A huge thank you to the Overstrand Bioblitzing community who observed, identified, and spread the word about the 2024 City Nature Challenge (CNC).

The CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz event at the end of April/beginning of May, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to share observations of nature. The challenge takes place in two parts: Taking pictures of wild plants and animals and part two is identifying what was found.

The City Nature Challenge started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco but has grown into an international event to motivate people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities.

The global CNC bioblitzers improved on all their metrics this year:

• Total of observations: 2,436,844
• Total of observers: 83,528
• Total of species documented: 65,682+, including more than 3,940 rare/endangered/threatened species
• Most observed species: Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos), with 5,830 observations

Overstrand Mayoral Committee Member of Investment, Infrastructure and Tourism, Councillor Clinton Lerm, said 51 countries and 690 cities participated in the 2024 CNC.

During the four days of the CNC, the Overstrand recorded 15 824 observations of 1984 species, thanks to the 194 observers who took part.

He thanked Overstrand Bioblitzing organisers, Sandy Immelman, Jenny Parsons, Di Marais, Adele Scheepers Lamprecht and Magriet Brink for their commitment and time they have put aside to encourage residents to make the most of the challenge by taking photos and sharing observations of the rich wildlife and plants of the Overstrand.

Adele Scheepers Lamprecht of Betty’s Bay topped the charts with the most observations (1 874) recorded as well as the most species recorded (513). Di Marais, one of the other organisers, achieved fourth place for both observations and species.

“Thank you both for your much-appreciated input in organising, recording and identifying – you are much appreciated,” Councillor Lerm added.

Once again, thanks to the Overstrand Bioblitzers for participating in the City Nature Challenge – the competition underscores the power of community science to track real-time changes in our planet’s biodiversity.

We look forward to the Great Southern Bioblitz in our spring season later this year.