South Africans had a blast taking part in the world’s favourite natural treasure hunt in which over 3 million observations of species were identified around the world this year!
South Africa (15 May 2025) — Every year, cities around the world challenge themselves to the Earth’s favourite natural treasure hunt.
What began as a healthy dose of competition between cities wanting to learn more about the biodiversity in their areas soon transformed into a global event, The City Nature Challenge! The challenge is all about documenting wildlife, connecting citizen scientists through a love and curiosity toward the flora and fauna in our home cities, and finding new exciting parts of our landscapes to explore.
The natural treasure hunt works as follows: people head off to observe different species, snap photos and upload them to iNaturalist so that they can be shared, recorded and identified.
South Africans were called to participate (with some natural reserves offering free access), and people came out in numbers!
This year, locals from all over took part, from the lush KwaZulu-Natal Midlands to not-so-concrete jungles like Joburg. However, it was Capetonians who dominated the observations submitted from South Africa. In fact, Cape Town had some of the highest observation numbers in the world (in previous years, it has claimed ‘podium places for the number of observations submitted)! Considering how small the City of Cape Town actually is in comparison to some other top global contributors, the 42,378 observations Capetonians made are no small feat.
Over all, 3,310,131 observations around the world were made, with over 102,000 people participating.
As the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) shares, Africa as a whole showed up in a big way this year, with 131,539 observations recorded and 10,510 species identified (and still counting) by 64 African cities.
Why does this all matter? Because biodiversity does.
It’s incredible that there are still so many species for us to spot in the comfort of our own cities, and a reminder of much there is to protect by being eco-conscious.
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