The City Nature Challenge - apart from being fun - actually does collect some very useful data. Here are two uses that you might not have thought about much while running observing everything around you.
If you think of something to include here, please tell us.
Elevating species for the AI.
The iNat Artificial Intelligence ID is trained once a year. We dont routinely monitor species that get trained (not with over 20,000 species), but we do keep tabs on some groups such as the Proteaceae.
The 2022 CNC saw the following Proteaceae qualify for inclusion the the AI:
Diastella fraterna (thanks Overstrand)
Leucadendron laxum (thanks Overberg)
Leucospermum bolusii, truncatum (thanks Cape Town, Overberg)
Mimetes chrysanthus (largely planted! - not sure if they count: only 66 wild)
Protea subulifolia (thanks Overberg)
Serruria brownii (thanks Cape Town) , 'ludwigii'
That is 8 more species in the Protea Family now to be trained, making ID easier in the future. The CIty Nature Challenge probably pushed several hundred of our species into AI training.
Thanks everyone.
Data on threatened species
Data on threatened species is crucial for monitoring changes in threat status, both good and bad. Although we tend to focus on Red List species in spring (in the Great Southern Bioblitz), we still collected a lot of useful data. Here:
Observations | Species | City |
---|---|---|
2224 | 322 | Cape Town |
892 | 160 | Overstrand |
446 | 157 | Garden Route |
602 | 99 | S Overberg |
187 | 68 | eThekwini |
115 | 63 | Weskus |
65 | 35 | Stellenbosch |
70 | 28 | Nelson Mandela Bay |
54 | 25 | Thswane |
19 | 16 | Joburg |
12 | 6 | Thohoyandou |
7 | 5 | Bloemfontein |
5 | 4 | Kimberley |
4 | 4 | N Botswana |
3 | 3 | Bulawayo |
1 | 1 | Harare |
1 | 1 | Botswana Central |
Altogether some 4,723 observations of 653 Red Data List species were made by 919 observers. That is some hot data. Our species account for 29% of the threatened species observed worldwide during the City Nature Challenge 2022. Very well done!
New Species and Range Extensions
It is difficult to keep tabs on New Species and New Records of Species in an Area, because it often takes months to verify that they are new or unidentified. So it is pointless enumerating them here, but you can see progress by clicking on these:
• New species: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=city-nature-challenge-southern-africa-2022&verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:New%20species%20reference%20and%20name
• Range extensions: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?project_id=city-nature-challenge-southern-africa-2022&verifiable=any&place_id=any&field:Range%20extension%20documentation
Comments
Thanks Tony - this is super useful.
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