Angelenos are invited to join the L.A. Bioblitz Challenge to photograph and map native animals, insects and plants around their homes, neighborhoods, parks and other areas across the city of Los Angeles from June 7 to August 7 using the iNaturalist app.
Monarch Danaus plexippus
This collaboration between the Los Angeles Public Library’s Neighborhood Science (NeiSci) Initiative and the LA Sanitation & Environment’s Biodiversity Program aims to enumerate the city’s existing native biodiversity and assist researchers in determining the distribution of wildlife across L.A.’s natural landscape.
Los Angeles is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot that has an array of native insects, animals, plants, and ecosystems to explore, including indicator species, which serve as a measure of the environmental conditions that exist in a given locale.
California Quail Callipepla californica
Participants are asked to photograph indicator species and map their observations on the city’s observation heat map. The crowdsourced data will help reduce observational “cold spots” and inform the efforts to conserve and protect wildlife habitats.
To complete the challenge, participants are asked to upload at least 10 observations of animals, insects and plants—including 3 or more indicator species—to the “LA BioBlitz Challenge” project on iNaturalist or complete a BioBlitz game card available at any open Los Angeles Public Library location.
For more information about the challenge and how to participate, visit https://lapl.org/steam/bioblitz.