Thanks for participating in the June Biodiversity Challenge!
Hello iNatters;
We did well in metro Calgary, despite not alot of publicity; our preliminary results as of midnight Sunday was 145 observers, with 1101 observations of at least 325 species. The deadline has passed for uploading observations, but we can continue to get them identified for another 6 weeks before the numbers are final.
We'd set up a friendly competition with 14 municipalities in western Canada, and that "Prairie Division" also competed with 72 municipalities in a "Northern Rockies division" including AK, YT, and counties and municipalities in BC, WA, OR, ID, MT, and WY. Results are as follows:
1a. Highest participation rate (observers per capita, or "Environmental Engagement Index"): Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.100% of residents posted observations.
runner-up: NWT (pop. 45515): 0.042% of residents posted observations.
1b. Highest absolute #observers: tie between metro Edmonton and metro Calgary with 145 observers each.
2a. Most observations per capita: Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.042 observations/resident.runner-up: Saskatoon SK (pop. 300000): 0.003 observations/resident.
2b. Highest absolute #observations: metro Edmonton: 2915 observations.runner-up: Winnipeg, MB: 1565 observations.
3a. PRELIMINARY Most species per capita: Whiteshell, MB (pop. 5000): 0.022 species/resident.runner-up: NWT (pop. 45515): 0.001 species/resident.
3b. PRELIMINARY Highest absolute #species: metro Edmonton: 690 species.- runner-up: Winnipeg, MB: 337 species.
The top individual observer was @seraphinpoudrier from Winnipeg, MB, with a phenomenal 1265 observations of at least 259 species. That was most of Winnipeg's observations.
If you're a stats junkie and want to dig into the numbers further, check out this umbrella project with all the Prairie Division results:
https://inaturalist.ca/projects/2022-prairie-biodivercity-challenges
Note the number of observers and observations is final now, but the number of species will change over the next 6 weeks as more identifications are done. Obviously a place like Calgary with a large population is going to do better with overall numbers, which is why we calculated results per capita - those are a much better measure of participation. The competition is just for fun, but we'll keep track and see if more people get involved in future years. Additionally the data will be on iNaturalist permanently, where it will help scientists to track changing species distributions and do other research. Our underlying goals are to get more people engaged with nature, and to generate useful data while they're at it.
The overall winners from among all 86 Prairie and Northern Rocky Mountains municipalities are as follows:
1a. Highest participation rate (observers per capita, or "Environmental Engagement Index"): Clark Co., ID (pop. 827): 0.363% of residents posting observations.runner-up: Teton Co., WY (pop. 24049) 0.308% of residents posting observations.
1b. Highest absolute #observers: Alaska: 266 observers.- runners-up: metro Edmonton and metro Calgary: 145 observers each.
2a. Most observations per capita: Bear Lake Co., ID (pop 6368): 0.054
observations/resident.
runner-up: Whiteshell Provincial Park, MB (pop. 5000): 0.042
observations/resident.
2b. Highest absolute #observations: metro Edmonton: 2915 observations.- runner-up: Alaska: 1781 observations.
3a. PRELIMINARY Most species per capita: Bear Lake Co., ID (pop. 6368) 0.029
species/resident.
runner-up: Whiteshell Provincial Park, MB (pop. 5000) 0.022 species/resident.
3b. PRELIMINARY Highest absolute #species: metro Edmonton: 690 species.- runner-up: Alaska: 588 species.
Thanks again for participating! I'll send out some information on the final species results in 6 weeks.
Greg Pohl
volunteer bioblitz coordinator