The iNaturalist City Nature Challenge is an annual event where cities around the world compete to record the most observations and species, and have the greatest number of participants over a four-day period. Science Researcher Lara Shepherd, Invertebrate Curator Kerry Walton, and Vertebrate Curator Andrew Stewart discuss some of the events held in Wellington during this year’s Challenge, where they were able to share their expertise to help people explore nature.
Many regular iNaturalist users go it alone during the City Nature Challenge (one person recorded 634 species in Wellington over the 4 days!). However, the Challenge is also an opportunity to interact with other keen nature lovers and learn from experts by attending public events. This year, a number of organisations, coordinated by the Wellington City Council, worked together to offer various whānau-friendly events around the region. Te Papa scientists attended and/or (co-)hosted many of these events.
Combining biodiversity recording with improving the environment
This year, two public events combined rubbish cleanup with recording iNaturalist observations. Ghost Diving New Zealand is a volunteer organisation whose goals are to remove rubbish from the marine environment and promote environmental awareness. This year, Ghost Diving and Te Papa co-hosted a City Nature Challenge event that removed rubbish from the sea around the diving platform on Wellington’s waterfront and recorded and extracted the associated animals.
Five divers removed 209 kg of rubbish. This included four e-scooters (bringing the total number of e-scooters recovered to 150 since 2019), two smart watches (one still working), 477 cans, 95 bits of soft plastic, and even a locked safe (which was reported to the police!). However, the safe had no serial number, so the police were not interested, and so Stu Day took it home and forced it open. Sadly, there was no money or jewels inside, just more foul-smelling harbour mud ☹.
Te Papa’s fish expert, Andrew Stewart, placed any interesting animal finds in fish tanks to educate and enthuse passersby about what lay in the water just a few metres away. Interesting finds included a huge olive rockfish and an octopus. Of the 450 animals recorded and removed from the rubbish, cushion stars were most common (339 were removed), but also 10 Graham’s gudgens fish, 4 decorator crabs, and 12 pillbox crabs. All animals were returned to the sea after the event.
We also made one angler very happy. When he discovered what we were doing, he told us that he’d lost an expensive fishing lure in the area. After showing one of the Shore Crew where he’d lost it, one of the divers went down……and found it!
Ghost Diving regularly holds similar events around Wellington and further afield. If you would like to know more or be involved, keep an eye on the Ghost Diving Facebook page for upcoming events and volunteer requests.
Ngahere Korowai and Conservation Volunteers New Zealand also held a litter clean-up in conjunction with the City Nature Challenge. Twenty-five keen participants removed 164 kg of waste from Cannons Creek Lakes Reserve in Porirua. This rubbish was mostly food packaging, drink cans, and bottles, but also included a tricycle and a speaker! Interesting species observations made in the Reserve during the clean-up were black swans, pūkeko, and a blue damselfly.
Exploring After Dark
Several events took place in the hours of darkness. These events are always popular, especially with kids, as they provide an opportunity to see critters of the night AND stay up after bedtime!
Around 60 budding entomologists explored the Ōtari-Wilton Bush’s picnic area. A light-trap attracted moths to photograph, while the glow worms and spiders were also popular. An added bonus was the huge eels cruising up and down the Kaiwharawhara stream.
A second nighttime event, organised by Enviroschools, was held at Central Park. This event focused on glowworms and a stream exploration, with banded kōkopu and kōura particular highlights. It was great to see these animals thriving so close to the central city, demonstrating the importance of looking after these urban environments.
Shell-ebrate good times!
The Wellington Shell Club is a not-for-profit organisation that fosters interest in all things ‘shell’, from shell collecting to research and conservation. Partly to celebrate the 70th anniversary since its founding (by former Te Papa Director Dick Dell), the shell club and Te Papa co-hosted a City Nature Challenge event within the Backyard section of Te Papa’s Te Taiao natural history exhibition.
Six shell displays were presented, showcasing some of the extraordinary diversity of molluscs from the Wellington Region and around the world. Additionally, people were invited to bring in shells for expert identification, and a craft stall was set up where people could assemble a mouse made from seashells. Over 150 mice went out the doors – the mice were even a hit with visiting adults!
Species identifications
Once the four-day observation and recording period of the City Nature Challenge finished, the work was not done, with many thousands of observations still needing to be identified. However, because this is all done online, identifications can be done by anyone located anywhere. One regular iNaturalister, Lloyd Esler from Invercargill, put names on over 3500 of Wellington’s observations (nearly 20% of our total observations!). You can read a summary of the species we recorded here.
Te Papa, with support from Wellington’s Pepeke and the Wellington Botanical Society, also held an iNaturalist identification workshop. This allowed both experts and learners to get together to tackle some of the less straightforward identifications. It was great to have three kids from Wellington’s Pepeke join us for this event.
Other Wellington public events during this year’s City Nature Challenge included a fungi fun day at Central Park in Brooklyn, an exploration of Polhill Reserve by the VUW Tramping Club and Society for Conservation Biology, a botanical survey of Khandallah Park, and rockpooling at Island Bay. The City Nature Challenge occurs every year. Keep an eye out next year for more exciting events – we’d love to see you there!
We would like to try a light source to photograph moths in our estuary. Can you supply details of what equipment is needed and where to purchase . A nearby electric power source is not available.
Thanks for your comment Pam, I will forward on your message and email address to William from DOC, who is a moth expert and can inform you about his set-up. Happy moth hunting!