Well it's the first morning after CNC2023 in eThekwini and although it's Tuesday it feels like a Monday! I see we are already over 11000 observations, so as more people upload their images we should surpass 2022's figure of just under 13000. Plenty of hard work from the team.
We need to clear the Unknowns for starters:
The link includes observations across KZN (eThekwini, South Coast, PMB/Midlands, iLembe, Zululand).
Please only identify those that you know to family or finer level.
Don't waste your time with "Plants" - you need to get it to grasses, or peas, or daisies.
Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fish, Insects, Spiders, and such are perfectly fine. As is fungus or lichen.
Go as detailed as you can, but at this stage just push them as fast as you can to a low level: don't worry about checking the field guides at this stage, we will come to those in a day or two.
Don't forget to FAVE any exciting observation that you come across
Well done Team! Already over 13000 observations... species are still slightly behind so let's klap those unknowns!
I'm proud to note that eThekwini has already klapped its main competitor (not Cape Town, but its own last year performance) out of the park. 14,139 observations from 182 observers compared to 2022's 12,965 observations from 136 observers. We're not quite there on species count yet (2,061 vs 2,162) but once the identifiers have mopped up the many outstanding 'unknowns' we'll roar past that as well. It can take three weeks to complete that task.
Let's all get into the unknowns and get that species count up...
Hi Team,
The global CNC results are in. eThekwini did a lot better than in 2022.
This year we made 15,152 observations from 191 observers, 2,188 species, and 7,162 (47.27%) of observations are RG.
Last year's figures were 12,965 observations, 136 observers, 2,161 species, and 5,984 (46.16%).
On the Southern Africa leaderboard we went from 4th place to 2nd, leapfrogging Overstrand and the Garden Route. City of Cape Town is still top but with a reduced number of observations - 52,712 vs 66,509 in 2022.
So that's a huge feather in our caps! Well done team! We are still 27th on the global leaderboard, but consider this - the global observations stat went from 1,591,564 to 1,848,908 - and we held our position. So did Cape Town at 3rd, but with a smaller gap between them and 4th place.
I'd just like to thank everyone for all their efforts during the 2023 edition of CNC eThekwini Municipality. When Suvarna asked me to champion this year's effort I said it could only be done with a strong team, which we clearly had! I don't want to single out one person because everyone put in a sterling effort, and enough midnight oil was burned to run a power station...
Again thanks, and I'm really looking forward to next year and the Great Southern Biobash in October!
Steve
Thank you to the iNat identifier community for continuing to spend much time assisting with identifying over 15 000 observations made during the CNC. We are glad to announce that over 50% of our observations have been identified to Research Grade, which will now be contributed to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) dataset.
eThekwini Municipality's Environment Dept is currently analyzing the Threatened, Protected, Endemic, and Invasive species records which is very useful for updating the city's conservation plans. We hope that, once complete, the results of which will be shared via a journal entry.
Looking at the overall stats:
The South African Red List Plants and Animals Project produced 30 Threatened species
The NEMBA Alien Species South Africa Project produced 105 Invasive species
These stats can be further analysed into taxon groups.
