BioBlitz 2012

WooHooo!  BioBlitz is back!

(Well … it will be back at the end of March 2012. This time it is in the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa)

WHAT?
BioBlitz is a two-day scientific race against time.

It’s fascinating, fun, family-friendly and its free!

The goal is to find and count as many species as possible in 24-hours searching time in a large urban park or reserve. We expect to find 1000-1500 species.  This requires many teams of scientific experts. (In fact you seldom find so many biologists in an urban park but we don’t count each other).  Each team specialises in one group of organisms or micro-organisms, and you’d be hard pushed to find something they don’t know about their group.

WHEN?
Friday 30th March 9 am – 11 pm
Saturday 31st March  7 am – 5 pm. 

WHERE?
“Base camp” will be in a large marquee in the North West area of the gardens.  Pedestrian and vehicle access is best from the Everglade Drive northern entrance to the Gardens, via Manakau / Redoubt Road motorway off-ramp.  

Base camp is the hub of activity where identifications are made, species tallied, and public get to look down microscopes, chat with scientists, and ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over the beautiful, the curious and the downright thrillingly ugly.  Field trips (guided walks) depart from here.

There will be the usual guided ‘walks & talks’ with experts, including the ever-popular night time events: moths with ‘Dr Robert’ (who uses a super bright special lamp to lure them in) and the nocturnal walk with ‘spider woman Grace’ (most spiders come out to hunt at night and their eyes shine in the torch light).

WHO CAN COME?

Everyone!

BioBlitz is suitable for people of all ages. It is a family friendly event. There is no charge.

• If you intend going on a ‘walk & talk’ with a scientist, please wear sensible shoes and clothes. If you are coming on one of the ‘after dark’ excursions, please wear sensible warm clothes and bring a torch (families should bring several torches if possible).
• Specialist scientific equipment is loaned especially for the event. This equipment is very expensive and should be treated with care and respect at all times.
• Young children should be supervised by an adult but free to have some fun.
• Dogs should be on leads and supervised by an adult.
• The Botanic Gardens and all that lives there must be treated with care and consideration.

BioBlitz video

BioBlitz 2010 Photos

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GRAND TALLY – UPDATE

1521 species from the Auckland Domain had been counted by 3pm closing. This is pretty awesome!!!  But the tally is going up as scientists identify some last minute finds from BioBlitz.  We might get to more than 1700 species found during the 24 hours of search.

The Plant Team, led by Ewen Cameron of the Auckland Museum, were clear winners in finding the most species (and they’ve made the most late additions) with an astonishing 848 species of vascular plants!  (Vascular plants are plants that have ‘veins’ to move water and nutrients from roots to leaves and back again)

Watch this space in next few days for more details of what was found.

750 species by 9am

We’re up to 750 species & counting …. numbers should go up rapidly this morning

Identify the weeds in the plant display

Auckland Regional Council & DOC have a great display of live plants … some natives, some weeds.  Can you correctly identify which ones are weeds?

The ARC – DOC table has stuffed pests & some live skinks (which is how it should be!).  Lots of posters & info sheets to take home. Worth a look.

ARC is one of our BioBlitz sponsors … thanks ARC!!

Night videos of possums & rats are cool!

We’re watching some night video footage of possums & rats feeding … pretty cool, pretty funny, but pretty impressive to see how determined & very sobering to see how many of these pests come out to feed at night.  The stoats feeding on a rabbit carcass look very strong & voracious … no wonder they’re such pests.

Very rare mushroom found

This little mushroom had never been found in Auckland before … in fact it had only ever been found twice before in New Zealand, and then from Nelson.  It is a mycorrhizal fungi associated with titree (manuka) roots.  Mycorrhizal fungi help plants absorb nutrients from the soil.

Live creatures attract plenty of attention

Fabulous geckos, skinks, kakariki, banded kokopu (native fish), an eel, spiders, millipedes, a giant (bad tempered) centipede, and other little critters have been getting plenty of attention.  A chance to get up close & personal with biodiversity!

Despite the dry weather, there are plenty of fungi on show.  Plants and lichens are leading the species tallies so far. There’s lots on show in the Atrium (base camp).