2021-09-20

Calling all naturalists

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Following a successful launch last year, the Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute (MTRI) once again is hosting its iNaturalist observation competition.

The Kespukwitk Municipal iNaturalist Competition runs from September 18 to 26 and is open to anyone located or visiting municipalities in Kespukwitk in southwest Nova Scotia, one of the seven traditional districts of Mi'kma'ki.

Residents within the municipalities of Queens, Lunenburg, Shelburne, Barrington, Argyle, Yarmouth, Clare, Digby and Annapolis can compete.

"We're focused in this area because it's one of the 11 priority areas in Canada for conservation and so we're kind of identified as one of the eco-hotspots in the country," said Nicholas Knutson, organizer and volunteer coordinator at MTRI.

The competition uses the iNaturalist app which can be downloaded at no cost and "lets you learn about the species around you, while also collecting useful data for biologists," he said.

iNaturalist is an online social network that allows people to share biodiversity information and help each other learn about nature.

The competition is aimed at seeing how many species can be found and observations made in each municipality in the region. The winning municipality receives bragging rights and the top three individuals with the most species and observations recorded will win a prize as well.

Observations are defined as encounters recorded with an individual organism at a particular time and location. Organisms could include birds, trees, fungus and living or dead creatures. They also include animal scat, tracks and habitat.

A person just needs to download the app to participate, explained Knutson. An app user can take a photo of an animal or plant, for example, upload it to the app and it will be identified promptly. However, the identification may not be 100 per cent accurate.

As well, experts from around the world monitoring the site may chime in to confirm what the app came up with and provide some feedback.

While meant to be fun, the competition helps provide important data for biologists.

"The data becomes part of some crucial data that we use to do things like monitoring for invasive species and potentially learning about the distribution and timing of rare species," said Knutson.

The information also gives them baseline data to enable them to compare year-after-year results that, for example, could show a decline in the population of a certain bird.

The first iNaturalist competition held in 2020 yielded some positive results. More than 9,000 observations and 1,300 different species were recorded with 151 people submitting information from throughout Kespukwitk. Within these observations, 90 of them were of invasive species and 15 were of species at risk.

During last year's competition, the top observer collected 2,200 observations over the one-week competition time period. The top species collector recorded 413 different species.

The top municipality for most observations and most species found during last year's competition was the Municipality of the County of Annapolis. In second place for the number of observations and species found was the Municipality of Barrington. Earning third place for the number of observations was the Municipality of the District of Lunenburg (MODL). The Municipality of Digby earned third spot for the number of species found.

To coincide with the competition, MTRI will be hosting nature walks in each of the competing municipalities and advising people on the use of the INaturalist app.

The walk in MODL was to be held September 19 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Indian Path Commons. In the Region of Queens Municipality (RQM), the walk is planned for the MTRI field station or in Kempt (yet to be decided) on September 22 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

During the walk in RQM, a representative from the Nova Scotia Invasive Species Council will be joining in to answer any questions.

Participants must pre-register for these walks and can do so by going to https://forms.office.com/r/YRBqM9wg7P.

To learn more, go to www.naturalist.ca and search under the project tab.

The project is funded by the TD Foundation of Friends of the Environment.