Chicagoans can join a global ‘scavenger hunt’ in which urban areas compete to find the most wildlife
An iridescent beetle, bright as an emerald.
A coyote in a parking lot. A beaver at the beach.
A rare broad-billed hummingbird, touching down more than 1,500 miles from home.
All of them were seen in the Chicago area during previous rounds of the International City Nature Challenge, which pits urban areas against each other in a race to document the most wildlife. And with the 2023 challenge starting Friday, local leaders are once again turning to the public for help.
Participants upload photos of wild plants and animals to iNaturalist, a free app and website that provides data to scientists and land managers at organizations worldwide, including the Forest Preserves of Cook County, the Chicago Park District, the Field Museum and Lincoln Park Zoo.
“People are looking for ways to make a meaningful impact and contribute to how we see wildlife, how we conserve wildlife, how we care for our planet as a whole, and this is a very clear and direct way to do that,” said Chicago Ornithological Society President Edward Warden.
“But then there’s the social side which is, it’s just fun,” he added. “It’s basically just an advanced scavenger hunt, and who doesn’t love the opportunity to have a target and be able to go out and hunt for it in the real world in real time?”
Last year 67,000 participants in more than 400 cities across the planet recorded 1.7 million wildlife sightings.
The Chicago area had a 2022 total of 931 participants, 9,500 sightings and 1,300 species. The Ohio alliance of Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Toledo found 1,100 species.
St. Louis found 1,300 species and New York 1,700.
California, where the competition originated in 2016, traditionally has very strong showings, with last year’s San Francisco team reporting 3,000 species and Los Angeles reporting 2,600 species.
Among the Chicago team’s more impressive finds through the years: a broad-billed hummingbird — very rare for this region — which was spotted in 2021.
“That was probably the most shocking one,” Warden said. “It’s this bird that comes from Central America that was just hanging out at a forest preserve on the Northwest Side of Chicago.”
Asked if the Chicago team has any big rivals, Warden chuckled.
“It is a friendly competition. At the end of the day, we’re all sharing the same goal, which is encouraging people around the world to use this platform and deepen their connection to nature,” he said.
Still, Chicago keeps an eye on two or three regularly participating Midwestern cities, which Warden declined to name.
“It wouldn’t hurt to beat them,” he said.
The City Nature Challenge is on the rise at a time when scientists across the globe are raising alarms about decreases in wildlife, including insects and songbirds. A 2019 report in the journal Science found that North America has 2.9 billion fewer breeding adult birds than it did in 1970, a 29% decrease.
The study cited threats to birds such as habitat loss, agricultural changes, coastal development and climate change.
This weekend’s City Nature Challenge will run from 12:01 a.m. Friday to 11:59 p.m. Monday.
The Chicagoland Region team will offer a range of organized events, including a virtual training session by experts at Lincoln Park Zoo, bird-watching at the city’s Wild Mile eco-park, a children’s event in Darien, nature hikes in Chicago and Kane counties, and hikes and wildlife scavenger hunts in Indiana.
Leaders of the Chicago-area team include the Chicago Park District, the Chicago Wilderness Alliance, Lincoln Park Zoo and the Chicago Ornithological Society.
This year, the Chicago team is offering a new daily challenge to help people who like a little direction, but you’re free to report on any wild plants, animals or fungi you may see.
“A lot of people say, I need to be on the lookout for something rare, and that’s not the case,” said Warden. “Everything from a robin bouncing around in your backyard is important, because it paints a bigger picture of what life is like in our area.”
