Cover Photo: Steven Sauve (left) and Dr. Stephen Petersen (right) taking photographic vouchers of species spotted within the Park to be uploaded to iNaturalist. Photograph by Dr. Courtney Shuert.
Do you ever go walking around Assiniboine Park and notice a new plant or animal you’ve never seen before and just want to share it with the world? Now you can with fellow nature enthusiasts!
Meet the Park Biodiversity Monitoring Program, an initiative that our Conservation and Research team and volunteers have been working on this year.
Learn more about the program, why it's important, and how you (yes you!) can get involved!
What was the inspiration to start this program?
Biodiversity is the variety of life within a habitat (e.g., Earth) in all forms – from plants to animals to bacteria! Climate change and biodiversity loss are linked; the changing climate can lead to biodiversity loss worldwide. All species work together in ecosystems like an intricate web to web to maintain balance and support human and all life on earth.
Urban green spaces, like Assiniboine Park, provide refuges for wildlife and can be biodiversity hot spots. We wanted to create a list of species present in the Park and map what areas of the park they were found. To do this, we decided to ask for some help from the Park and Zoo’s amazing volunteers! Since the Spring, four times a week the volunteers head out to predetermined locations across the Park and Zoo and take photos of any plant, animal, fungi, or anything else they see with the app iNaturalist. These photos are automatically catalogued into a project where we can explore the biodiversity hotspots across the park.
Recent observations in Assiniboine Park by Assiniboine Park volunteers.
What will the Conservation & Research team do with these results?
As of mid-September 2024, the volunteers have uploaded over 4000 records of wildlife in Assiniboine Park and Zoo, and identified over 600 species!
Summary of the Assiniboine Park and Zoo Volunteer Biodiversity Monitoring project as of September 17, 2024. Over 4,000 observations have been made so far of over 600 species!
As we continue this project year to year, we can assess biodiversity changes over time by looking at things like species diversity and distribution as we make changes in the park from activities like tree planting to major construction. More immediately, understanding how wildlife uses the Park allows us to highlight areas and determine how we can improve habitat for wildlife across the Park.
How can people get involved?
You don’t have to be an Assiniboine Park and Zoo Volunteer to get involved! Anyone can use the iNaturalist app to submit a record of wildlife in the Park. Any observation submitted through the app within the park borders is automatically added to the database of our greater Biodiversity Monitoring project. To collect data, choose a point(s) within the Park to visit, and photograph any mosses, lichens, grasses, flowering plants, insects, and other animals you see and upload them to iNaturalist. Be sure to record location data for your photos either manually (i.e., coordinates) or automatically through your phone or camera. If you’re not able to make it down to the Park but are still interested in getting involved with this project, you can help by identifying the species in the photographic observations within our iNaturalist project online.
An iNaturalist observation taken within Assiniboine Park of a Chipping Sparrow by iNaturalist user stephenpetersen. Photograph taken by Dr. Stephen Petersen.
Any interesting insights that have come out of this project?
Some of the most common records in the project are Northern Leopard Frogs, Bur Oak trees, Common Buckthorn, and Canada Goose! We also have observed many Endangered species using the park, like Monarch butterflies, Cobra Clubtail dragonflies, Canada Warblers, and Mapleleaf Mussels! The overall park project includes over 12,000 records from over 580 Park visitors, Assiniboine Park Conservancy staff, members of the Volunteer Services and Education teams, and Zoo Camp attendees. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to take and submit observations to our project and help identify species!
For more information about biodiversity and how you can improve the biodiversity of the greenspaces around you, check out these resources:
Biodiversity - our strongest natural defense against climate change | UN
Protect Biodiversity From Home – Protect Nature Challenge | Government of Canada
Creating biodiversity in your yard | University of Saskatchewan
Learn more about what the Conservation & Research team is working on our website.
