The DGR is participating under City of Tshwane in the City Nature Challenge from 30 April – 4 May 2021 . This international Challenge is organised by Citizen Science teams at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. The purpose of the challenge is to get people back to nature, invigorate a passion and love for the environment while participating in the discovery and recording of species within the boundaries of the City of Tshwane. The idea is for cities to take part and as many citizens as possible to take photos of wild and natural animals, plants, trees, birds, fungi, insects etc (not caged animals, pets, plants planted by people) as possible and submit them, using the iNaturalist app on their smart phones.
In 2019 Cape Town was one of 159 cities which took part and they were placed first in the categories of “most observations” (53 763) and “most species” (4 588). City of Tshwane registered for the challenge in 2020 but lockdown happened. The challenge was rather changed into a backyard bioblitz and it managed to contribute 1000 observations. Tshwane also so a growth of registered observers joining iNaturalist from 322 in 2019 to 1097 currently.
This year more than 300 cities around the world will take part, including Cape Town, Tshwane, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Gaborone.
How can you assist/participate
1. Download the iNaturalist app and upload observations during this period
2. Contribute observations for any area within Tshwane including in your own yard.
More details on website: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2021-tshwane
