Picture: Robin and Cyndie Mather, Park Biodiversity Monitoring volunteers, at a sampling station

Assiniboine Park provides an important space for biodiversity within a growing city. To better understand the plants, animals, and fungi that grow and thrive within the Park, we launched the Park Biodiversity Monitoring Program a year and a half ago. Since then, one group has gone above and beyond in their support — APC volunteers, who have contributed 48% of all observed species and over 10,000 observations.

Our urban green space, from the birds to the bugs, all work together to create a healthy environment where biodiversity flourishes. Because climate change is closely linked to biodiversity loss, our Conservation and Research team wanted to understand what is living in our own backyard, and so the Park Biodiversity Monitoring Program was born.

Using iNaturalist, a free app, anyone can photograph wildlife within the Park and submit it to our group. Since the program began, Park visitors, Assiniboine Park Conservancy staff, members of the Volunteer Services and Education teams, and Zoo Camp attendees have collectively logged over 21,000 observations and 901 species. While anyone can submit to our general iNaturalist project (yes, even you!), we also have dedicated volunteers (19 in 2024 and 15 in 2025) specifically contributing their observations to the project.

Our volunteers have been instrumental to this program and have helped us understand what kinds of wildlife calls the Park home. Across 124 sampling stations since the program's start, they have collected:

• Over 100 species (seen by no one else at the Park!)
• Over 10,000 observations
• 48% of all observations done by APC volunteers
• Despite having fewer volunteers involved in 2025 vs 2024, there have been more observations per volunteer:
  • 252 observations per volunteer in 2024
  • 360 observations per volunteer in 2025

“It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to contribute to something bigger than ourselves. We’ve had so much fun being out there, capturing photos of the diverse living things around us—who knew crawling through the bush could be this enjoyable? It really brings out the scientist in us, and we’re constantly learning just how much life is out there,” said Robin and Cydnie Mather, two of our Park Biodiversity Monitoring Program volunteers.

The Park is home to an incredible range of species, from birds, reptiles, and mammals, to fungi, molluscs, and protozoans. Knowing where these species live and how they appear allows our teams to improve habitat for wildlife at the Park. Thanks to our dedicated volunteers, we now have a much clearer picture of what is living in the Park and how to help them thrive.

If you'd like to get involved, join one of the following iNaturalist projects and start logging your observations today:

• Assiniboine Park and Zoo iNaturalist
• From April 24 to May 3, 2026, there is a City Nature Challenge for Winnipeg through iNaturalist that anyone can join and contribute to.

For more information about biodiversity and how you can improve the biodiversity of the green spaces around you, check out these resources:

Biodiversity - our strongest natural defence 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.