We can find nature all around us – even in our cities and around our homes. One way to study nature and its biodiversity is to connect scientists and members of the local community through citizen science projects..
The City Nature Challenge project involves city dwellers in documenting and learning about nature in the city. The goal is to point out the diversity of urban nature, to contribute to the mapping of biodiversity and its protection. The main organizers of the challenge are the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco and the Natural History Museum Los Angeles County.
This year’s sixth edition of the global City Nature Challenge has expanded to more than 400 cities on six continents and we also participated for the first time in Bratislava. Worldwide, a record number of more than 1.2 million observations were recorded in the 4 days of the City Nature Challenge 2021. More than 45,300 different species have been documented, including 2,100 rare and endangered species.
We also contributed to the overall results in Bratislava, where we managed to record interesting and rare species despite the lower participation. You can view all photos and statistics through the iNaturalist platform. The share of observations meeting the criteria for research reached up to 80%, and Bratislava was thus ranked among the first 20 cities in this category (% Research Grade Observations). Experts from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University also contributed to the accuracy of the data in the identification of the observed species.
We thank everyone who participated in the preparation, organization and progress of the event in Bratislava. Support for the promotion of the project was provided by the Capital of the Slovak Republic, Municipal Forests in Bratislava, the Center for Scientific and Technical Information of the Slovak Republic and its Science Experience Center Aurelium, the science and popularization portal Science To Reach and the science and technology magazine Quark. Accompanying activities were prepared by DAPHNE – Institute of Applied Ecology and Municipal Forests in Bratislava.
