Spot an animal on your way to work or school? See an insect on a plant near your home? Take a few photos and upload them to iNaturalist to contribute to observations of biodiversity all around you during the York City Nature Challenge from 25-28th April 2025! Feel free to make your own observations of animals, plants and fungi where you live, work or play during these days, as well as join any one of the many events happening around York by different community groups. See the Events page for more details.
York City Nature Challenge
Join the second-ever York CNC
from 25-28 April, 2025!
Started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco in the United States, the City Nature Challenge (CNC) has grown into an international event. This challenge motivates people around the world to find and document wildlife in their own cities. Last year, there were 690 cities in 51 countries on all seven continents participating! (see Eurasia, Africa and Oceania or North and South America)
Run by the Community Science teams at the California Academy of Sciences and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM), the CNC is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal.​ This event uses the iNaturalist app on your phone or computer to record biodiversity data using photos or sounds, and share it with a world-wide community of scientists and nature enthusiasts! Learn about the iNaturalist app here.
Why participate?
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It's fun, free, and easy to participate!
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Observations can be made during the course of your normal daily activities, during a walk around town, or even further afield in a local nature reserve. You don't even have to leave home to participate! You can make observations from your window or in your own garden.
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A great way to contribute to science
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Learn more about your local biodiversity
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Inform conservations efforts and protect nature right where you live.
See publications using City Nature Challenge observations.
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See it!
Look for WILD animals in your garden, on your street, in a local park or even in a nature reserve.
Snap it!
Take a picture of any WILD animal or plant that you see in your city-region. You can also record sounds. Make sure to note the location or have your phone location turned on.
Share it!
Upload your photo or sound to iNaturalist through the app on your phone or through a web browser on your computer.
It's that easy!
Any iNaturalist observations taken in the York city-region (see map below) between 25-28 April, 2025
will be AUTOMATICALLY included in the York City Nature Challenge project.
No need to wait until April, start making observations now!
Share the York City Nature Challenge 2025 with people you know by clicking on the image below to download the York CNC poster!
