Hoake ki te Taiao
City Nature Challenge
25 – 28 April 2025
There is nature all around us! Knowing what species are in our city and where they are helps us study and protect them. One way to do that is through citizen science projects which identify and document the wild things in our city.
In April 2025, Wellington will take on the global wildlife count, City Nature Challenge 2025.
The City Nature Challenge is an annual global event where cities compete to see who can log the most nature observations on iNaturalist over four days. The City Nature Challenge is a wonderful way to connect to Te Taiao, and taking part is simple.
All you need to do is:
- explore wildlife between Friday 25 and Monday 28 April 2025
- take a photo of what you find
- share it to the iNaturalist app.
By participating in the City Nature Challenge, not only do you learn more about your local nature, but you can also make your city a better place – for you and other species.
Keep up to date with how we are doing in the challenge and join our project on iNaturalist.
2025 Discovery Events
Coming soon.
2024 results
In 2024, Wellington City Council worked with regional partners to grow the City Nature Challenge in our region, expanding the target area to include everywhere within the Greater Wellington Regional Council boundary.
Over 18,000 observations were uploaded on the iNaturalist app in Te Upoko o te Ika, and a total of 2,480 species were recorded by 284 observers. See the full results from the campaign on the iNaturalist website.
Share your nature discoveries with iNaturalist
We're always finding new species living in Wellington. Use iNaturalist to record your observations of special species you find outdoors. If you’re not sure what something is, other users can help identify it for you.
iNaturalist helps the user to identify plants and animals and record observations. iNaturalist is connecting Wellingtonians to a larger community of scientists and experts from all over the globe. iNaturalist is like the ‘Instagram for nature lovers’ and promotes the crowdsourcing of species identification.
Data from iNaturalist helps Universities and Councils understand where species may occur, and how we can better plan for, and protect Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Download the iNaturalist app for Android
Download the iNaturalist app for Apple
Read the instructions for making an observation using the app and website and watch a video on how to use the app on your phone.
Check out some images from iNaturalist below.