Educator News

April 29: UCSC Campus Bioblitz

Explore and help document the incredible biodiversity on the UC Santa Cruz campus.

Join staff from the UCSC Natural Reserves, Ken Norris Center for Natural History, the California Academy of Sciences, legions of enthusiastic UCSC students and alumni, and members of the Santa Cruz community as we come together for a full day exploring and documenting the campus's incredible biodiversity.

Join us from 9:00 AM to noon on Saturday, April 29th for a bioblitz of the UC Santa Cruz campus. We'll be using iNaturalist, a citizen science website and app, to photograph and geographically pinpoint our findings and will come back together at the end of each shift to upload our records, share stories, and help each other with identifications. Refreshments will be served at the end of the bioblitz when we gather back together.

UCSC's wide variety of habitats and unique geophysical setting have resulted in a great number of species that call campus home. We hope to grow the campus's species lists, but most importantly celebrate our fellow creatures and each other!

More information and registration

What is a bioblitz?

A bioblitz is an intensive one-day study of biodiversity in a specific location, bringing professional scientists and amateur citizen scientists together. Together, we’ll look for snails, salamanders, birds, butterflies, other insects, spiders, trees, worms, flowers, and everything else we can find!

Check out other Bay Area bioblitzes that you can participate in.

Who can participate?

People of all ages and skill levels are welcome! Bring your curiosity, a smart phone with the iNaturalist app downloaded (or digital camera), and tons of enthusiasm.

Don't have an iNat account yet? No problem! Sign up for an iNaturalist account, then download the app for your iPhone or Android.