Citizens become scientists with nature app
Ramini Naidoo said she learnt a lot through the Great Southern Bioblitz challenge.
ESSENWOOD resident, Ramini Naidoo captured about 60 photos of nature when she took part in the Great Southern Bioblitz 2021 (GSB) between October 22 and 25.
The administrative assistant from Durban’s Oceanic Research Institute (ORI) said the international initiative aimed to record nature during springtime. Participants used the iNaturalist app to upload photos for the challenge. These will be tallied up to determine how diverse Durban’s wildlife is in comparison to other cities in South Africa and across the southern hemisphere.
Naidoo took up the challenge with a few of her colleagues from the South African Association for Marine Biological Research (SAAMBR), ORI’s umbrella organisation. They walked around uShaka Marine World in search of plants and insects to photograph. Naidoo also ventured out onto her own doorstep in Essenwood Park.
Read the original article here: Join international nature survey as springtime errupts
“There are so many things that come out of the blue. On Friday (at uShaka Marine World) I was looking mainly for plants, because I didn’t think there were many creatures around, when suddenly a huge Egyptian goose appeared in front of me,” she said.
Naidoo first got a taste for documenting nature in April when she took part in a similar city challenge.
“I took part for two days, taking about 27 photographs. It was lots of fun. I remember it poured with rain the first day, but we all went out with our gumboots and umbrellas and had loads of fun finding beautiful, little niggly creatures coming out of the woods,” she said.
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She noticed a dramatic change as she recorded nature for GSB in October.
“After doing the challenge in April and again now in October, you can just see the change in colours. There are more flowers coming out now that it’s spring. You can tell the difference,” said Naidoo.
“The more you use the iNaturalist programme, the better you become at identifying species. The app gives you guidelines,” added Saambr’s spokesperson, Ann Kunz.
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