The City Nature Challenge is coming up, and we want our members and fans out and about, to support beautiful Cape Town's biodiversity from 29 April to 2 May.
Active Two Oceans Aquarium Members are invited to join our Foundation's Marine Wildlife Management team for a series of urban wildlife walks along the V&A Waterfront's canals and marinas on Sunday 1 May, to snap photos of the plants, animals and organisms you can spot and upload them to this citizen science project. The walk and snacks are free for any active Aquarium members who register in advance, but we ask that everyone who attends please be prepared to install the iNaturalist app on their phones and upload some photos (you can use Aquarium WiFi to upload).
Cormorants, Cape fur seals, ocean sunfish, sea lettuces, butterflies, otters, wild ferns, anemones, rock pigeons and more - just because the V&A Waterfront is an urban environment, doesn't mean it isn't filled to the brim with wildlife (and out team knows just where to look).
Wildlife Walk Details:
UNFORTUNATELY, ALL SLOTS HAVE BEEN FULLY BOOKED - BUT WE'D LOVE IT IF YOU TOOK PART IN THE CITY NATURE CHALLENGE ON YOUR OWN TIME
- Date: Sunday 1 May 2022
- Time slots: 10h00, 13h00 or 15h00 (more slots to be added based on demand)
- Register online here - no walk-ins unfortunately
- Meet in front of the Visitor's Centre 20 minutes before your confirmed slot for a muffin, beverage and a quick briefing
- Bring: Please wear weather-appropriate clothing, shoes that are comfortable to walk in, your cellphone with the iNaturalist app installed and registered, and water to drink while walking.
- Note: Cape Town needs participants! We ask that family groups please use the iNaturalist app as individuals, rather than sharing a single phone if possible (the more the merrier).
- Feel free to pop us a message on the Facebook event if you have any questions.
What is the City Nature Challenge?
The City Nature Challenge is an international "bioblitz" where everyday people are encouraged to go out and explore their environments and make observations of as many wild organisms as possible. These photos and recordings are then uploaded to iNaturalist, a citizen science platform, where the international community is able to identify them and learn from the data collected. The City Nature Challenge adds a competitive element to this, with cities from around the globe competing for the most species identified, most observations made, and most participants involved.
This year, Cape Town will be competing against about 500 other cities and regions from around the world! Cape Town is currently the reigning champion for the "Most Observations" and "Most Species" categories, but we need YOUR help to win the "Most Participants" category in 2022!
Anyone can take, part - simply turn on your phone's GPS, take some photos of your local plants and animals (yes, even those weeds on the pavement outside your house are wild), and upload them on the iNaturalist app or website. You don't even need to know what the organism is called - the community will help with that!
Sea you there!
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