City Nature Challenge 2020
April 24 - 27, 2020
Join Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium as we unite forces across Omaha to identify and count plants and animals that live among us. This is our chance to get to know the plants, animals and fungi that are in our backyards, our parks, and our neighborhoods to better understand how our lives affect the ecology around us.
For the past three years, Omahans have cataloged the wildlife in our city in April during the event called City Nature Challenge. The City Nature Challenge is an annual, global, community science competition to document urban biodiversity. The challenge is a BioBlitz that engages residents and visitors to find and document plants, animals, and other organisms living in urban areas (Wikipedia). Last year over 160 cities from all over the world counted species over the four-day event with Cape Town, South Africa taking home top honors for most biodiversity.
This year we would like to increase our biodiversity and our number of citizens that help us in these four-days of service. Over the past years Dandelions, Canada Geese and Red-Breasted Robins have been the most commonly found species in Omaha. We know there are other unique species out there and would like to see what other creatures and plants are prevalent in Omaha.
Below are two ways you can sign up to be an active participants in the City Nature Challenge on April 24 through April 27, 2020. 
- Sign up as Individual Citizen Scientists and work in your backyard, neighborhoods or local community events and catalog your communitiy. Receive information emails and reminders on events happening in your area as well as tips on how to best record your data. Sign up today and become a Citizen Scientist in Omaha!
- Or sign up your busines as a Community Partner! The Omaha Zoo is looking for Partners to host community events during the four days to encourage the public to come outside and help record what is in Omaha. Partners will get their event posted on the Zoo's website and Facebook page as well as included in some advertising events and banners.
Want to Practice?
Click here for other Citizen Science programs that you can do ahead of time to get ready for CNC2020!
- Backyard Wilderness
- Track-A-Lilac
- Monarch Tagging
- Amphibian Conservation
- Butterfly Conservation
- Salamander Conservation
- SECORE Conservation
FREE WORKSHOPS!
Join Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium during City Nature Challenge 2020: Omaha Metro dates for FREE workshops (with Zoo admission). See below for more details.
- Celebrate Urban Birds: A Citizen Science Program - Do you want to learn about birds in your neighborhood? Want to learn to be able to know the difference between a House Finch and a House Sparrow? Then this is the beginner’s class for you. A Citizen Science program designed with the NEW birder in mind by The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Celebrate Urban Birds helps people of all ages learn about birds. This class will help you learn how and where to observe as well as giving you data sheets to complete to help The Cornell Lab of Ornithology data collect in our area.
- Dates to be determined. Check back for more info.
- Monarch Larva Monitor Project: A Citizen Science Program - Monarchs travel long distances and many people monitor and tag their fall migration but did you know that you can be trained to watch their spring migration too. The Monarch Joint Venture and the University of Minnesota has designed a Citizen Science project that trains volunteers across the United States in monarch butterfly research. The goal of the project is 1) to beter understand how and why the monarch population changes throughout the breeding season and from year to year, and 2) to compare monarch activity between geographci locations throughout North America. In this workshop volunteers will be trained on data collection, habitat description, observations, estimates, monitoring sites, comparing observations, and possibly participating in other monarch activites.
- Dates to be determined. Check back for more info
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Love Your Lilacs: A Citizen Science Program - Do you have Lilacs in your back yard and want to learn how to monitor their spring progress. Data collected will be used to determine differences over the years and help track trends that might be occuring all across the United States. The midwest has a very low reporting number on lilacs and the Omaha Zoo & Aquarium would like to increase the data collected by training the public (Citizen Scientist) throughout Nebraska. If you or someone you know has a lilac bush, this is a class for you.
Participant Toolkit
Whether you're a participant looking to go about the city in search of wildlife or are an organization wanting to host a City Nature Challenge-based event or simply encourage the community to visit your location in search of unique species, here are some helpful resources to get you started.
If you have any questions or are an organization interested in hosting a City Nature Challenge-based event, please contact Pamela Eby in the Education Department at (402) 738-2049 or pamela.eby@OmahaZoo.com. The Zoo can help promote your City Nature Challenge event by adding it to this webpage.