by Esi in Skukuza during the City Nature Challenge.
Next year I hope to get more SANParks staff living in and around our national parks onto iNaturalist and recording the wildlife around them, because just one observation goes a long way!
You don’t only need to use iNaturalist during the bioblitz! You can use it everyday wherever you are. Snap a picture of an interesting insect, a large tree or a perching bird on your walk and upload it!
A “Coppers” butterfly (Genus Aloeides) photographed by Erin Crowhurst in Skukuza during the City Nature Challenge.
The next upcoming big bioblitz event will be the Global Southern Bioblitz (GSB) from 20-23 September 2024 (GSB 2024 | Southern BioBlitz (greatsouthernbioblitz.org)). The focus of this bioblitz event is to document the diversity of living species within local government areas across the Southern Hemisphere during the vibrant spring season. I have the exciting privilege to be the GSB coordinator for the Lowveld this year, so watch this space!
Hope to see you out and about soon, happy observing Citizen Scientists!
