Cape Town - Nature lovers across the Mother City found themselves climbing mountains, exploring their gardens, pavements or parks, and traversing Cape Town’s nature reserves, waterways and wetlands in search of plants and animals to document as the City Nature Challenge got under way.
The City Nature Challenge is an international bioblitz to record as many observations of local plant and animal species as possible in cities and the urban environment and upload them onto the iNaturalist app.
This year the City of Cape Town is competing with 500 international cities in 38 countries to win the top spot and achieve “Most Observations” and “Most Species” in the challenge.
Last year Cape Town came second for “Most Observations” with 66 144 observations and second for “Most Species” with 4 388 species recorded. La Paz in Bolivia came first with 137 345 observations of 5 320 species.
Deputy mayor and spatial planning and environment Mayco member Eddie Andrews said: “The process to determine the various category winners for the 2023 City Nature Challenge is still under way. Participants have until May 8 to upload their observations. The identification of the species that were observed and captured over the challenge has just begun.”
Andrews said Cape Town is currently in second place for observations, third for species and ninth for the number of observers.
“Some interesting sightings captured and identified around Cape Town so far include the rain frog, caracal, the Narina trogon bird, and an important sighting was the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle,” he said.
This year, participants were also encouraged to explore the spaces of intersection between human and wildlife inhabitants of the V&A Waterfront with the Two Oceans Aquarium’s Marine Wildlife Walk, where Cape fur seals, sea lettuces, butterflies and cormorants could be spotted.
Helen Lockhart, conservation and sustainability manager at Two Oceans Aquarium, said the diverse wildlife that called the V&A Waterfront home went largely unnoticed by the many people who visited, but the Marine Wildlife Walk brought the urban marine wildlife into view at eight lookout points.
Also participating in the challenge this year was the Zandvlei Trust, a community-led public benefit organisation dedicated to protecting the natural resources of the Zandvlei and its immediate surroundings.
Environmental scientist and Zandvlei Trust chairperson David Bristow said they sent out a newsletter to all members asking them and showing them how to participate.
He said with one of the world’s richest floral kingdoms and possibly the world’s most biodiverse marine environment at their doorsteps, many observations would be made.
“The best part of the challenge is probably the effect it will have on the various communities, to drive more and more – especially young – people to participate and learn more about our incredible natural environment.”