For Southern Africa, the City Nature Challenge 2020 is done and dusted.

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-all-southern-african-cities
A couple of hours to go and the rest of the world will follow suit.

Garden Route did very well.
Everyone can all be immensely proud of the achievement.
Every person who in someway participated in the challenge can hold their head up high.

17742 observations where clocked up in the Garden Route, making it 31% of the 56839 observations recorded in Southern Africa.
2421 species recorded in the Garden Route, with a total of 5151 species recorded in Southern Africa.
And all this by 315 observers.

-- Observers:
User jeccica1468 racked up 881 observations, followed by nina196 with 783, then outramps-tanniedi with 508.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-garden-route?tab=observers

-- Species:
The most viewed was the Cape Weaver with 118 observations, followed by the Spekboom with 90 observations, then the Cape Honeysuckle with 87 observations.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-garden-route?tab=species

-- Identifiers:
A total of 448 people helped identify observations. And here, as much as I like to highlight the tops, I will not.
Each person in their respective field did an amazing job in identifications.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020-garden-route?tab=identifiers

This is not a challenge only for a small group of people. It is for everyone. No matter where you stay.
It is for schools, businesses, families, groups, friends, clubs, organizations, individually or whatever other form of activity you may take part in.

Stay with us and let us all use the information and experience gathered this year to build a greater 2021.

During today we will have the worldwide results.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/city-nature-challenge-2020
The Garden Route is still holding in at 9th position for observations. We have a 73-observation lead on 10th spot. Hope we can keep it.
As to the number of species, the 6th spot seems pretty secured at 2421 species. A lead of 215 species ahead of 7th spot.

Enjoy, and Be Safe

Posted on May 3, 2020 10:57 PM by shauns shauns

Comments

Well done Garden Route.

I was fully aware that you were #2 amongst cities outside of the USA (after Cape Town, of course, where you belong).

But somehow I totally missed that you were #6 for species! That is fantastic! Well done (and rather alarming, but dont worry, we are the heart of the Cape Flora, with you guys in the wings. We are not really worried, I dont think ...)

If you have any ideas on how we can get our number of observers up, please tell us. (and yes, we also thought of sending scouts out to all households with free cell phones and a weekend's data, but the logistics defeated us. And Santa did not respond to a request for the loan of his sleigh).

The Cape Town team.

Posted by tonyrebelo almost 4 years ago

I take it a rematch will be on the cards in 2021.
It was good fun and look forward to the next round.
We are also happy to have two projects in the top 10 in the world for observations and species. An achievement for South Africa.

For a motley crew on the committee the Garden Route did not do too shabby.
As for, “after Cape Town, of course, where you belong”, We will have to see about!
Cape Town may be the heart, but the wings will take flight.

You are correct. Observer numbers need to be addressed. That is something that needs attention all around. We may have to look a little closer than Santa for this answer.
Challenge aside, we can work on this together.

(Watch this space: https://web.facebook.com/Garden-Route-City-Nature-Challenge-101835558021716/)

Posted by shauns almost 4 years ago

Garden Route is 2nd overall in the Southern Hemisphere methinks :-)

Posted by vinsur almost 4 years ago

I thought I would share some thoughts that have come my way concerning the event.

The City Nature Challenge was greatly anticipated and a lot of people were very keen to take part. Like us all, they were disappointed when Lockdown curtailed their planned activities, but they were keen to continue taking part anyway, especially as they had some time on their hands and enjoyed having something with a target to keep them busy. They really enjoyed exploring their gardens in detail, in some cases small patches. They were very surprised at the number of different things they found and comments like 'Imagine what we will find when we walk elsewhere', 'I can't wait until next year!' I really think that continuing the event during lockdown has given people time to look at the smaller things and to become more aware of detail. As it was Lockdown, new users had time to do some exploration of the iNat site and I have had a lot of positive feedback. It provided an opportunity to learn the scientific names of some of our garden plants. Joining in with the identification of plants has given participants a lot of confidence, realising that they too do know something!

Overall, I think it was a very positive exercise and I hope the new users who might not have taken part if Lockdown had not been in place, will continue to make use of iNat, Although I really don't want to see another picture of a Hibiscus, it did give others a chance to share the beautiful specimens in their gardens.

Posted by nicky almost 4 years ago

I agree, our gardens are amazing: we totally overlook them. - I will try and do a little analysis, although I should (but wont) give our experts a chance to weed out the wrong identifications. I think I will post it under the lockdown project here: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lockdown-southern-africa-2020

Ditto Hibiscus, but I will add Spekboom and Mosquitobush! At least I dont think I have a Spekboom in my property!

Posted by tonyrebelo almost 4 years ago

A big whoop whoop to the Garden Route and its biodiversity. You make my heart pump tjoklits!
All who unreservedly jumped in to take part: Thank you for the never ending support and enthusiasm. The Core Committe always fun and a chuckle; the ever excelling Outramps CREW (who churned out whopping stats), the local Mossel Bay conservancies, greenies and the poor stranded marine people (they now also discovered plants and living creatures on terra firma); die mense in die Klein Karoo wat deelgeneem het...
Thank you thank you thank you - a heartfelt one to all as well as to the global CNC organisers, iNaturalist here, there and everywhere.

PS: Does anyone know how Cape Town did?

Posted by sandraf almost 4 years ago

Careful: Big Brother is watching you!

Posted by tonyrebelo almost 4 years ago

Good to be looked after BB!

Well done Tony and Cape Town. We love the buzz -- the best kind of contagion.....

Posted by sandraf almost 4 years ago

It was great to jump right in and more than fill the days with takings with a real purpose! I am still not convinced about the benefits of allowing exotics normally, but for this lockdown challenge it made total sense! I however bever got as far as the exotics in our garden as was more than occupied with the naturally indigenous, the self sown voluntee indigenous and weeds, and the planted indigenous. Next time must get a better grip on using the app on my phone as it is clearly much easier and quicker. One problem is that perhaps the phone app allows people to post really grotty pics and not bother cropping or making sure the plants are identifiable! I gave up looking at Plantae or Unknown when identifying as it wasted too much time? Maybe people should have to at least try a bit harder using books, Google or something to at least give a Family? But well done Cape Town, when we have a thousand observers look out! We could just beat you on species with five hundred I reckon!? Many thanks to the Garden Route administrators and all the newbies who tried so hard, even the ones who failed to upload as they struggled with uploading. Next time!

Posted by yvettevanwijk1941 almost 4 years ago

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