Tag archives for BioBlitz
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Part scientific endeavor, part festival and part outdoor classroom, the BioBlitz hosted last week by the U.S. National Park Service and the National Geographic Society in Louisiana’s Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve yielded hundreds of observations, including the discovery of a rare Louisiana milk snake not previously recorded in the park. “This is the first time anyone has done this level of work on a bottomland, hardwood, freshwater system like this,” said Victoria Bayless, curator at the Louisiana State Arthropod Museum.
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Whether a tiny invertebrate or a large, invasive nutria, all of the species observations collected during the BioBlitz will be mapped out and visualized on the National Geographic FieldScope tool. FieldScope is a web-based GIS for visualizing and analyzing scientific data collected by professional and citizen scientists. It is also a tool for exploring the geography of a place.
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This week, we climb straight up vertical walls with Emily Harrington and learn why Everest isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, we learn how Dr. Edie Widder caught the first giant squid in a camera trap, we set the hang gliding world record high over Texas, and we learn about an adaptation that gives hyenas and dogs similar – but unrelated.
A colorful mystery critter from this year’s BioBlitz gets identified and shown off in all its cold-blooded glory.
A 24-hour BioBlitz by some 150 scientists and 2,000 students this weekend identified 489 species alive and well in Rocky Mountain National Park. Or did a last-minute flyover by a bald eagle make the final count 490? Presenting the tally confirmed by scientists this afternoon, BioBlitz coordinators said there were 89 species of birds, 12…
An Aquatic Surprise at BioBlitz 2012
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on August 26, 2012 Ecologist Evan Thomas of the University of Colorado looked for a decade for a green algae called Volvox. At this year’s BioBlitz, surrounded by volunteers eager to catalog the water bugs of Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, he found it! I asked Evan to explain his find. Sandra Postel is director of the…
Botanist Scott Smith specializes in ferns, orchids and cactus, but today at the Rocky Mountain National Park BioBlitz he was looking for ferns. At something like 9,500 feet above sea level, in the park’s subalpine zone, he showed visitors how to find two species of an ancient plant invisible to all but expert eyes. Story, photos and video.
Cay Ogden, retired National Park Service wildlife biologist, discusses the bats that live in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park, and why we should do all we can to help bats co-exist with us in urban areas. Ogden’s role in the BioBlitz was to organize two teams of scientists to confirm the seven species of bats…
Verizon Wireless partnered with the National Park Service and the National Geographic Society to produce the 2012 BioBlitz in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend. For the largest wireless network provider in the U.S. it is an opportunity to connect thousands of people with nature in real time. For John Johnson, Verizon Wireless’ executive director…
Posted by When you drive through Rocky Mountain National Park these days, one of the stranger things you notice—once you’ve stopped being startled by the scenery or the elk—is the enormous piles of wood along the road. They’re shaped like teepees, they’re called slash piles, and they’re future bonfires: Last winter the rangers lit 5,700 of them…
Counting Water Bugs for Rocky Mountain BioBlitz
Posted by Sandra Postel of National Geographic's Freshwater Initiative in Water Currents on August 25, 2012 Tiny bugs called macro-invertebrates help make freshwater ecosystems tick, and as a team of volunteers found out at Lily Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, they’re diverse, abundant and just plain cool little creatures. Rachel Harrington, a freshwater ecologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, led the BioBlitz volunteers in identifying the water…
Last year the members of the Eco Club at Sabino High School in Tucson, Arizona, were enthusiastic BioBlitzers at Saguaro National Park, their home field, where they counted things like frogs that live in small granite pools in the desert. They liked that so well they returned later to count giant saguaro cactuses in a…
In the Field at BioBlitz
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 25, 2012 
If you’re going to find a few thousand species in a park, you’d better look beyond just the bears and elk. See how volunteers at BioBlitz are leaving no stone unturned.
In this second video from the 2012 Bioblitz in Rocky Mountain National Park, herpetologist Neil Losin tells Bob Hirshon why there are so few reptiles in the park.
National Park Service director Jon Jarvis came to Rocky Mountain National Park this weekend to join in the BioBlitz. But he also came to release a report, prepared at his request by a committee of scientists, that outlines a new strategy for the Park Service as it approaches its centennial in 2016. Called Revisiting Leopold, the report is modeled on a 1963 report drafted by ecologist A. Starker Leopold. The Leopold Report became a lodestar for a generation of ecologically minded rangers, including Jarvis—but Jarvis says it no longer fits the world we live in.
How to “Meet Your Neighbours”
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
Between tiny sizes, detailed camouflage, and an unbelievable ability simply to hide, it’s easy to never notice most of the species living around us every day. The photographers of Meet Your Neighbours are on a mission to change that.
Posted by National Geographic Emerging Explorer Juan Martinez is at the Rocky Mountain National Park BioBlitz to help excite children and the public about the natural world. Martinez is a national spokesman for the importance of getting youth into the outdoors, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. In this video he talks to National Geographic’s Barbara Moffet about…
BioBlitz 2012: Get out and Explore!
Posted by John Francis of National Geographic Research, Conservation, and Exploration on August 24, 2012 Rocky Mountain, National Park, Colorado – What is a BioBlitz? At its core a BioBlitz is about connecting with nature. Trained scientists team up with students and the general public—you and me—and explore a place. You take a close look at what’s around you, learn about all the living things that call that place home,…
The National Geographic/ National Park Service Bioblitz is an annual 24-hour species survey conducted at a different national park each year. For 2012, the Bioblitz is in Rocky Mountrain National Park. In this first in a series of video blogs from the event, host Bob Hirshon, Program Director in the Education Directorate of the American…
BioBlitz Poetic Inventory: Garter Snake
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
While volunteers and researchers record the science of the many species found at this year’s BioBlitz, writers across Colorado are putting down a record of their own as well.
David Munson, Director of Education, Project Noah, is back at the BioBlitz. A lot has happened with Project Noah since the Saguaro National Park BioBlitz, he tells us in this video report. “We’ve got almost 150,000 users around the world … updating awesome wildlife photos … making huge strides in citizen science, connecting a lot…
BioBlitz Poetic Inventory: Black Bear
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
While volunteers and researchers record the science of the many species found at this year’s BioBlitz, writers across Colorado are putting down a record of their own as well.
A Poetic Inventory of Rocky Mountain National Park: Wood Frog
Posted by Andrew Howley of NG Staff on August 24, 2012 
While volunteers and researchers record the science of the many species found at this year’s BioBlitz, writers across Colorado are putting down a record of their own as well.
Rich Bray has volunteered 17,500 hours to the Rocky Mountain Butterfly Project. His work has won him an award from the National Park Service. Rich was at the Rocky Mountain National Park BioBlitz today with some of the 141 butterflies the project has collected. Here he talks about the butterflies and his passion for studying…
Bill Windsor of the Colorado Mycological Society was out gathering fungi for today’s Rocky Mountain National Park BioBlitz. Find out what mushrooms you can eat and — what you might want to avoid.
