City Nature Challenge

Photo: City Nature Challenge
Start: 
Apr 26, 2024 - 12:00am
End: 
May 05, 2024 - 12:00am
Location: 
Albuquerque, NM

The City Nature Challenge is an annual global collaborative effort to find and document wildlife observations in and around urban areas. Join nature enthusiasts worldwide in discovering the biodiversity in your area. The 2024 City Nature Challenge takes place from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, May 5, 2023.

The observation period will be from April 26-29, 2024 and the identification period will run from April 30-May 5, 2024. 

The R.H. Mallory Center for Community Geography along with the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies (GES), will for the fourth year in a row, host the ABQ City Nature Challenge at UNM. 

You don’t have to be an expert to contribute! Simply take photos of any plants or animals you see, even in your own backyard, and upload them to iNaturalist. The app is easy to use, and there are numerous training sessions available

After the observation period ends, expert naturalists and scientists will use iNaturalist to review all the photographs and ID all the species. You can help identify species in the photographs taken if you have knowledge of local plants and animals!

How do I Join a Team?

All UNM students, staff, and faculty are invited to join the challenge on one of the two teams. Follow these easy steps to get set up: 

  1. Download the iNaturalist app to your phone.
  2. Join a team at UNM to make sure your observations are counted:
  3. From April 26-29, make as many observations as possible in Bernalillo, Sandoval, or Valencia Counties. You don’t even have to know what you’re observing. Just take a photo and then the naturalists and scientists using iNaturalist will figure out what it is during the identification period from April 30-May 5.
  4.  

Special event on Friday, April 26

You are invited to stop by Bandelier East on Friday, April 26 from 9am-1pm, where representatives from the R.H. Mallory Center for Community Geography and the ABQ Backyard Refuge Program will have an information table set up outside to encourage UNM students to participate. We will also have guided campus walks at 10am and 11:30am so we can show people how to collect observations!

 

What happens after the City Nature Challenge?

After the observation period ends, expert naturalists and scientists will use iNaturalist to review all the photographs and ID all the observations to the species level. Each team has until May 5 to complete the identification process before results are finalized and a winner is declared for each category. The identification process will take place simultaneously across Albuquerque and around the world. Finalized datasets can be used later for mapping and analysis of biodiversity in our communities. The Center for Community Geography is currently working with the Albuquerque Backyard Refuge Program to use CNC data for mapping and planning/prioritizing community habitat restoration, so we hope to see as much participation as possible right here in New Mexico.

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