Last year, 20,000 observations of types of Christchurch were carried out during the annual City Nature Challenge, an opportunity for everyone to get involved in the biological diversity. It is back this month.
There is also the biological diversity on the gray autumn weekends in the suburb. You only need the time to search for it: to name the bird that flutter through your garden or identifies a spider that dangles on the corner of a shed or a foamy braid that grows over a park bench.
Citizen Science is the process in which people in the surrounding area of information about what is around them is collected without being specially trained experts. It is the focus of the City Nature Challenge 2025, which will take place in New Zealand in April. Wellington, Christchurch and New Plymouth take part, with city councilors or local biodiversity groups involving the residents. It is a nice memory that the fun of exploration is not limited to people who have the budget to travel over school holidays or long weekends, but is accessible to everyone.
The City Nature Challenge takes place via Innaturalist, a website and an app that enables the public to identify types in the wild. The part “challenge” comes via via Ranking Viewing of the number of observations and types per city. Intoterist was used with location data and many experts who check the results to discover Moth types that were previously considered extinct and can help around the world to find out which species are in an area when Approval of resource acceptance.
While inflaturalist observations can be carried out anywhere, the City Nature Challenge emphasizes the urban biodiversity. It doesn't matter that you do not research a tropical rainforest or encounter penguin colonies in the Ross -Sea: even on a cold autumn weekend in the city there are biological diversity around you.
“It is a global revolution in biology all over the world” In 2022. Sullivan, a lecturer in ecology at Lincoln University, had some of the most observations in the challenge of last year. He discovered 720 species over four days. On the map.
This year he has a free walk from the Sign of the Takahē In the Port Hills to the botanical gardens, with stops to notice nature on the way, a part of a series of events encouraged people to get involved. If their interests tend to watch miniature things, on the Climate Action Campus in Avonside floor scientists will be given to demonstrate how they find animals that live in the ground. Morganists Merien, a scientist who works in the Canterbury Museum, organizes drop-in sessions in libraries with living insects and specimens that use people to use, inauralists.
The challenge is at the end of the school holidays and open to everyone – not just for children or ecologists. In the seasons, however, the incorrectist can be a particularly good activity for parents who want to learn more about the environment with their children.
However, it is particularly motivating to record species observations at the same time like others. In Christchurch, more than 20,000 observations were made from different species during the City Challenge of last year, and more than 2,245 different species were discovered.
“Every new observation paints a picture of what lives here in ōtautahi Christchurch, and the more we know, the more we understand,” says Sarah Maneklow, a community partnership guard in the city council of Christchurch.
The observations collected during the event are a valuable reflection of the environmental conditions. In 2023, more than 30 mushrooms were observed, with their spindling white structures on the ground different. In 2024, very few mushrooms were observed and no basket mushrooms were observed. “The large signal that emerges from the data from 2024 was how nature reacted in the long, hot, dry summer that we had,” says Maneklow. The most frequently discovered species were Tī Kouka, cabbage trees, their distinctive sprouty leaves easy to identify and log.
The competitive element for the challenge is a helpful impetus to bring people out of the doors. Cities also compete against each other: Christchurch's 20,000 observations in 2024 defeated Wellington's 18,000 observations, although Wellington, although Wellington won the year before. Even if you are not in a city that participates, your observations can expect the total number of points from Aotearoa.
The prize is of course the satisfaction of contributing to science and the living being around you to be aware of you, but Maneklow has some tips for people who want to increase their numbers. “Coastal rocks are often overlooked, but are good places to look for animals. Areas of long grass often accommodate many invertebrates, so that good places are also the edges of parks and in the red zone in which we let nature do – especially in the vicinity of Bexley and Waikakariki Horeshoe -See,” he says.
The city council of Christchurch and his park of Rangers try to improve biodiversity Tree planting and pest control. But the City Nature Challenge is a way to invite people to do so Improve the biological diversity in your own backyardsto. Locals like Harakeke and Kōwhai who offer birds food is a good choice. Plants such as Kānuka and Mikimiki offer a safe coverage for lizards and Mow the lawn in faster lines means that the grass is longer on the side – more habitat for insects.
“Biodiversity is not just for the experts,” says Maneklow. With the City Nature Challenge, everyone can find something astonishing and lively.