What did the City Nature Challenge Achieve?

What did the City Nature Challenge 2019: Cape Town Achieve?

Please forward your thoughts below. I will summarize the more quantifiable hard data here. But personal and emotive achievements are also cool.

New Taxa

None known - yet.

New Records

Aliens:
First ever record of the Oyster Bay Cypress-Pine as an invasive in Africa! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/24404417

Indigenous (on iNat):
First record of the Monster Gnashing Cricket on iNat https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23591006
First record of the Tropical Mexican Clover as an invasive in Cape Town! https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/23693901

New populations of threatened species

Critically Endangered
Fascicled Autumnaster - https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/24164158

New Records for iNaturalist in Cape Town

(Compared to the last 10 years. Subject to verification - this is also a priority list for checking and will be amended from time to time! Note that the ID image tool suggested North American species, and these are probably still to be checked: any cases will be removed below when discovered.)

1 White Stork Ciconia ciconia (10)
2 African Stonechat Saxicola torquatus (8)
3 Red-billed Oxpecker Buphagus erythrorhynchus (2)
4 Great Black-backed Gull Larus marinus (2)
1 Domestic Cattle Bos taurus (4)
2 Banana Pipistrelle Neoromicia nana (3)
3 Long-tailed Shrews Tribe Soricini (2)
1 Purcell's Ghost Frog Heleophryne purcelli (2)
2 Green Sea Turtle Chelonia mydas

1 Nosestripe Klipfish Muraenoclinus dorsalis (3)
2 Amur Carp Cyprinus rubrofuscus (3)
3 Nile Tilapia Oreochromis niloticus (3)
4 Fivebar Flagtail Kuhlia mugil (2)
5 Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss (2)
6 Silver Trevally Pseudocaranx dentex (2)
7 Arabian Monocle Bream Scolopsis ghanam (2)

1 Vegetable Weevil Listroderes costirostris (2)
2 Genus Platychelus (2)
3 Genus Notiophygus (2)
1 Torynesis hawequas (4)
2 Silk Moths Family Bombycidae
3 Greater Wax Moth Galleria mellonella
4 African Migrant Catopsilia florella
5 Mountain Sandman Spialia spio
6 Mediterranean Brocade Spodoptera littoralis
7 Scopula lactaria
8 Genus Mentaxya
9 Coastal Brown-tail Moth Orvasca semifusca
10 Chiasmia turbulentata
11 Larentia diplocampa

1 Stridulating Slant-faced Grasshoppers Subfamily Gomphocerinae (6)
2 Scantius forsteri (3)
3 Cape Carpenter Bee Xylocopa capensis (3)
4 Oxycarenus annulipes (3)
1 Tunnel Spiders Family Segestriidae (2)
2 Long-bodied Cellar Spider Pholcus phalangioides (2)
3 West Coast Button Spider Latrodectus indistinctus (2)
4 Brown House Spider Steatoda capensis (2)
5 Sheetweb Spiders Family Stiphidiidae (2)
6 Nurseryweb Spider Dolomedes minor (2)
7 Foliage-webbing Spiders Genus Phryganoporus (2)
8 Gallieniellid Spiders Family Gallieniellidae (2)
9 Hippasa australis (2)

1 Portuguese Millipede Ommatoiulus moreleti (13)
2 Tooth Barnacle Chthamalus dentatus (12)
3 Tubulipora pulcherrima (7)
4 Biemna anisotoxa (6)
5 Chaperiopsis multifida (6)
6 Actinia mandelae (4)
7 Sargassum Sea Mat Jellyella tuberculata (4)
8 Euphrosine capensis (3)
9 Botryllus gregalis (3)
10 Southern African Sea Nettle Chrysaora africana (3)
11 Common Bluebottle Physalia utriculus (3)

1 Goat Eye Limpet Cymbula oculus (37)
2 Talochlamys multistriata (10)
3 Giraffe-Spot Nudibranch Ancula sp-a (6)
4 Aulacomya ater (4)
5 Gibbula zonata (4)
1 Common Greenshield Lichen Flavoparmelia caperata (7)
2 Common Ink Cap Coprinopsis atramentaria (2)
3 Smokey-eyed Boulder Lichen Porpidia albocaerulescens (2)
4 Hollyhock Rust Puccinia malvacearum (2)
5 Genus Laschia (2)
6 Tubaria confragosa (2)

Improvements to Nature Reserve data

Based on published reserve lists (other data undoubtedly exist). All species, incl. alien invasive.

Reserve - New Total Species - % increase
Bothasig 108 220%
Durbanville 135 205%
Zandvlei 170 175%
Uitkamp 96 175%
Table Bay 329 158%
Rondevlei 400 155%
Helderberg 704 143%
Tygerberg 396 139%
Edith Stevens 30 136%
Steenbras 1029 136%
Bracken 134 128%
Harmony Flats 129 122%
Botterblom 104 116%
Blaauwberg 609 113%
Wolfgat (not visited)

Ardern Arboretum 88 244%
Tokai Arboretum 213 201%
Kirstenbosch NBG 1166 125%

Jack Miller Park 155 187%
Strandfontein Sewerage Works 173 180%
Meadowridge Commonnage 144 132%
Constantia Green Belts 516 123%
Kenilworth 444 117%
Rondebosch Commonage 250 123%

(Table Mountain NP) 3688 116%
Signal Hill 519 121%
Silvermine 1161 112%
Tokai Park 1025 110%
Tokai Park Lower 592 105%

Other:

Any ideas for other?

Posted on May 21, 2019 11:49 AM by tonyrebelo tonyrebelo

Comments

Maybe with a large enough group (Take Back Our Wolfgat?) we could Bio Blitz Wolfgat. Sad to miss one out altogether.

Posted by dianastuder almost 5 years ago

The timing issue is discussed in more detail here - https://www.inaturalist.org/posts/24669-congratulations-cape-town
Let us keep this for the actual observations.

Posted by tonyrebelo almost 5 years ago

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