Bioblitz + 1 day

Kia ora tatou,

Thanks very much to the observers and identifiers who helped with the bioblitz of Te Papa's Bush City. The 14 observers made over 400 observations and found nearly 200 species. Those numbers will grow once @ngaro and @phil_sirvid have a chance to identify the insects and spiders caught in Julia's traps.

Illustrating the reach of the iNaturalist/NatureWatchNZ community, we've already had 40 people providing identifications.

For new observers, I hope you found the technology useful (and maybe learnt a few new plants and animals too). If you've any questions, feel free to ask me (@leonperrie) or Tim (@parkecology) - you could leave a comment below, or try the "iNaturalist mail" with the envelope icon at upper-right, or email me at leon.perrie@tepapa.govt.nz I've played with NatureWatch a fair bit, including trying to break it many times, so I've some idea of what works and what doesn't.

Our finds will be useful for Te Papa to better appreciate what is happening in Bush City. I will share our results with Te Papa, especially the Hosts, so they can in turn share them with Te Papa's visitors.

It was very interesting to see that Bush City, although marooned among concrete, still has some connection with the surrounding natural environment.

For instance, Tim found seedlings of kahikatea - I wonder where they came from? https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10692254
Bush City is also now home to a few fungi such as https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10693446 and this mystery https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10695663
With the good comes some bad, such as new weeds to keep an eye on, such as https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10695611

I was fascinated to learn that @anikarenina found some fern gametophytes - the phase of the fern life cycle that produces eggs and sperm https://inaturalist.nz/observations/10698433. With such handily-accessible examples, I'll be able to get the Te Papa Hosts to enthuse visitors with the wonders of the fern life-cycle!

Thanks again. Feel free to share your thoughts. And we'll post again when we learn more.

Leon (and Tim).

Posted on April 9, 2018 09:27 AM by leonperrie leonperrie

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