If you have a keen eye for spotting wildlife and plants around you, a desire to learn more about the flora and fauna in around you, a commitment to nature conservation or an ambition to help put Oxfordshire wildlife on the map, then the City Nature Challenge is for you! Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (TVERC) are hosting the City Nature Challenge 2025 for Oxfordshire from Friday 25th to Monday 28th April 2025. The event encourages people of all ages and skill level to observe and record wildlife in their local areas, and TVERC need your help to make it a success!
The City Nature Challenge began in 2016 as a friendly competition between Los Angeles and San Francisco, to see which city could gather the most wildlife observations in just four days. Since then, it has blossomed into an international event. Over 700 cities worldwide are expected to take part in 2025, which will be the third year for Oxfordshire
In 2024, the City Nature Challenge saw 2,2436,844 observations globally, Oxfordshire contributed 3,306!
You can spend as little or much time as you like taking part, in these simple steps
Download the iNaturalist app for free
Enter your email address, choose a username and set a password
Join the project: City Nature Challenge 2025: Oxfordshire
Add your observations, including a picture or sound, date & location!
Wildlife conservation relies on data. Knowing where particular species are, where they have been lost and where they might potentially be at risk, informs efforts to protect them from impacts of development, changing land use, and habitat loss.
Everyone can play a part in submitting wildlife observations, experts cannot be everywhere, seeing everything and the public can help out, this is known as Citizen Science.
Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (TVERC) are responsible for maintaining ecological data for Oxfordshire
The City Nature Challenge runs for a long weekend each year, if you are interested in learning more about biodiversity recording and connecting with other Oxfordshire nature lovers, CAG Oxfordshire have a project that you can also join
In order for your observation to be added to official records, it will eventually go through a process that will allow it to be verified by someone who is an expert in the relevant species. The verifier must be confident that the observation is the species that you have recorded.
Ideally take a photo of what you see & accurately record the location and date (most smartphones have a location function available on the camera that will record the GPS)
If you are unable to take a clear photo or the photo does not include all features you observed, be sure to add notes about these things
If you can’t see but can hear audio record
Spend some time looking at other people’s records on iNaturalist it helps to look from another perspective when you didn’t see yourself!
