[imagesource:instagram/@citnatchallenge]

Go Cape Town, Go!

The Mother City has ranked second out of 482 cities in the number of observations recorded and fourth in the number of species recorded in the City Nature Challenge.

The competition was held between April 28 and May 1 this year, encouraging Capetonians to explore the city’s nature spots and record all of the local fauna and flora that they spotted over the four days.

Participants had to upload all of their findings to the iNaturalist.com app, with the City also organising a variety of activities throughout the challenge, including tours of the reserves with local experts, so that a maximum amount of observations could be recorded.

We are in the runner-up spot to La Paz, Bolivia, which recorded 126 435 observations and 5 344 species from 3 025 people, while Cape Town, in second place, recorded 52 518 observations and 3 847 species from 1 284 people.

 

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Across the planet, 66 394 people spotted a magnificent amount of nature:

 

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The mallard duck was the most frequently observed species across all cities, with over 57 000 species documented in total, including over 2 570 species of conservation concern.

Here are the top five for your interest:

Image: citynaturechallenge.org

Alderman Eddie Andrews, the City’s deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment, was very proud, per Cape Town ETC:

“Cape Town, you did great in capturing the natural heritage in our city this year. The results are in, and your encounters with the beautiful plant and animal life in our natural surroundings have earned us second place out of 482 cities around the world that also participated in the City Nature Challenge.”

He said our achievement is “wonderful”, giving “special thanks to all the individuals from our city who helped identify observations that were recorded during the City Nature Challenge”.

At least South Africa will always be lush, even without electricity. Okay, especially without electricity.

[source:capetownetc]