The Winners in the City Nature Challenge

The kind of bird species seen in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during the City Nature Challenge.

This is Passport to Texas

During the last four days of April, nearly 70 cities on six continents participated in a friendly competition called the City Nature Challenge.

[It’s about] who has the most wildlife diversity—including plants—within
their community.

Marsha May, a Texas Nature Tracker biologist with Texas Parks and Wildlife, says seven cities in Texas took part. Using the iNaturalist app, participants uploaded photos and audio of species they saw, competing in three categories: observations, species found and participants.

San Francisco came in first [in all three categories], and last was  Antarctica.

In Antarctica, three observers documented 27 species for 36 total observations.

I think it was amazing that they were involved, because the species diversity in Antarctica is not really large. But it is wonderful that they were involved.

Meanwhile, San Francisco documented 42-thousand total observations, followed by second-place DFW with 34-thousand. In species found, about a hundred species stood between second-place Houston and first-place San Francisco. Regarding participants, SF had more than 1500, whereas no city in Texas cracked the top five.

Tomorrow: more about Texas and the City Nature Challenge results

Our show receives support in part from Ram Trucks: Built to Serve.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife, I’m Cecilia Nasti

Comments are closed.