After two months of photographing flowers, scanning skies through binoculars and many early mornings and late evenings in the field, it's all over: the final score of the Biodiversity Challenge 2024 is known.
For the fourth time in a row, a 'Bioblitz' took place this year: a species counting competition in which we together tried to find as many species of plants, animals, insects, mosses and fungi as possible on the Wageningen campus and other Wageningen University & Research (WUR) grounds. And for the second time, other universities in Europe also participated.
Third in Europe
In the competition between 19 different Life Science universities, WUR finished third with 1,575 species, 11,689 observations and 577 observers. A fantastic achievement! WUR could however not match the observers from Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU) and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven): they finished first and second, with 1,927 and 1,717 species respectively.
Watch the video compilation of the participating universities:
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Mieke de Wit, programme manager of the Wageningen Biodiversity Initiative and co-organiser, is happy with the result: "How wonderful it is, that what we have set in motion here has resonated so much in all these other countries. That there are teams there that have been just as enthusiastic, and that together we have reached so many people."
Special species
The Challenge resulted in the discovery of six very rare species: Acinia corniculata (fly), Physcia vitii (moss), stiff hedgenettle, Septoria cerastii (fungus), the elm seed bug and Pseudeuophrys obsoleta (spider). Species hunter Bram van den Bergh also found another species that is new to the Netherlands: the aphid Brachycaudus lateralis.
Did you know that you can sometimes see seals from the Den Helder office? They are also on the list. Or how about the peregrine falcon, the white-tailed eagle and the pallid harrier, seen in Den Helder, Wageningen, and Lelystad? By contrast, the hyena at Wageningen Campus (sadly...) appears to be just some kind of insect.
Success in Wageningen
New this year was an additional Biodiversity Challenge in Wageningen itself, in close cooperation with the municipality and KNNV. With great enthusiasm, 755 observers helped count 2,048 species in a month. This was done to better map biodiversity in the city. On the public event on 25 May, many curious nature lovers and budding biologists attended the excursions and information market in and around the Grote Kerk:
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Casper Quist, lecturer in Biosystematics at WUR: "It's important to bring biodiversity to people's attention, for people to be more in touch with nature and to ultimately want to take much better care of it. I'd love to do it again next year!"
