Cape Town - The City has called on Capetonians to take part in the City Nature Challenge next weekend where Cape Town will be competing with various international cities to record the most observations of local plant and animal species, which could range from reptiles to birds and Fynbos to marine life in the biodiverse environment of the City.
The challenge was an annual international citizen-science effort that encouraged people to discover and document plants and wildlife in urban areas across the globe to ultimately contribute towards biodiversity science.
Cape Town deputy mayor and Spatial Planning and Environment Mayco member Eddie Andrews said: “The City Nature Challenge is about finding all the wildlife in a city. All that is required of residents when making an observation is to take a photo and upload it on to the iNaturalist app. Experts will then help to identify the fauna or flora.”
Andrews said they aim to drive participation by offering various prizes to those who made the most observations or captured the most species – these include accommodation from CapeNature and SANParks as well as spot prizes for anyone who participate.
“Residents in Cape Town are spoilt for choice with an array of nature reserves and conservation areas right on their doorstep. Guided tours (and planned walks) at coastal and inland protected areas across the City have also been arranged.”
Andrews said this was to encourage participation. The City would be opening its reserves to the public free over the four days of the challenge from April 29 until May 2 and said Cape Point would also be open free to registered participants of City Nature Challenge events.
Some of the planned walks included the Tokai Park Night Walk and, Smitswinkel Bay marine life walk. Residents could access a complete list of walks at “Planned Events for 2022” on the iNaturalist app.
The Two Oceans Aquarium also encouraged all Capetonians to take part in the challenge and to help the Mother City win all three categories in this international inter-city competition.
The Beach Co-op New Moon clean-up and bioblitz would be taking place at Surfers Corner in Muizenberg on April 30 where participants were required to remove any litter and take pictures of any marine species observed for the iNaturalist app.
The Beach Co-op founder Aaniyah Omardien said “We encourage you to contribute to iNaturalist, a platform where you can upload and share images of animal and plant observations, have them identified and learn more about each species”.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2022-city-of-cape-town?tab=about