Cities around the world collaborate to share observations of nature in the 2026 City Nature Challenge.
Become a community scientist by capturing observations of biodiversity using the iNaturalist app. Join the iNaturalist project for your city or area, and head outside to snap photos of plants, fungi and wildlife.
In Aotearoa there are five cities / areas involved with the challenge this year: Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, Taranaki, Pōneke Wellington, Ōtautahi Christchurch and Ōtepoti Dunedin.
Cities around the world collaborate to share observations of nature in the 2026 City Nature Challenge. Started in 2016 as a competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, the City Nature Challenge has grown into an international event. The City Nature Challenge is an annual four-day global bioblitz at the end of April, where cities are in a collaboration-meets-friendly-competition to see what can be accomplished when we all work toward a common goal.
The 2026 City Nature Challenge takes place in two parts:
- 24 April – 27 April: Taking pictures of wild plants and animals
- 28 April – 10 May: Identifying everything found
Results will be announced on May 13th, 2026.
The Science Learning Hub has put together a useful list of links and resources to help you connect with this event - click on the Register button to visit this site, which will then direct you to the links for registration and explain how to download and use iNaturalist.
