AILSA CHANG, HOST:
So tell me. What do you think these three sounds have in common?
(SOUNDBITE OF ANIMALS CHIRPING)
CHANG: OK. That was a farmland green flying frog from Taiwan; before that, a European mole cricket from Austria, and a chestnut-fronted macaw from Bolivia. All three of those creatures were spotted in last year's City Nature Challenge. This is a worldwide community science event where people in more than 700 cities on every single continent, except Antarctica, document the nature that's all around them, and their observations are archived for scientists. This year's challenge is happening this weekend, and Amy Jaecker-Jones of the Natural History Museum of LA County codirects this challenge. Welcome.
AMY JAECKER-JONES: Thank you, Ailsa. I'm happy to be here today.
CHANG: So this challenge - it calls for participants to document not just wild animals but, you know, wild plants, fungi. What counts as wild, though? That's my question. What counts as wild, and what is not wild?
JAECKER-JONES: Wild means it wasn't put there and is not being taken care of by people. So most of the trees and other plants that you find on city streets, parks and gardens are not considered wild and won't count for the City Nature Challenge. The same applies to domestic dogs, cats and zoo animals. But if you start looking around - what we like to say is put on your nature eyes - you'll be amazed what you can find in cities. Look up. Look down. Look under. Look for birds, lizards, snails, slugs, insects, mushrooms, squirrels and gophers, raccoons, even your neighborhood coyote.
CHANG: (Laughter).
JAECKER-JONES: And some of these mammals are nocturnal and elusive.
CHANG: Totally.
JAECKER-JONES: So a good way to document them is by taking photos of their poop...
CHANG: Oh.
JAECKER-JONES: ...Or their fur, bones and tracks.
CHANG: You don't need to just grab, like, the sound of the animal. You can just grab a picture of the excrement.
JAECKER-JONES: Exactly. So we encourage people to take photos and record sounds. And even though most city plants are landscaped, and therefore, cultivated, not wild, if you're a plant person, check out your sidewalk. Look in the cracks and see how many different types of weeds you can spot...
CHANG: Oh. That's...
JAECKER-JONES: ...Coming up in those cracks.
CHANG: ...A cool idea. OK. Wait. So just to understand really basically how this challenge works. You download an app, and then you take photos of nature that you spot and you upload those photos to the app.
JAECKER-JONES: Absolutely. Most of our cities use an app called iNaturalist, which is free and available on the app store and Google Play. You then get to watch as people all around the world actually help identify what you saw.
CHANG: Oh, how fun.
JAECKER-JONES: So you don't need to know what type of bird that you saw.
CHANG: Yeah. You crowdsource it. I love it.
JAECKER-JONES: It's crowdsourcing.
CHANG: Oh, that's such a great idea.
JAECKER-JONES: People all around the world will be helping to identify your observations.
CHANG: OK. So you are based in Los Angeles, like I am, and I pretty much expect you to be doing the challenge this weekend. Where in Los Angeles will you be looking for wild things?
JAECKER-JONES: The Home Depot near me is located next to a very busy freeway. But they have California buckwheat planted all over. And California buckwheat is one of my favorite California native plants for visiting pollinators. so I'm actually going to spend some time near Home Depot, checking out all the different pollinators and other insects that are visiting those buckwheat plants.
CHANG: Oh, very cool. And I have, like, a very general idea of some of the characteristic nature that LA is known for, like coyotes, sometimes mountain lions, sometimes wild parrots. But what is an Angeleno creature that maybe I'm not aware of that would be super cool to spot on this challenge?
JAECKER-JONES: Let's see. This was actually at the child care center on the campus of a university. And a small group of preschoolers - they spotted what looked like a worm on the sidewalk. And they told their preschool teacher about it. Well, it wasn't a worm. It's what's called a brahminy blind snake, and it's easily mistaken for a worm because it is that small.
CHANG: Wow.
JAECKER-JONES: But the preschool teacher went ahead and uploaded that observation to iNaturalist. And so there really are so many different things - other organisms, living beings - in our environment that we may not be aware of now, but I bet after this weekend, you'll be amazed by who else you actually meet on the city streets.
CHANG: Oh, I love that. Amy Jaecker-Jones codirects the City Nature Challenge, which is happening this weekend. Thank you so much for joining us, Amy.
JAECKER-JONES: You're welcome. I enjoyed talking with you today, Ailsa. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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