The City Nature Challenge is back April 25th – 28th!
The City Nature Challenge is an awesome opportunity to contribute to citizen science and get out and enjoy Calgary’s nature! This is the 7th year that Calgary is participating, and the 10 year anniversary of the event overall.
What is the City Nature Challenge?
From the City Nature Challenge website:
Started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event, motivating people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal.
Calgary will compete and collaborate with over 500 cities from around the world to document urban biodiversity like never before. Cities will compete to see which can make the most observations, document the most species, and engage the most people.
How can I participate in the City Nature Challenge in Calgary?
Here in Calgary and its surrounding area, a variety of events will take place where folks can join in the action. A list of events will be posted on the City Nature YYC website. If you are hosting an event, please tell us about it so we can add it to the list! If you’re a Nature Calgary member and you’re interested in leading a walk or field trip, please fill out this form to let us know. All Nature Calgary-hosted events will be posted on Eventbrite as well as here on our website.
You’re also welcome to participate on your own! You can venture out into the wild and take photos or audio recordings of plants and animals, and then upload them to iNaturalist.ca or the iNaturalist app. It’s easy to contribute to the City Nature Challenge and boost Calgary in the competition!
When is the City Nature Challenge happening?
It runs from Friday, April 25th to Monday, April 28th. Observations can be uploaded from April 29th to May 4th, and the results are announced on May 5th.
Where can I learn more?
Head on over to City Nature YYC for all the details. And check back here on Nature Calgary’s site for all the events we’ll be hosting!