Eight Melbourne metropolitan councils have invited their residents to help document urban biodiversity as part of the global City Nature Challenge.
The councils – Boroondara, Whitehorse, Knox, Manningham, Monash, Maroondah, Stonnington, and Greater Dandenong – will “compete” with 250 cities from around 40 countries to celebrate “the healing power of nature”.
Residents will be asked to record and photograph as much biodiversity as possible over four days from 30 April to 3 May.
To help record and photograph sightings, residents can download the global challenge app, iNturalist.
Observations will be added to a leader board allowing participants to track and compare observations across the eight Melbourne LGAs and other participating countries. Observations will also be included in species databases
The City Nature Challenge began in 2016 as a competition between the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, California.