Celebrate our natural heritage with free entry to City nature reserves during the Great Southern BioBlitz

17 September 2024

In celebration of Heritage Month the City of Cape Town is offering four days’ free entry to its nature reserves during the coming Great Southern Bioblitz weekend from Friday, 20 September to Monday, 23 September 2024. Cape Town is once again participating in the annual Great Southern Bioblitz challenge alongside other cities in the southern hemisphere in an effort to record the local diversity of plant and animal life. 

The Great Southern Bioblitz is a citizen scientist event that takes place annually during springtime, and is aimed at encouraging people to record and identify wildlife in the southern hemisphere. Anyone can participate by uploading their nature observations onto the iNaturalist app.

'Much like the popular City Nature Challenge, cities in the southern hemisphere compete against each other to see who can record the widest range of plant and animal species during the course of the challenge. With a wide array of nature reserves, I am certain Cape Town will come out tops and I encourage residents to take along their smartphones or cameras and snap as many unique sightings as they can at the reserves,' said Alderman Eddie Andrews, the City's Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment.

Residents are encouraged to join by simply entering their plant and animal sightings on the iNaturalist app or website. Each observation taken on one of the four challenge days will automatically be included in the challenge. To join in and also see how Cape Town is doing, visit the Cape Town project page on the iNaturalist website.

To view your nearest nature reserve, visit this page on the City's website.

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office